While there are a few directions you can go in order to start milling your own printed circuit boards, I have chose the following components.
Eagle PCB Design Software
Eagle used to be owned by CADSoft. However, Eagle is now owned by AutoDesk and has gone through a few changes, that broke a few things. As of this writing the current version 8.2.1 (see note below) works just fine for isolation routing.
You can download a free copy here:
Once you have downloaded the Eagle software, install it and follow the installation instructions.
Here are some detailed Eagle installation instructions:
Note About Eagle Updates
When Autodesk provides Eagle updates (even minor ones) they install them into a different directory. The original version of Eagle I installed was 8.2.1. This was installed into the "C:\EAGLE 8.2.1" directory. I just downloaded and install version 8.2.2. This version was installed into the C:\EAGLE 8.2.2 directory. This is probably a good thing right now so you don't risk your working version if you install a new one.
The downside comes with things you added to Eagle. If any libraries were referenced outside of the default directories, they will probably work. Items that were copied into the original Eagle directories will not show up on the new install. A good example of this is the pcbgcode plugin. You will have to copy your PCB files to the new Eagle install, as described below. Also be advised your pcbgcode settings will also have to be setup again.
Once you have downloaded the Eagle software, install it and follow the installation instructions.
Eagle Help
Here are some detailed Eagle installation instructions:
Sparkfun Eagle Installation Instructions.
There are online tutorials that will help you learn Eagle. Here is one that I found helpful:
PCBGcode
In order to create the actual Gcode, you need to install a free plugin called PCBGcode. You can download the plugin here:
The actual version that I am using can be downloaded here:
Once you have downloaded the plugin, unzip it into a temporary directory. Then copy the contents of that directory to the ulp directory in Eagle.
Note that my Eagle software was installed in the C:\EAGLE 8.2.1 directory.
Java for Windows
PCBGcode requires Java in order to run. You can download the latest version here:
The version I am using is: jre-8u131-windows-x64
Once you install Java, you need to reboot your PC of it to work correctly.
Sparkfun Eagle Libraries
While not absolutely required I found the following libraries for eagle to be very helpful.
The various sparkfun libraries can be found here:
More specifically here is the library I downloaded
The Eagle setup instructions listed above have instructions on installing the library.
Sparkfun Eagle CAM Files
Sparkfun has created a CAM file that is simpler to use than the default set. You can download it here:
This downloaded ZIP file should contain a CAM file called "sfe-gerb274x.cam". Place this file in the CAM directory of your Eagle install.