Homebrew PCBs

Although I havn't worked with the Versalaser, I have worked with an Epilog Summit 50W CO2 laser, and seen several models produced by both Epilog and Universal, and all have had the laser fixed to a side/corner, and used mirrors to get the beam to their target. It's actually a simple arrangement. In the Summit, the laser shines upwards into a 45° mirror making the beam shine towards the front. A carrige slides front to back, and at the right side there is a mirror redirecting the beam left towards the lens assembly.  On top the lens assembley is another 45° mirror directing the beam downward into the lenses, towards the target. In the lens stack, there is a rotatable piece to select 300 or 600 DPI optics. For some materials, the "wrong" optics are used to provide better results (either  more blending with the 300DPI optics, or deeper/hotter cuts with the 600DPI ones.)

-----Original Message-----
From: "pork_u_pine2000" <wittend@...>
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Sent: 20/4/18 (Fri) PM 09:50
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Re: Interesting article (direct laser printing, well... kind of)

Lots of questions...

What size features can you cut?  What kind of separation?  Do you know
the spot size your laser can produce?  What is the approximate power
output?

Is it better to use a stepped x/y arrangement for the head moving over
a fixed target plane?  That would be easy enough to do with a diode
source, but may be unwieldy with a CO2 laser.  With the CO2 source a
moving target plane might be a better solution.  Or is it worth the
effort & expense to use a reflected beam with mirror movement
controlled by a galvanometer arrangement as is used in some medical
film scanners?

--Dave

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "tonyburch2001" <tony@...> wrote:
...
> Hi, that is very interesting. I noticed that link on SMTNet 
> newsletter this morning too.
> 
> I currently have a home-made xy table that I'm using with a CO2 
> laser. I'm using PLT files and Dancam software to drive it. The laser 
> is fixed and the xy table moves the workpiece around. Maybe I could 
> attach a laser diode to do exposure.
> 
> Anthony
> FPGA videos www.burched.com Soldering www.supersolderingsecrets.com
>