Homebrew PCBs

This tutorial claims to have solved this problem by using a laser engraving
machine with a vacuum system, and doing the engraving starting away from the
vacuum outlet and working toward the vacuum:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Custom-PCB-Prototyping-using-a-Laser-Cutter/

It notes that if you failed to get all the paint off on the first pass, then
the second pass will ruin the first one.

I had nothing to do with putting this tutorial together - I just recall
finding it a few weeks ago.

The machine used in the tutorial is a Epilog Legend 36 EXT.

-Andrew

On Mon, May 3, 2010 at 2:40 PM, <kimvellore@...> wrote:

>
>
> The Chinese laser engravers have gone down in price.. I have seen some as
> low as $1500.
> The problem I see with the lasers are, they work by burning off the paint
> and most of the paints I have tried leave behind a residue which needs a
> solvent to clean up which also removes the original paint. With the residue
> the copper does not etch well, it has always been a hit or miss on the
> boards I tried. I would like to see a boards done using a laser and also the
> details of the type of paint used so I can try it out once again.
>
> Kim
>
>
> --- On Mon, 5/3/10, Andrew Villeneuve <andrewmv@...<andrewmv%40gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> From: Andrew Villeneuve <andrewmv@... <andrewmv%40gmail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Resist ink pens
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com <Homebrew_PCBs%40yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Monday, May 3, 2010, 11:28 AM
>
>
> Bob,
>
> I've seen several tutorials on the laser engraving approach, which seems to
> work very reproducibly.  Naturally, these all came from shops that had
> access to an industrial laser engraver for other reasons.
>
> small-shop laser engraving machines have started to emerge on the market in
> the past few years - I've seen one as low as US$4,000.  Well outside of my
> budget, but compared to some of the CNC milling approaches that I've seen
> discussed here, it's actually very viable.
>
> I've not specifically seen any of these low-end machines used for PCB
> etching, though I wouldn't imagine there would be a problem.
>
> -Andrew
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>  
>


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