Homebrew PCBs

Hi,
Has anyone tried using a low power lasers from cd/dvd or blue ray burner drives?
I expect the accuracy could be quite good. A blue ray laser should be capable of exposing photoresist very well, but are quite expensive.

I imagine this could also be used directly on a board coated in toner?


Im not sure about red dvd lasers - it would depend if photo resist is also sensitive to heat?

Most of these lasers are ~200-300mW, that should be able to melt plastics if focused, although I have not managed to get my laser to burn at 150mW yet. However there are many youtube videos showing these lasers used for cnc engraving plastics.

thanks

>
>I imagine this could also be used directly on a board coated in toner?

I'm working on that, with red (only to see it) laser.
Quite good results for the beginning. It melts the ordinary (cheapest) tonner.
I have to solve:
         how to coat uniformly with a thin layer
         how to burn it, using a CNC machine (used before to drill 
holes) = software problem.
         how to collimate the beam for more resolution
Cristian 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

What power laser are you using?

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Cristian <bip@...> wrote:

>
> 
> >
> >I imagine this could also be used directly on a board coated in toner?
> 
> I'm working on that, with red (only to see it) laser.
> Quite good results for the beginning. It melts the ordinary (cheapest) tonner.
> I have to solve:
>          how to coat uniformly with a thin layer
>          how to burn it, using a CNC machine (used before to drill 
> holes) = software problem.
>          how to collimate the beam for more resolution
> Cristian 
> 
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Did you calculated the time needed by a 2 axis machine to print with a
single beam??? 

I think isolation milling can beat that!

See my post few minutes ago about 'pico projectores'. Single beam
machines use always a very fast rotative axis. Like the cheapest photo
plotters, laser printers, or LPKF 75000gbp laser engraver.

http://www.cadware.cz/index.php?page=127
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n29LrMF8LC4

This machines use a raster process of optical encoders position and
comparison when turn on or off the beam. It's not single pixels but
lines whenever possible. And the software is the simplest problem of
them all.

Like in the other my post the obvious conclusion is inkjet. There are
even who uses hp heads to print epoxy. We just have to find the correct
mix to use as ink.

On Fri, 2009-07-03 at 01:40 +0000, ngh2k3 wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi,
> Has anyone tried using a low power lasers from cd/dvd or blue ray
> burner drives?
> I expect the accuracy could be quite good. A blue ray laser should be
> capable of exposing photoresist very well, but are quite expensive.
> 
> I imagine this could also be used directly on a board coated in toner?
> 
> Im not sure about red dvd lasers - it would depend if photo resist is
> also sensitive to heat?
> 
> Most of these lasers are ~200-300mW, that should be able to melt
> plastics if focused, although I have not managed to get my laser to
> burn at 150mW yet. However there are many youtube videos showing these
> lasers used for cnc engraving plastics.
> 
> thanks
> 
> 
> 
> 
>