Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit

[Dave N6NZ <n6nz@xxxxxxxx>]

On Jan 24, 2010, at 4:43 AM, Bob Paddock wrote:

>> CO2 laser is the wrong wavelength to cut metal.  Only a couple percent of the radiation is absorbed. Great for plastics, though, and many other materials.  With respect to >PCB etching, one thing I've thought about but haven't yet tried is simply using paint.  Apply a thin code of flat black paint as a resist (I'm guessing enamel would work best) >and let the laser ablate the paint where you want to etch.
> 
> We already use commercial grade pre-photosensitized FR4 laminate, so
> doing painting and such is not needed.  My only concern was that there
> might be issues of the wave-lengths between the LASER and the laminate
> being miss-matched, but if the process is actually based on heat then
> it is a non-issue.
> 
Now that will depend on your photochemistry.  CO2 laser is not in the visible spectrum. You'd have to check the sensitivity of the photo emulsion w.r.t. wavelength.  Most litho films are not sensitive even to red, but do go up into ultra-violet.  I can't remember if CO2 is longer or shorter than visible light.  In any case, you'd get by with very low power.

So now for the wacky idea of the day... an interesting hack would be to make a tool head for a RepRap or some other cheap X/Y bed that simply holds a green laser pointer.

-dave


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