Guru
Joined: 07/09/2016
Location: United KingdomPosts: 2171
| Posted: 07:53am 04 Apr 2020 |
Morning Tony. Thanks for the advice.
Funny you should say it, I played with a lens in the beam for other things to get the beam width right down but the ones I had made the beam very conical so I had to get the focal length absolutely spot on and honestly, I am not up to it anymore... eyes are not great and looking through the safety goggles is like trying to read a newspaper with sunglasses on.
The beam is about half a millimeter or so wide, so the actual thickness would appear to be OK for what I am doing - its the cheapie kit that is the problem. The carriage mechanism is just not very good for super detailed work when processing GCode (exposed belts, no linear rails). It seems better on the registration when raster etching but that gives jaggy edges on diagonals and curves. Raster etch also takes FOREVER but has the advantage that you can get a traditional looking board that only has copper flood where you put it rather than as a by-product of the way the board was produced.
This was my "is it worth it" foray into laser etching and I only spent about £150-ish so you get what you pay for I guess. It has proved a point. If I invested more on the laser, something a bit better quality (like a K40 - for which I simply don't have room) then the repeat-ability of the motion is really nice and very fine tracks are possible without the variation. It is that that really makes the difference.
One point with this though, once you have laser-etched the board, if you don't like the result, you simply strip the paint and try again. You aren't losing copper to find the board will be rubbish.
thanks
all the best
h
Edited 2020-04-04 17:59 by CaptainBoing