Hi Tom,
I wouldn't mind the thinner kerf, also the power/area would increase
as well I suppose.
The air funnel idea is a good one. I've been thinking of implementing
something like that. How much air pressure/flow would you suggest?
I move my work in the X-Y direction (modified plotter). I want to
avoid as many optical paths as possible. In other words, the less
bends the better. I have too little power to spare as it is.
The PCB resist etch idea will probably work fine. All you need to do
is vapourize the thin resist layer. The copper won't be touched (for
obvious reasons). An acrylic cage keeps any stray beams inside the
work area.
I would love to get my hands on one of the high power laser diodes.
They would be perfect for resist etching. It would keep the overall
size of the machine to a desktop size. You could probably retrofit
any XY plotter to work with a laser "pen".
John M...
==============
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "twb8899" <twb8899@y...> wrote:
> John,
>
> If the 30" lens is working don't change anything unless you really
> need a finer cut. The 5" lens will have a smaller kerf width which
> would help with very fine inside cuts and detail if you need it. My
> laser machine used "cones" to guide the assist gas (compressed air
> for most plastics)into the cut. If you do something like this your
> results will be even better and you should be able to cut at a
higher
> feed rate. We used a big dust collector that exhausted to the
outside
> but the plastic fumes were hard to totally remove.
> ... TOM