I don't know that much (nee, anything) about the laser. It's a Epilog Helix, which is something in the 50mW range. The laser is focusable, but I was told that the documentation states that the minimum beam width is 8mil.
All I know in this area is second-hand and can probably easily be verified by looking at their website. The whole machine is probably in the $10-30K range, I'm guessing. I don't know how many flavors it comes in, so I don't know what the cheapest cost machine in their line is that you can get away with.
I also don't know what % power we've gone with because someone else usually burns the boards. It might be possible to go down to a lower power laser in their line.
--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Mark Lerman <mlerman@...> wrote:
>
>
> Very interesting. Assuming your limiting factor is the beam width,
> can you focus the laser to a smaller width? On ebay I see CO2 lasers
> for engraving at $1600 with shipping that might do.
> Mark