Homebrew PCBs

Steve,

Could you try and make a solder paste stencil using your vinyl cutter
sometime to see if my idea might have any merit?

I agree that spraying coatings and stuff is a lot of work, but the UV
setup has, well setup time too.

My other idea was to use toner as a soldermask block and then remove
that later with acetone, but I don't know if the under cutting on that
would work.

I have yet to hear from any of the direct-inkjet-print guys if they
ever got a soldermask printed.

Thanks!


--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Steve" <alienrelics@...> wrote:
>
> I used a Graphtec vinyl cutter and about the best I could do was
> standard 0.1" spacing DIP ICs in a psuedo-SMT way. No holes, leads
> trimmed flush and soldered onto the copper side.
> 
> I also made some boards that I did drill, but without a guide hole
> etched it was difficult to drill accurately.
> 
> No way could I have had a lead pass between pins or done narrow traces
> with standard solder pads.
> 
> But very possibly accurate enough to make a solder paste stencil.
> 
> Scans in Files:
>
<http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs/files/Sign_Cutter_to_make_PCBs/>
> 
> Steve Greenfield
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Jerome Decock" <jerome@> wrote:
> >
> > There is no way a vinyl cutter could cut such small pads, at least
> the one I
> > have (Roland CAMM, the same as in the first link) will not do anything
> > smaller than 4 mm(0.15") square without ripping the vinyl/copper. Also
> > corners tend to be rounded by the blade. I tried this method for
> making self
> > adhesive copper tracks with the same material used in link 1 and same
> > settings and it doesn't work for tracks thinner than 0.10/0.15".
> > Additionally the self adhesive copper foil I used was very expensive.
> >
>