Homebrew PCBs

*** Sorry for the departure from the main topic which is "PCB" making 
in a home environment... but this had to be answered. 

Anyway, I do believe that lasers can be used in the home PCB making. 
If not for direct machining, then in the photo exposure process. 
Lasers are just to cheap to overlook entirely these days.

Trying to answer your question...
First, I would not use CO2 laser to cut metal. 
The usual solution is to use plasma cutter. You can get a small one 
for about $1000 and it will cut anything for you "like hot knife 
through butter" and is easily controllable by a CNC setup. It is a 
portable unit, while the CO2 laser head would not even fit into my 
basement. 

Second, I do not have personal (hands on) experience with metal 
cutting laser powers necessary. The biggest CO2 I ever had was almost 
4ft long and that only gave me 40Watts at its peak operating time (I 
had a HeNe 6ft long that only gave me 100mW at peak time). There is 
tons of laser reference material on the internet for you to read 
about.

Off the top of my head, you definitely have to go into the hundreds 
(or even more) Watts before you can cut metal. The usual laser used 
for metal processing is YAG (Although there is many huge CO2 lasers 
used for that as well ). It is the easier and cheaper laser to 
operate and maintain, at least for me it was. It is also more robust 
and much smaller for the same power output.



John M...
===============



--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Russell Shaw <rjshaw@i...> 
wrote:
> John Myszkowski wrote:
> > I guess it depends on the age of the boys and the price of their 
> > toys...?  :)
> > 
> > Lasers are one of my hobbies, or at least they used to be. The 
lasers 
> > I used were either made by me or found on a scrap heap and 
repaired 
> > by me.
> > 
> > But you are correct, it is beyond most hobbyists abilities. I was 
> > just trying to be helpful to the ones who can get access to the 
laser 
> > type hobbies.
> 
> What power CO2 laser do you need for cutting 3mm 
steel/brass/aluminium?
> I've got a two-stage pump that can go to 10^-4 torr. I'm designing a
> cnc x-y table...