Homebrew PCBs

Hello folks,
I am currently in the process of gathering parts for a CNC servo driven 
XY plotter, which
is going to be my university project also for my final year. I would 
like to isolation route PCBs.
I am aware that EDM is a currently successful method, but I am wondering 
about laser
vaporisation. I have read about laser machining, which focuses the laser 
beam to a focal
point where it heats up the metal (copper in the case of a PCB) so fast 
it vaporises, thus
eroding the material away. Has anyone thought about this, tried it, 
heard about it being done
or even think it's feasible for a PCB by the home hobbyist? I found that 
you can pick up a
20W CO2 laser from eBay USA quite cheaply.
I figure the benefits of laser are the fact you can also drill all your 
holes, cutout the shape of
the board, cut out irregular hole shapes (like D-sub support pins) and 
even engraving.
Another benefit I see for laser is the fact you have no grounding, which 
makes EDM difficult
with vectors. This would mean you can isolate the traces without regards 
for whether you are
still completing the circuit.

Anyone have any ideas or want to talk about this, it'd be great!!

-Mikey

> mikey wrote:
><snip>
>I have read about laser machining, which focuses
> the laser beam to a focal point where it heats
> up the metal (copper in the case of a PCB) so
> fast it vaporises, thus eroding the material
> away. Has anyone thought about this, tried it, 
> heard about it being done or even think it's
> feasible for a PCB by the home hobbyist?
><Snip>

Someone was talking about a 10W CO2 laser they
tried to burn copper with just last week.  They
said that it would burn the substrate but did
not touch the copper.

It seems the copper might too refective to be
heated up too much.

I guess that you could always paint the copper
black from the front and make it non-reflective
that way.

PS - don't put the C02 laser anywhere near any
fish.  I hear C02 poisonous to them :D