DIY stencils at home

[Spikee]

I make all my stencils at home using a Silhouette cutting machine (250$ ?)
I made a write up of it a while ago:
http://blog.elektrohenk.nl/making-stenc ... tte-cameo/

If you don't mind using chemistry than a metel stencils is even a better solution (search for soda can stencil).
Works great =)

[metRo_]

Can you post an example of a stencil using that machine?

[Spikee]

here you can find some results:
http://dangerousprototypes.com/forum/vi ... &start=150

all i can tell you that it works fine for me 0603 tqfp's , qfn's etc

[dampfboot]

I recently bought such a 1,600$ laser cutter from Ebay and have made some stencils with it for my friend already. I have tried out various materials for this. For a one or two piece batch we used ordinary plastic covered inc jet paper like shown in my video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46fBii9Dtgw

It includes a 144 pin IC with 0.5 mm pitch = 0.3 mm wide slots and 0.2 mm paper between - works fine. I only had to reduce the pad length in the CAD data a little to reduce the solder paste amount per pad. All other holes could be cut out as is from the eagle file.

I am using the laser for wood work and paper cuts mostly - so if you don't like to buy your own just for stencil making please try to find a FabLab or Maker space near you. Mostly here you can rent some laser light time for small money. The big advantage compared with cheap professional stencil makers is that you can get it much quicker. And after you have learned your lesson it is even cheaper to do so.

Rainer

[Spikee]

I recently bought such a 1,600$ laser cutter from Ebay and have made some stencils with it for my friend already. I have tried out various materials for this. For a one or two piece batch we used ordinary plastic covered inc jet paper like shown in my video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46fBii9Dtgw
Rainer

Which model laser cutter did you buy?
That is professional grade stencil , the one I make with my vinyl cutter are ok but not great. (NO QFN etc..)

[dampfboot]

I am using a Shenhui 350 modell like this with electric table
http://www.ebay.de/itm/CO2-Lasergravur- ... 461f1a0973

You can get them with electric up and down table or hand driven table.
Also there are different quality levels around from the same "blue bock". A friend of mine got a weeker design in the structure. Also he had no LED light like at my machine. But anyway the cutting result is the same. It should be a model with LAN connector because this is an indicator for the newer control units - but as far as i have seen meanwhile all ebay distributors have this new modell.

BTW: I tried to import direct from Shenhui China but it is to expensive for fright and customs. Additional German customs might reject this China cracker to prevent the EU people ?!?

Rainer

[Mark Harris]

I know this is an older thread, but wanted to add some advice for people who might find it in the future looking at buying a laser.

The unit that dampfboot linked is running an Ruida controller (looks like an RDLC320?) - I'm a huge fan of them. For cutting jobs I prefer the workflow in it over the Trotec even ($35000 laser), and I prefer almost anything over Epilogs abominations.

I say this to everyone who is looking at buying a chinese laser: Stay away from Leetro controllers. These cost no less than the Ruida and AWC controllers, but have a real habit of the PWM output dying. Plus they require a dongle that is temperamental to use the software and the software is about the most buggy and least enjoyable to use out of all the Chinese controllers.

If you're doing serious work with a cheap laser, get the Ruida RDLC 6332G controller. It runs linux, has a full graphic colour display which is super simple to change all the settings on (even as the job is running). You can plug a mouse into it (not much use, but you can!) and its extremely reliable. I had about 800hrs cut time on mine before I sold the laser and several thousand kilometers of travel

If you're looking at anything over 50W of power insist on a RECI tube, most chinese tubes have a shelf life on 1 year whether it's used or not - they are poorly sealed, and if you are using it regularly can have a usage life of 500-1000hrs (1000hrs being relatively good tubes that you treat very nicely). A RECI tube costs more, BUT when you consider the postage cost alone of a replacement tube it is a fraction of the cost. RECI rate their tubes to 10,000hrs and I believe them based on my usage of 3 of them (100 and 120W). I've seen too many "80W" chinese tubes seriously down on power after just 2-3 months even when never used above 80% power.

When buying a chinese laser ALWAYS redo the entire ground system. I've only seen a couple which dont have the chassis sitting a few hundred volts above ground. Usually, they have paint on the grounding points so there is no electrical connection, or very poor - or they rely exclusively on the chassis for grounding things to the plug (like the K40 lasers). When you have an 80,000v powersupply (with the larger tubes, 50kv for the small ones) you really want good grounds! Run a large (18+ AWG or larger) from every device that gets AC straight to the ground pin on the IEC power plug. Don't chain them together, every device gets its own wire. The chassis gets its own wire (from a hole you drill, sand the paint way on, and tap), and the bed gets its own wire.

If your laser comes with a pond pump for cooling, throw it out and buy one that has the correct electrical certifications for your country. I got a numb arm for several hours after checking the water temperature by putting my thumb in the return line of a water pump on a K40 laser. Almost all K40 lasers I've tested since have had live water. I hate to think what would have happened if I stuck my hand into the water rather than just the returning stream.

Chinese lasers are death traps, but with a little work they can be pretty excellent. I've owned several, and I've worked on/helped friends with several dozen more. I've also stripped and serviced many models that Epilog and Trotec make... there really isn't any comparison between a "real" laser and a chinese laser

Also for stencils, it might be surprising but I've found on pretty much all lasers the only way to do apertures for the really fine pitch stuff (0.4mm/0.5mm) is to use the engrave option, and not vector cut. The engrave allows the plastic enough time to cool (even at the stupidly fast speeds of a Trotec) so your bridges between pads stay intact. I was pretty skeptical when I was told to try it, but I'm now a believer

[jarekk]

RECI rate their tubes to 10,000hrs and I believe them based on my usage of 3 of them (100 and 120W). I've seen too many "80W" chinese tubes seriously down on power after just 2-3 months even when never used above 80% power.

I bought Chinese laser, but after tweaking I decided to rebuild it. It will be finished soon, but I will have to buy 60W tube.
I have 60W laser power supply ( generic), do you know if it can be used for RECI ? ( if voltage/current parameters match) - I am asking as I have seen power supplies target specifically for RECI - are they somehow special ?

Chinese lasers are death traps, but with a little work they can be pretty excellent.

Well, I had to scrap almost everything from the one I bought. But I have learnt few things and my new one is still built from Chinese components, but quite well selected ( not random scrap).
I just bought locally chassis made specifically for laser ( it was unassembled leftover from some short series of local production).

[Mark Harris]

Don't get me wrong, Chinese parts can be amazing and come at a superb price If you look at the internals of an epilog or a trotec, a chinese laser is MASSIVELY overbuilt on pretty much everything except the bed. Incidentally, this tends to be why they are slow at engraving and why I like them for vector cuts. I'm a huge fan of the Leadshine stepper drivers and motors (especially their 3 phase units), they beat every American/European driver I've tried hands down for noise, smoothness and precision.

A 60W tube is a 60W tube. It gets a whole bunch of voltage dumped into it which creates an arc inside that excites the carbon dioxide to generate a beam. So any powersupply for a glass tube laser will work as long as it has the right amperage/voltage. Make sure you adjust the little pot on the side to limit your max power to the specified max amps for the tube.

That being said, there is a HUGE difference between the Reci powersupply and the cheap JNMYDY powersupplies.

Blown up chinese supply #1

Fuse instantly pops, i figured high voltage was somehow getting back. It popped when cutting. Blew after 20hrs of run time.

Blown up chinese supply #2

Transformer arced up and blew away a section of copper on the PCB as well as about 1cm of winding. Blew whilst idle, and after about 5hrs of run time.

RECI powersupply that cost 3x as much:

Was still working when I sold it, after hundreds of hours. Shows amperage, input and output voltage, temperature, humidity on the display. Was great when I was in Australia as I could calculate dew point for setting the chiller from the RH and temp - in summer the dew point could get to 20+c, so sometimes I just couldn't run the laser or I would risk condensation on the tube aperture. It fires faster, and fires smoother... and was very very happy with it.
Note: All the yellow wire with green stripe in that photo is my extra grounding the mount hole for the back corner of the laser tube has all the paint around it scuffed off, so a ring terminal makes good contact between the powersupply case and the chassis, then both go off to the ground pin.

All of those are 120W powersupplies. The RECI supply weighs about 3x as much as the cheap ones - probably why it costs so much, they actually put some decent parts in it.
If I had gone with the RECI supply from the start, I would have saved almost the price of it. I bought that model because it had just come out at the time, and I knew the poor quality chinese clones wouldnt exist yet

[JaimieSH]

Spikee thanks for starting this thread. Your blog is not working anymore.
Where can I find the information? How hard was it to learn to control the Cameo?

The reason I'm asking is that I'm eyeing myself for different projects. What
do you think it's worth the money? What about the learning curve is it steep?

As I mentioned I've been researching silhouette cameo for a while now. The amount
of hype I've read is just mind blowing. It's so hard to find a decent review. Everybody
is getting a commission nowadays?

What ever. Lately I've found this crafting blog which seems different. What are your takes
on it? What I particularly like is she tells everything as it is without sugar coating. Here's
a good example she has comparing silhouette curio with silhouette cameo. Some interesting things
popped up.

Is it true that the machine is loud? What about the bluetooth connection. I was looking forward
to wireless connectivity. Now I have to stick with cords?