Saskatoon TechWorks Forum

The laser cutter is now living at the space. I still haven't figured out a good workflow ATM.

This is my plan for the laser cutter. People will have access to "laser cutting time". Meaning if they need something cut, requests will be made directly through me.

Each month full members will be able to have a certain amount of free cutting time (non-cumulative) and anything after that will be charged at a discounted rate/min.

Everyone else will be charged a full rate/min.

Haven't figured out exact numbers yet, but will probably follow the model Pololu has http://www.pololu.com/catalog/product/749.
$2.50/min if cutting time with a min charge of $25.

Any thoughts and questions?

Very handy thing to have available

Hi; new poster, wil try to make to a Tuesday dropby in the next few weeks.

Have you had any experience lasering PCBs? It looks like you can just paint them, etch away the paint selectively, and do a standard chemical dip. Also, how accurate is it for Re-lasering? My PCB would have >100 holes to be drilled, but as I understand it that couldn't be done until round-2 (after copper is removed). I assume the laser could quickly and accurately blast selective holes in something like http://www.amazon.com/Copper-PC-Board-S ... B000P7ALZC

I'm thinking I'll likely end up wanting your services with a couple electronics enclosures, and some pcbs, once my project gets a bit more legs. Your RPi enclosure looks great.

The paint/laser method seems pretty straight forward and novel, but it would be faster and cheaper to do either toner transfer or photo resist. As for drilling holes, having them done by a CNC machine would be better. I haven't tried to laser FR4 yet, but suspect I won't be able to get though with this low power laser. I can do acrylic, ABS, and most woods up to 1/4".