[Robotgroup] laser cutting (was: cardboard bots)

[Leslie Filip]

The solder masks are done on a different kind of laser than what is  
over at the UT Architecture Department. Solder masks start at a few  
hundred dollars, so I would suggest it is more an economic issue than  
a technical one to make art with the same tools and techniques.

Les


On 17 Jun 2008, at 1:53 PM, Gray Mack wrote:

> With thin durable metal, we could probably make some cool art,  
> models, beam robots, a robotgroup logo paint template, etc using  
> that method.
> Any idea of cost per square inch?
> Is the metal more bendy or springy?
> -Gray
>
> --- On Tue, 6/17/08, Glenn Currie <kd5mfw_7 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> From: Glenn Currie <kd5mfw_7 at yahoo.com>
>> Subject: Re: [Robotgroup] laser cutting (was: cardboard bots)
>> To: "The Robot Group Mailing List" <robotgroup at puremagic.com>
>> Date: Tuesday, June 17, 2008, 11:57 AM
>> There are companies that make thin metal solder masks for
>> circuit board fabrication.  For surface mount parts, you
>> send
>> in a CAD generated solder paste mask and they send you a
>> LASER cut metal solder mask.  You lay the solder mask
>> over the circuit board and paint the exposed areas with
>> solder paste.  The solder paste serves to hold the surface
>> mount
>> parts in place before the solder is heated.   You remove
>> the
>> mask apply the parts - by hand if you are doing prototypes,
>> then baked the board and chips in a toaster oven at the
>> temperatures
>> the solder past is designed to work with and the solder in
>> the
>> paste liquefies and solders the surface mount chips to the
>> board.
>>
>> The mask can have arbitrarily complex patterns, the LASER
>> does
>> not care.   The masks are not real expensive and can be
>> reused
>> because they are durable metal.
>>
>> You could send in "art" if you wanted and get
>> them to cut you
>> a metal mask.  Just learn how to generate the CAD files.
>>
>> -Glenn
>
>
>
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