Comment on PCB solder mask making using UV resin
GooseFinger@sh.itjust.works 5 months ago
Honestly, interesting thought.
My first concern is fidelity - you can only get as detailed as the diameter of your laser, which I imagine is pretty big relative to the tiny features on PCBs. A 10 mil diameter sounds pretty good for a home job to me.
How well does cured resin hold up to copper etchants? I would assume pretty well.
What benefit does this have over other methods, such as transferring a laser print on glossy paper to a blank PCB? The resin/laser method sounds very similar, but more automated and essentially the same, minus the transfer step.
Now I want to try this haha.
Rolive@discuss.tchncs.de 5 months ago
For my use case fidelity is no problem at all. My spot size is minimally about 0.1mm and I’ve increased it to 0.5mm to increase speed.
For photosensitive dry film you don’t need much power so you don’t need max focus. In fact you’re likely to burn through the film with the smallest spot size.
Toner transfer has been messy and unpredictable for me. Also alignment with double-sided PCBs is more difficult this way.