Rolive

Nice work! I’m considering a similar project and this looks like a good way to do it.

You have to be careful with this. The humidity reported by the local weather station may not be the same as the humidity in your storage room.

I have just gotten an airtight box and a few packs of silica gel and store all my filament in there.

This is exactly why I did it. Also the RGB led strip costs 4 euros here at the Action. Imagine if AliExpress had a physical store, that’s that.

Oh that’s right. The direction pins can also control the light settings!

Actually it’s pretty decent. I do need to install part cooling fans but haven’t done that.

I was trying to use an aquarium pump with blunt needles as part cooling but I find it’s too much hassle.

That is also a factor, I almost always print PLA and ABS/PETG only when the part needs to withstand high temperatures (inside a car for example).

I can print a really shitty one.

Interesting read! I’ve seen a video on youtube where someone used white UV curing resin as the first layer and also as etch resist. It can be cleaned with IPA and you just leave it on after etching.

Afterwards a green layer of UV curing resin is applied and the laser is used to burn away only the green material so that silkscreen text becomes visible. I haven’t tried it myself but it looks like a promising process.

Yes I’ve tried that as well. It’s way better than messing with toner transfer or those etch resist foils/spray.

It also works well for solder mask. If you apply one white layer and a green layer on top of that you can make decent part labels by lasering away only the green top layer.

I have two laser heads, a 405nm 500mW and 450nm at 10W laser. I don’t think either of them are suitable for burning away copper but I can try that. I believe to burn away copper you need a pulsed YAG laser or something like that.

I know but where’s the fun in that? I’ve ordered from JLCPCB a few times but it is a hell of a lot more satisfying when I’ve made the whole PCB myself.

Hmm. I’ve gotten to the point where I used my CNC for the chemical etching process as well. Instead of fumbling with toner transfer I use spraypaint and a laser engraver as etch resist. It is way more reliable.

As for ferric chloride, indeed you cannot see your circuit board but it is possible to store this for long. Solutions like HCl + H2O2 don’t last very long and I only do PCB making sporadically.

Well made!