Solder stencils are a unbelievable technique to precisely apply solder paste to a PCB. Professionally-made stencils are lower from metal, however for the house hacker, soda cans proceed to be the choice of selection. The one trick is learn how to really get these little holes made, and [Saheen Palayi] reveals off each his methodology of laser-engraving the holes, in addition to a instrument for slicing the can within the first place.
To show a soda can right into a flat-ish aluminum sheet means slicing off the ends and slicing it open. Ideally, one achieves this with out kinking or bending the skinny steel. In observe, that is fairly troublesome. [Saheen]’s answer is one thing somewhat like a pipe cutter — a 3D printed instrument that regularly presses a blade part from a utility knife into the empty can because it turns till it cuts via. As soon as the highest and backside are off, it’s simple sufficient to snip down the facet to get a curved sheet.
The opening sample comes from one’s PCB design software program of selection, and the precise slicing is completed by a fiber laser. The wavelength of fiber lasers makes them good at marking and slicing steel, and [Saheen]’s laser takes nearly no time in any respect to chop the stencil into the skinny steel.
Fiber lasers was the kind of instrument that solely industrial retailers had, however they’re a prosumer-level instrument that may be purchased on-line these days. [Saheen] makes use of an xTool F1 Extremely to chop his solder stencil, and we’ve beforehand seen that very same laser used to create a PCB by blasting away undesirable copper till solely the traces stay.
We’ve seen aluminum cans etched and likewise machined to create stencils, and the laser is definitely the quickest. Watch it in motion within the video under.
