Laser cut & engraved PCB made on a Laser cutter.

Making a printed circuit board on a 60 watt Universal laser cutting and engraving machine. This is complete with laser drilling and copper etching and solder mask.
Design was done using Kicad.
0:00 intro
0:21 Cad
1:15 Phenolic PCB and cleaning
2:00 Cut out blank
2:38 Top side painting
3:28 Cut holes and engrave designators
3:50 Engrave and cut top side
5:12 Etch resist painting
6:55 Cut alignment pins
7:50 Engrave copper resist
8:18 Etch copper in ferric chloride
10:38 Paint solder mask
11:15 Reveal the pads
11:35 Outro

[@projectartichoke]

That has to be the best quality homemade PCB I've ever seen, and very quick for holes and everything.

[@Robonza]

Thanks! Yes, its taken a few iterations to get here. It is so satisfying when you get to watch the pads reveal through the soldermask.

[@beardization]

@@Robonza that was my fave bit for sure

[@amirajpal6382]

It really is. I haven't seen anything close to this good.

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

I had NO idea this was even an option. My 90w laser should be able to do as well as this. Thank you for sharing the whole process. I will TOTALLY be trying this.

[@zorwick]

same here

[@iainburgess8577]

Thanks for demonsting that technique, Iike it a lot more than the other CNC options I've seen.

[@arnabmusouwir9018]

That has to be the best quality homemade PCB I've ever seen, and very quick for holes and everything (2)

[@BunkerSquirrel]

The rain hitting your workshop makes me jealous. Both the fact you have a workshop and the nice relaxing white noise it makes.

[@Robonza]

Great comment. I did have to fix a lot of leaks in the early days haha

[@CharlesBetti]

This is amazing! Very good job. Thanks for sharing. You initiated a new age in the home made pcb!

[@Robonza]

Thanks mate, it took a few experiments over the years.

[@larrykent196]

It's all about the process. You produced a great looking product. Nice job with the video and thank you for sharing. Cheers!

[@Robonza]

Thanks Larry, I wish I had more time to do other videos

[@kwaaaa]

Wow that end result looks legit!

[@paulbarnard5267]

Many thanks for making this video. It popped up in my feed at random and I watched it out of curiosity. It has just taken me three days to find it again as I want to give this a try. I’ll be saving the video this time…

[@Robonza]

Thanks Paul, I appreciate the comment.

[@retinapoliyn7462]

Greatest Homemade PCB. LOVE THIS.

[@Robonza]

Thanks! I used it for the first time today in my electric kayaks, It worked good.

[@CATZ129]

That is so damn cool, im genuinly impressed with how you made this

[@shreyas.kulkarni]

I wonder if a 10W diode laser will be good enough for repeating this (slow is fine) at home over a desktop cnc router. But without doubt this is the best method I have come across to get home made professional grade PCBs. Getting the alignment is gonna be the key, and I think that's where most of the efforts are gonna be. Many thanks for sharing this with the internet!

[@thewolfpen4074]

I have a 5,5W laser and it removes the paint fine. Wont cut the copper though.

[@leosbagoftricks3732]

Very creative use of the laser- hats off!

[@Robonza]

Thanks Leo, I subbed you back mate!

[@JM_Tushe]

Beautifully done. 👌🤌

[@rickmathews1154]

Look's AWESOME Thanks for sharing your skills, I'm about to embark on my first try, so THANKS again for your great advise...

[@easycomplier]

handy video, so excited to try it with my 80W Laser

[@thedanebear]

Very impressive results! Thank you for sharing. Would love to try your method out!

[@neilgillies6943]

Great set of processes ! Wasn't aware paxolin would cut with the laser (I have a 40W Universal) - liked the alignment pins idea too.

[@Tuxedo2680]

The alignment pins will also allow you to make dual layer PCBs with perfect registration. Registration holes are an industry standard in PCB design and manufacturing.

[@emmettlbrwn]

Beautiful job!

[@KSAC2716]

Awesome!Thank you for sharing.Gotta make one with Cnc!

[@animongahajime9302]

This is the best thing i've seen this entire year!! Thank you so much for this.... I just bought my first laser machine.. 20W Diode laser, but i'll work myself to getting this type...

[@Robonza]

Thanks for such a great comment. I would be keen for you to try ink instead of paint as it will laser better with 20W. Let me know how it goes.

[@ironnoriboi]

@@Robonza I use a cheap desktop 5W laser / cnc combination from aliexpress for this, and it works great with regular (black) spraypaint. The laser can't cut the board, but it can remove the paint, the cnc spindle can create the holes and cutout.

[@Jptoutant]

the final result is quite stunning

[@beautycuisinons]

Superbe vidéo, ça donne envie, joli travail, félicitations ! 👍👍👍

[@ryanninjutsu]

this video is very instructional and clear, and also funny and natural, Great work, i learn a lot from here, as i have doubt whether to get laser machine or cnc machine

[@ryebis]

Nice demonstration, thanks!

[@baburaospeaks2429]

You are superb !! Awesome work 👌 thanks for sharing

[@alainb4504]

Excellent ! Thanks for sharing

[@thboomsma]

OMG that is an amazing workflow!!! I have laser too but did it completely wrong i see now

[@immersiveaudionft2203]

Absolutely beautiful I have to try this

[@mouseminer2978]

Smartest Guy .... You Rock .... God Bless You ....

[@woosix7735]

This looks like one of the easiest methods for diy PCBs! Don’t have a lazer cutter though

[@jhoanrivero7885]

Awesome video, nice PCB

[@KallePihlajasaari]

Was watching this again. I can see a rotating vacuum chuck in the future of your spray booth.

[@universallasersystemskorea2083]

Pretty impressive, very good job! Versatile is Universal Laser System.

[@youssefahourri3245]

Wow a very impressive result, I just subscribed and waiting for the configuration of the software TO achieve such a neat PCB.

[@saddle1940]

Very nice. Thankyou for sharing.

[@tugaminhoto4969]

Very good quality, never see a homem made pcb with all that quality. Thanks for share with us, o have a 80w co2 laser and will try this process.

[@MD_Builds]

been seeing a lot more laser cut pcbs lately... must be something trending... This is an amazing job. I might not have to go to JLCPCB all the time any more :p

[@spammingspammer4289]

really clean output

[@Robonza]

Yeah, the opposite of spammy spam haha

[@JosePablo2008]

This is exactly what I'm looking for. I made some PCB by etching but never with laser engraver. The final outcome blow my mind.

[@Robonza]

Thats awesome

[@DominoSixO]

I know not everybody has such laser engraver but you can do the same with a 200$ one. This is a perfect video example how you can make a PCB at home with a laser engraver. I liked the custom spray paint at the end green and clear coat.

[@Robonza]

This is not a cheap laser. I dont think a low power laser would work

[@DominoSixO]

@@Robonza i bought one recently with a 3w laser, will design a PCB and give it a try when I get the laser in hand

[@fridayedeh4616]

Nice work I love it

[@WhoCaresWinsAgain]

Excellent video and great looking PCB. I’ve a 40W CO2 laser and often thought about making pcb’s with it but now I know it works I’ll give it a go. I also use Arduino Nano’s in many of my projects so thanks for the inspiration to give it a try.

[@scolem2681]

Hi. How was your experience making pcbs?

[@wmffmw1854]

NICELY DONE. I am a professional PCB designer with 40 years experience. I would have used Photo Resist and LPI Solder Mask. White paint very creative. I also just started setting up a Laser Engraving system.

[@Robonza]

Nice, I started making pcbs around the same time as you. Todays tech makes everything so easy compared to the old days.

[@amberisvibin]

that's incredible

[@ajpran]

its amazing !!!

[@qwerty13380]

Very impressive.

[@arielinarta412]

Amazing... nice job.. thanks

[@TheFleetz]

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing and by the sound of your accent brilliant Aussie engineering. 👍 I’m a retired electronic engineer having designed, developed and manufactured TV broadcast equipment for 15 years as my last hooray before retiring. So I appreciate your ingenuity and skills. I have used KiCad a number of times in retirement to design PCB for a number of projects and for grandkids some of whom are taking an interest in electronics. I don’t have a laser unit nor the space to locate one so I have used the Chinese PCB manufacturers to fabricate my boards. Frankly I do not know how they can do what they do for the price! Nice to see something being made in Australia (Assuming I have the accent right and your living here in Oz?) Well done again it was fascinating watching your enviable skills....

[@Robonza]

I am in New Zealand and yes I was a broadcast engineer in my younger days too.

[@balexfox]

Very perfect

[@TECHNICALIQ]

Perfect 👏

[@Yorumcu63]

Great Job

[@charliemopps4926]

ahhhh... so the trick is to flip them over, copper side down... I knew there had to be a way to do this and there was some trick I just hadn't thought of. Thanks!

[@aronshade]

Great video! In a couple of years I will be an electrician and I will be hopefully making boards like yours for fun!

[@markharrington5826]

Im an electrician but I'm going to make printed circuits boards ?? Great video ? Are you ?? Really !! I think you may be in the wrong field myself and may need to become an electrician with an awful lot or electronics backgrounding , service related to component level to start doing this or would have electronics as a hobby of some type I wouldn't follow this presentation thinking that this will work for someone like you because it wont ! Still ought to be interesting !!

[@stizandelasage]

That's a great method

[@nwaigbo3]

Good work

[@behackful5728]

amazing man!

[@alirezakhalili800]

Thanks thanks Very good Thanks One thousand times thanks

[@ta5fa]

wonderfull made it ........

[@user-mk3ue7bk3y]

به نام خدا با سلام ویدیو جذاب و جالبی بود ممنون

[@KallePihlajasaari]

This is great. I love the idea that you have used just one hightech tool to do everything. I lets the person starting out invest wisely on a very flexible machine that can do a lot of things AND make PCBs as well that are very presentable. I love your idea of the translucent spray lacquer. I will have to find out if such a custom spray can service exists in Finland, if Not I suppose I could use my vintage JennyCan to hold some paint. A mill can do much but the solder mask and legends will need some other techniques if all you have is a mill.

[@markharrington5826]

Yes that's the 3/4 of the trouble as thats exactly what they think which is why you do see the economy in the state its in never mind all the other major issues they cause

[@MkmeOrg]

Looks like I didnt leave a comment. Def the best on KZbin. Great Work. Cheers

[@Robonza]

thanks, I subbed you too

[@MrDJPETERLEWIS]

A great video , thank you for the insight. I found that I used the same type of paint and did exactly what you did but I am finding 2 things. I even tried 4 passes as low power but could not get to the copper colour, still shows a white very feint film , 2 the edges of the tracks looking using my phone on zoom looks like it is bubbled. I have tried the lower the power as much as possible with the same result. I have a 100 W C02. Your engraving looks so perfect. Thank you

[@Robonza]

Thanks. I spent a lot of time perfecting the machines performance years earlier. I think thats why I get good results. I cut and engraved paper and inspected with a microscope until it was best.

[@Scrogan]

The laser cuts holes surprisingly well, at least for a single-sided board. Less so for a 2-sided board. I’d suggests to ditch the arduino and go for a soldered-on ATmega/tiny MCU. The old mega16/32s and tiny84 series are the old go-to, but I’ve swapped to the tiny1614 series and will be trying the mega4808 series in my own motor driver soon. Sure you’d need a programmer board (which you can also make yourself) but the result is going to be a lot smaller and cheaper. Plus you could arguably get rid of a need for holes altogether. Your setup definitely has a lot of precision yet!

[@Robonza]

Good comment. Through hole is so good because I can do a firmware upgrade for dumb dumbs simply by plugging in a new Nano.

[@Bianchi77]

Nice video, keep it up, thank you :)

[@hstrinzel]

WOW incredibly good! VERY impressive home-made PCB! I always thought Laser cutters could only be used for wood and styrofoam. BRILLIANT VIDEO! Thank you! Probably takes a LOT of skill and learning to get it working THAT WELL! Did you invent it for yourself or get it from a book or so?

[@Robonza]

Thanks for the nice comment. I saw people doing average pcbs and being a competitive person I wanted to show how well it could be done for single sided pcb's

[@Tims_Projects]

Brilliant. Have you tried it for SMD, and soldered on a hotplate or oven?

[@Sanyesz855]

Hello! It was very perfect! Congratulations on the type of paint spray you used? You would help him a lot! Thanks Alexander

[@thejoetandy]

I'm so grateful for this, I hate relying on external services for stuff and now I can whip these up at home! Do you have a buy-me-a-coffee or something?

[@Robonza]

You are welcome mate, I got plenty off coffee haha. Sounds like you are having fun

[@apachebcn]

Very smart

[@Robonza]

Muchas gracias!

[@ssgsol]

THANKS for your vid! I am starting a large hobby project which requires a fair amount of PCB's. I was going to send them out for FAB, but that makes onesy prototypes nearly impossible[cost]. Here's my catch. I gotta have double-sided, with plated through holes. Can you offer thoughts on that? Thanks

[@kenbob9872]

Great Work! Thank you for sharing. Seems to me like lasers are a better option than CNC milling these days if you want a more professional looking board.

[@Robonza]

Cncs are incredible for some stuff but very noisy and messy.

[@amirajpal6382]

What's the minimum laser wattage do you need to cut the plate? and does it have to be a CO2 laser?

[@piotrcurious1131]

There are vids of ppl using lasers to precipate/electroplate copper from solutions. I wonder if this could allow to make vias - basically shine laser into the holes so copper would plate there. There are many ways to make decent PCB 's at home, but making vias is still very challenging.

[@oscarvatrano5951]

Fantastico 🇮🇹😀👍

[@universalreport1791]

I love the video

[@Robonza]

I love your comment, thanks!

[@abdullahrafiuddin1654]

I like it and i need it thanks

[@madrhino8543]

Шикарно!

[@JBSATE]

Lazer de 5w da pra fazer plaquinha retira tinta

[@colonelbarker]

Thank you so much for sharing, it's some great techniques, and much faster than drilling all the holes out by hand! Haha.. *sigh*

[@endinichimaru2351]

perfectly, make speechless

[@rickmccaskill7888]

Great video. I love what you have come up with. Could you explain the lacquer mix you use for solder max and how you got it in a spray can? Thank you.

[@Robonza]

I just went to a paint shop and they did it for me. I think it was 20 percent green and 80 percent clear lacquer

[@rickmccaskill7888]

@@Robonza do you think standard Rust-Oleum 352721 Automotive Premium Custom Lacquer Spray would work as well? Thank you.

[@Robonza]

Sure, it would work fine. I only made the translucent green to make it look cool. It does not "function" any better.

[@daffygrey]

@@Robonza I'm impressed with the look of the green solder mask, but does it truly function as a solder mask i.e. prevent solder bridging between pads in close proximity?

[@Robonza]

@@daffygrey Its nowhere near as good as a real solder mask but can you solder really nice like me haha?

[@fadywageeh2334]

How much is the laser power used when it was revealing the pads almost at the end of the video?

[@gtechninja]

thank you! but what file type did u used?

[@vodzurk]

Cool stuff! I don't see why it wouldn't work on my 5.5mw diode laser either... Just slower and more passes. So long as I can cut thru to the copper, the chemicals can make the rest of the hole... Awesome!

[@Robonza]

Just use ink instead of paint

[@Randrew]

I found a chart by searching "laser cutting vs wavelength" and it looks like our weaker laser diodes (~450 nm wavelength) might have as good or better chance of cutting the copper itself than Robonza's CO2 laser (~10000 nm wavelength) since copper absorbs much more of our shorter wavelength light. I'm gonna have to test that.

[@Robonza]

@@Randrew I would put the chances at zero. Its not so much the wavelength. Its speed/instantaneous power. e,g, look up femtosecond laser

[@Randrew]

@@Robonza Thanks. I will definitely study up and test all sorts of things. Those wavelength charts also imply I could cut through FR4 material (epoxy resin and glass fibers), which is yeah, pretty dubious.

[@tommo120]

Damn dude, they came out absolutely beautifully! How far do you think I'd get trying this with a 3W laser etcher? 😅

[@Robonza]

about 1 micron haha. Sorry I cant give you an optimistic answer

[@JB-20]

That's awesome! What is your laser module power output? Could you share some tips about the laser power output percentage and also the speed please?

[@Robonza]

Its a 60 watt Universal and you can see the settings at 3:45

[@JB-20]

@@Robonza Thanks for a quick response. Just wondering if it was running at full power during engraving, I can't see clearly the settings on the video so I raised my question. I am new to this method and wanted to learn some techniques. I've never seen such very wonderful result like yours here in YT. Not just beautiful as it looks but also very precise. Love it!

[@JB-20]

@@Robonza I review the video many times and it's really helpful. Have made few PCBs out of my 5500mW laser engraver with almost the same looks as you did. I made mine with a manual cut and drill though. Thanks a lot!

[@Robonza]

@@JB-20 well done, its not easy

[@ianhuxstep211]

Great video,I have been trying this method on my 40W laser but for some reason, when I try to engrave the paint it still leaves a residue, I don't get a clean copper finish, I've tried several settings from a light engrave 50mm at 5mA to 10mm at 10mA. even tried slightly defocused. it looks like every other line is unengraved paint. do you have any suggestions?

[@Robonza]

It sounds like your laser cutter is not well tuned. I spent time when I got mine getting it nice and precise.. Focus should be as sharp as you can make it. You should run around 100 percent power and 40 percent speed on a 40w for 3 passes. Check you are getting pure black and white when you engrave not speckle etc. Paint a thinner coat if needed.

[@ElectroMundo_oficial]

The best.

[@Robonza]

Comentário maravilhoso obrigado

[@Goodefine]

Very good. But there are several nuances. The paint must be heat-resistant and not be destroyed by soldering. The paint must also be resistant to solvents. It would be interesting to look at the board after soldering and de-fluxing.

[@limebulls]

Would this work with the K40 as well or is the laser too weak?

[@qusaywleed3829]

Hello....Can you explain in detail how the layers work in Corel Draw?

[@meltonermeltoner]

wow didn't know you can cant the holes with laser only !

[@codebeat4192]

Very nice result. It would be nice to get away from any chemical baths, I think that should be a real benifit of using laser. I wonder if you can reduce the steps if you use soldermask tape (no paint required) directly onto the pcb and cut away the copper (and the soldermask on the pads) you don't need. Is this an option or just a stupid idea?

[@thelabby9998]

It’s similar to do it with cnc router so maybe with enough power…

[@telmyrpires9160]

Boa tarde. Comprei um módulo de laser 40W para cnc, minha pergunta é: - Será possível fazer um trabalho tão bom quanto esse, com um módulo de laser de 40W? - Qual melhor spray para usar com o respectivo módulo de 40W?

[@Robonza]

You could use thinner paint or ink. You need to experiment. It might not cut the holes.

[@johannesfactotum2682]

Are the phenolic boards you cut bakelite? Wondering as that seems to be what I can find, but had heard bakelite doesn't cut well with co2 laser.

[@Robonza]

If its a brown colour it should be good. Everything works for me but fibreglass is much harder (normally light green)

[@user-pc2ev4fh7n]

It's were great

[@enduser9603]

i like your spray booth were can i buy one

[@ColinMacKenzieRobots]

The lacquer paint looks aesthetically like a solder mask, how does it hold up to the soldering step? Does the paint burn away if you hit it with solder unlike a real solder mask? (honest question). I know you can just buy real solder mask too and it would surely work with the laser, but if you can mix your own then bonus! Excellent video 💯

[@Robonza]

The paint is nowhere near as good as real solder mask but its good enough and does protect the copper

[@user-fw2mb4oj4h]

بسیار عالی 👌👌