Does anyone here have any experience with laser soldering?
This os interesting. (Watching)
I have seen a video from the guy that works on chilipeppr actually trying to make it work with solder paste. It has been a year ago or more.
No. I can’t say as I have. I made a cat toy out of a laser module once though. I got sick of buying the ones at Walmart. The switches always broke on those pieces of junk. Don’t judge the case. I made it before I had my CNC machine running. http://i.imgur.com/bkjJxZ6.jpg
@Paul_Frederick I think that laser won’t solder any part… but nice work creating your own stuff 
looks nice!
@Luis_Diaz Thanks. Yeah at 5mW it is not too powerful. I took it outside at night here though and it really shoots a dot far! I think it may actually be a bit more than 5mW? It could put the dot as far as I could see it, and probably further than that. There’s a tree line across the road from me about a mile away. So pretty far.
cool! never though it will be that far!!
@Luis_Diaz I was pretty impressed myself. I bet with some cooling and a decent power supply it could do even better. I want to get a laser head for my CNC someday. Nothing that can melt solder though. I’m thinking maybe 5W?
@Paul_Frederick 5 Watts is sufficient to solder. I have seen it done with 1.6 Watts.
@Robert_Ritchie my lowest powered iron is 40 Watts. I like to work hot, and fast.
@Paul_Frederick I take it you write in jest. Seriously Paul 5 watts of Coherent focussed Laser power irradiation on an area of a quarter of a millimetre squared is more than enough to perform rapid soldering of SMD components.
I was wrong. It was almost 3 years ago.
I was wrong. It was almost 3 years ago.
I was wrong. It was almost 3 years ago.
I was wrong. It was almost 3 years ago. https://youtu.be/T2h7hagVfnA
@Kyle_Kerr Thanks Kyle I watched the video with great interest. It appears that 3 Watts is more than adequate. The video has given me a few good ideas.I have a circuit board jig that will hold the PCB in a predefined position and I also have 3 watt Infrared Laser that might do better. Obviously I will have to PWM the Laser so I don,t burn the PCB.
@Robert_Ritchie How do you touch off X and Y with a laser? Like how do you get it to hit where you want it to hit?
@Paul_Frederick well my small laser has a home position and the PCB jig would have a set amount of offset to that. It will be a very interesting time over the next couple of months. You will be the first to see both my successes and failures right here.
@Robert_Ritchie I can see what you mean. But I can see that being tricky to setup. I just touch off about where I want stuff to happen. I’m usually not too finicky about alignment though. I usually have margin on work pieces. You know how it goes.
One could use a paper target a known distance from 0,0 of the board. I have seen a guy use paper targets to help him align his beam on his laser cutter.