homemade solder stencils

Last update: Mon Mar 25 02:21:19 2024

That will be easy : how to make your own PCB Solder Stencils at home for small boards.

How-to

Eagle/Kicad

1) In Eagle, use CAM job and export the (t|b)Cream layer and the Board shape auto-layer. You get a .GRB file (Paste_Top.GRB if you choose the right Function but name is irrelevant).

2)Then in Gerbv load that .GRB file only and choose File > Export > SVG ...

Laser cut

Stencil edit

You can edit the stencil by first "ungroupping" it, and then it's just a bunch of shapes you can edit/remove.

Laser Settings

I use my small laser cutter (5W laser). Just import the SVG file and use these settings:

20mm/s

95% power

Constant intensity

3 passes

So why these settings and 3 passes instead of 1 slower? Because these settings give super clean cut with no burn mark at all. 1 pass is not enough to cut, 2 might be enough, 3 is. And at this speed, small board with 1-2 SMD MCU or other chip should take about 1min or less so ... who cares.

The stencil

That's the interesting part: MtG Magic the Gathering cards! Bought 15 kg(!) of them for a song a couple years ago. Finally found a use for these tens of copies of extra common cards. And result is perfect for one offs. I imagine you can reuse the stencil a couple of times, but considering the time and cost, it doesn't bug me to make one each time I would do a batch.

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