Dahlgren 300z test cut of a solder paste stencil

April 12, 2021


I decided to see how good or bad the Dahlgren System 300z is at engraving by doing a test cut for a solder paste stencil.



It's using a 60 degree carbide engraving bit on FR4 0.047in copper clad pcb. The pads are for a QFN48 which are 0.3 x 0.55 mm (~12 x 22 thou).


Test cut at low zoom


Test cut at high zoom




I'm quite impressed! I'm not sure if there is any backlash on the x and y axis (the controller currently doen't do any backlash correction).



DeclaraCAD generated gcode


The stencil was created from a Horizon-EDA project and the G-Code was generated and sent using DeclaraCAD (still a work in progress) to the stm32 running Zig firmware.


Will be interesting to see if it can cut through 5 thou thick stainless to actually make a stencil.


Stay tuned!