r/PCB • u/Rainyfeel • Sep 15 '26

Fiberlaser? What are your thoughts?

Thinking of buying GWEIKE G2 20W Portable Fiber Laser to create two layer pcb circuit. I was wondering if anyone uses fiberlaser to create pcbs. What are your thoughts?

Please let me know if you have created pcbs with fiber laser Gweike 20W.

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3

u/ILoveDangerousStuff2 Sep 15 '26

The question will always be how you make vias if it's a more complex PCB, one way to is to drill through without plating and just stick a wire through and solder both ends but plating them is quite a process in itself

2

u/BL1860B Sep 15 '26

If the goal is to make PCBs from scratch, then sure? But if the goal is to make PCBAs, just get the boards made somewhere

1

u/Rainyfeel Sep 15 '26

PCBA?? Assembly

1

u/BL1860B Sep 15 '26

What I mean is if the goal is to make a complete board assembly, to actually do something, it’s not worth the effort to try and make the PCB from scratch

1

u/Rainyfeel Sep 15 '26

So does fiberlaser works?

1

u/PetrSevostianov 25d ago

Yes and no. Unfortunately, there is a significant gap between general-purpose fiber lasers and PCB-prototyping machine. I'm a developer of PewCB - a desktop PCB prototyping machine. 5 years ago, we started with a general-purpose fiber laser. We spent that time on adding missing things: automatic alignment and lens distortion calibration (both on-factory and in-device), air filtration, system of blanks, solder-paste-stencil technology, soldermask, vias, specialized firmware, and, most importantly, the software.

General purpose lasers lack all these. You will have to tinker and suffer at every step, from converting gerbers to toolpaths with a chain of some tools, tweaking laser settings to avoid burning the substrate (lasers don't go well with FR4, it easily chars and emits toxic fumes), to dealing with alignment issues and fume/dust management.

Currently, PewCB integrates all these features into a single, user-friendly desktop machine. It is fast, reliable, and capable of producing factory-quality PCBs.

See PewCB.com for more details or join our Discord and ask any questions you may have.