I remember seeing a commercial for the “Cricut†and thinking “wow, this is fablab level equipment!†Instructables member opendous has done inspring work here, by turning a ’sticker machine’ into a professional mylar solderpaste stencil cutter that can do TQFP-scale. You can cut mylar stencils on a laser cutter but I find it requires kerf-tweaking since the mylar melts a little.
I would be -really- interested to see if its possible to make SMT single layer boards using such a device using the ‘fablab’ copper-sheet cutting technique. For $400 I imagine the machine is probably reasonable quality and can have the cutter easily replaced. CNC desktop fabrication is slowly making its way into homes…
