An Interview with Brent of OSHstencils

Welcome Brent of OSHStencils!

• Chris and Brent first met at OHS Boston. The company started in July 2013
• Previously Brent had been ordering from OharaRP. Ryan has been on TAH before as well.
• The beginning stencils were Kapton / Polyimide. Thicknesses were either 3 or 5 mil.
• Low quality paste is a huge problem for stencils. The best past "rolls" like an ocean wave. Brent recommends (and sells) Kester products.
• Most traditional stencils are mounted to frames, with sizes like 23"x23" or 29"x29"
• One OSHStencils user did over 300 boards with a single kapton stencil! The recommended is maximum 25 - 50 uses.
• The minimum feature size for Kapton stencils is 5 mil in each direction. These are made with a CO2 laser (like an Epilog), which limits the low end of what can be done.
• The company was first formed as a potential OSHpark partner business, but that got sidelined when OSHpark had the opportunity to buy batchPCB. Laen has been on the show in the past as well!
• GerbV is the gerber viewing tool built into gEDA
• Mentioned previously on the show, OSHStencils now sells stainless steel stencils. These can have features as small as 1 mil.
• This requires a fiber laser from LPKF, which needed to be retrofitted to "trick" it into cutting stencils that weren't in frame.
• Terminology
  • Aperature - pad cutout
  • Kerf - diameter of laser beam
• Watching a video of paste application shows the "ocean" effect.
• You can find out more and order your own stencils over at OSHStencils.com. Or email them for custom requests (either listen to the show for the address or go through the site contact page)