On Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:31:04 +0100, jpanhalt <
janhalt@...> wrote:
> I don't want to dampen your spirits, but FR4 is surprisingly
> abrasive. Even with a 3-foot, heavy-duty sheetmetal shear (PEXTO),
> it can dull the blade for other purposes. I worked in a shop once
> that kept two such shears for that reason, one for FR4 and the other
> for everything else. It is quick and does do a nice job, though.
> John
While that is true, i have found shearing causes surprisingly little wear
compared to other ways of cutting it (say for example with some kind of
saw).
I use a lever-operated shear similar to this one for my boards:
<
http://www.schaller-maschinen-ag.ch/Handhebelschere_002.jpg>
The blade is long enough for most cuts (and you can feed through for
longer ones). It's far cheaper than a wide bench shear, i have seen those
starting at 50eur. I'm not worried at all that i could put any significant
amount of wear on the blades in my lifetime, and replacements are fairly
cheap (around 10 or 15 eur, but those will probably not fit my shear).
Before that i used a handheld sheetmetal shear and that still cuts paper.
If you do many, many boards it probably pays soon to have two shears, but
i doubt that you will do damage to your shear if you use it for a board
every now and then.
ST