Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

I am no t sure about the best cutter, but have an almost free solution to the problem. I have been using a homemade cutter for PCBs recently, and it works fairly well. I have a number of solid carbide PCB drills that have broken, leaving a 1/8" diameter carbide drill rod about 1" long. I chucked these in my lathe and used an angle grinder with abrasive blade to grind a point on the end of the rod. I used an angle of about 45 degrees, but that is not critical. Then I carefully ground a flat on one side of the point, stopping as close to the exact center as possible. A diamond file was used to make the final flat as sharp as possible. The resulting cutter is capable of cutting the copper to about a .010-.015 width. The edges do have a bit of a burr, but this can be removed with an exacto knife or light sanding. An exacto knife may be required to remove any copper bits left in the cuts preventing shorted traces.

Bob


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