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

A diamond blade band saw for stained glass works good and a small
scroll saw works even better if you can find the diamond blades. Many
years ago I picked up a broken diamond band saw blade from a glass
shop and cut it in pieces for use on my scroll saw. I brazed small
tips on each end to allow clamping in the scroll saw. This setup
really works good and I have been using this same blade and saw for
over fifteen years.

Another idea is to use a pin router. The router tool is fixed over
head and a pin is pushed into the table after drilling a hole in line
with the router head. The table pin should be the same diameter as
the router bit. The router head is lowered until the bit just clears
the table mounted pin. A fixture is made from masonite, plastic or
other easy to machine material. Line up and clamp the fixture to a
drilled board and use at least two existing holes in the board as a
guide to drill into the template. Make the fixture holes slightly
smaller and use cut to length drill rods for pins. The board will now
fit over these pins and can be pushed along to table mounted pin and
routed.

Now you have a device to rapidly cut your finished boards to size.
A fence can also be used for making straight cuts. This beats
shearing if you are making more than a few boards. Almost any shape
can be cut. You can also stack up to three boards on this type of
fixture depending on the spindle power. I have even seen this done
on a regular drill press using the highest spindle speed. With this
arrangement you can even route internal holes and shapes if the
spindle can be moved up and down.

Tom