Hi Tom,
Good info! I only recently found some of this out. If John is cutting
CEM-1 PCB material, then I wonder why it is so hard on his end mills?
We are purchasing surplus material, so it's hard to always know what the
PCB's are made of. Especially if it's double sided! My intent is to
find board that would be easy on the endmills and drills. I noticed
that the phenolic I cut last weekend appeared to cut with an easy, soft
chip, while the G10 raised a lot of dust, fine white powder chip, and I
assume wasn't easy on the cutter!
Your prices sound good, but I doubt if I need 36" x 48"!
Alan KM6VV
twb8899 wrote:
>
> The beige or tan colored opaque laminate is called CEM-1. It is paper
> based and easy on the drill bits. This type of laminate can be scored
> and snapped apart. Very little dust is made using this method.
>
> G-10 and FR-4 laminates are the same except FR-4 has a fire resistant
> rating. Not much G-10 copper clad laminate is made these days. G-10
> has a white or gray colored water mark and FR-4 always has a red
> water mark. Some FR-4 will have a slight yellow color. This is used
> to block UV light in photoimageable soldermask applications and
> doesn't change the electrical properties of the material.
>
> It's been over a year since I have purchased any laminate but the
> square foot price I paid was $2.35 for FR-4 and around $1.50 for CEM-
> 1. This was for 36" x 48" sheets and 18" x 24" panels.
>
> Hope this info helps.
>
> Tom