Homebrew PCBs

At 05:56 PM 12/9/02 -0500, JanRwl@... wrote:

>I have another question for this group, while I'm "here":  I "rough-cut" FR-4
>on a bandsaw, using 14-TPI "woodworking" blades.  If fresh, a cut of just 1"
>through that will "total" a blade for woodworking.  I do this actually too
>infrequently to warrant looking at carbide- or "bimetal" blade-stock.
>HOWEVER, it is a royal pain in the gluteæ to hafta change blades!  Does
>anyone have a suggestion for BETTER rough-cutting FR-4 ("glass") stock?

Before we got a shear, we used a radial arm saw with a carbide tipped blade 
(still do for ripping 4' x 3' sheet stock down to a size that the shear is 
happy with).  Before that, it was a strictly manual process using an Olfa 
'P Cutter'.  This is a cutter shaped something like a lino knife, except 
with a smaller blade that is replaceable.  The blade can also be 
re-sharpened many times.

In use, just use a metal straight edge as a guide and pull the knife along 
several times.  The blade material is tough enough to score glass epoxy PCB 
material with no problem.  I recall that I'd take 4 or 5 heavy passes 
before snapping the boards apart.

One advantage is that it generates only a little dust.

dwayne



--
Dwayne Reid   <dwayner@...>
Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd    Edmonton, AB, CANADA
(780) 489-3199 voice          (780) 487-6397 fax

Celebrating 18 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2002)
  .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-.   .-
     `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'   `-'
Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address.
This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited
commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email.