Homebrew PCBs

I use a hand lever shear, like this one:
<http://www.schaller-maschinen-ag.ch/Handhebelblechschere_001.jpg>

they are relatively cheap compared to bench shears that have a long blade.  
The material can run through with some bending for long cuts.
It seems shear-type cutting lasts with FR4, any sawing is a pain unless  
you use carbide blades.

Used handheld shears before that.

A small circular saw with a carbide blade (full blade not only teeth  
inserts) did make the best cuts for me, but lotsa noise and dust. I don't  
want to have to don a spacesuit with earmuffs only to cut a PCB, so the  
lever shear it is...

ST


On Sun, 30 Apr 2006 18:33:18 +0200, William Kroyer  
<william.kroyer@...> wrote:

>  This may seem like a silly and basic question but, I've got a bunch of
>
> 36"X48" sheets
>
> of FR4 that I need to cut down.  Nothing I've tried seems to work.  At
>
> least not for long.
>
> Initially, I tried just using my jig saw with a metal cutting blade on
>
> it.  I went through 2
>
> and only got about 1/4" out of each.  Then I tried just using my
>
> router.  I killed the bit
>
> but was able to cut up 1.5 sheets before doing so.  Today I picked up
>
> some 7" cut-off
>
> wheels for my circular saw.  Each wheel cut about 24" each before
>
> tearing itself free
>
> of the mount.
>
>
>   Any suggestions? I know for smaller pieces I could probably use a
>
> paper cutter as a
>
> cutting shear but I don't know I'm going to get these large pieces cut  
> down.