Homebrew PCBs

I use a 0.0625" cross-hatch carbide routing burr in a 30KRPM laminate edge 
router on a CNC drilling machine to route the edges after drilling, leaving 
small tabs for easy separation. The burr makes a nice smooth edge. After 
separation, a little 120-grit sand paper smooths off the tab remnants 
easily.

Never thought about using a hand plane. I should think depth of cut would be 
critical, i.e. you would want a VERY shallow cut. And a VERY sharp blade.
--
Phil M.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Will Price" <will.price94@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 1:25 PM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Tidying up circuit boards after cutting


>I thought I'd just post this tip I found out a while ago when I was in the
> workshop cutting out some boards and tuning some plane blades...
>
> After rough cutting a circuit board to size, you can use a hand plane 
> (e.g.
> http://fingerlakesguitarrepair.com/media/tuning%20a%209%2012%20stanley%20block%20plane/1.0%20stanley%20nine%20and%20a%20half%20block%20plane%20tune%20up.jpg)
> to neaten the edges, turns out FR4 is even nicer to plane than wood...
> who'd have known!?
>
> I'm not sure how hard it's on the blade, but a couple of swipes resulted 
> in
> a glassy finish. I used a number 4 as it was what I had at hand at the
> time, but a smaller block plane like the one above would be easier to use,
> or perhaps a little bull nose plane (though they're more expensive than
> block planes which can be had for a couple of pounds at a car boot sale).
>
> Anyone else got any unexpectedly effective ways of either cutting or
> tidying up boards?
> -- 
> Will
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
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