Homebrew_PCBs

There was a discussion recently about how tough circuit board is to
machine and how quickly it damages the cutters. I noticed that
McMaster-Carr has copper clad phenolic board at what looks like a
reasonable price. Would this phenolic board be easier to cut than
glass-epoxy board?

At 01:30 PM 7/22/02 +0000, rschlierbeck wrote:

>There was a discussion recently about how tough circuit board is to
>machine and how quickly it damages the cutters. I noticed that
>McMaster-Carr has copper clad phenolic board at what looks like a
>reasonable price. Would this phenolic board be easier to cut than
>glass-epoxy board?

Yes - MUCH easier. But keep in mind that it is also more fragile - it is
brittle and you should not mount heavy items on the PCB unless they are
*well* supported.

Most consumer electronics items are manufactured with phenolic PCBs.

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)
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Hi to the list,

I'm back from the U.K. and also my (too short) vacation, and anxious to
get 'cuttin!

Just before I left (about a month ago), I cut some small PCB's for a
digitizer probe I built, and the first pieces I cut were Phenolic (some
scrap that I had). Search for my earlier commends "G10 dust".

I wouldn't mind finding some more!

Alan KM6VV

> From: "rschlierbeck" <scott@...>
> Subject: Easy to machine circuit board?
>
> There was a discussion recently about how tough circuit board is to
> machine and how quickly it damages the cutters. I noticed that
> McMaster-Carr has copper clad phenolic board at what looks like a
> reasonable price. Would this phenolic board be easier to cut than
> glass-epoxy board?
>

In a message dated 22-Jul-02 08:31:01 Central Daylight Time,
scott@... writes:

> Would this phenolic board be easier to cut than
> glass-epoxy board?

Yes. The cutters will last longer, provided that is not "glass-fiber
reinforced phenolic". It is the glass fibers in FR-4 that do-up cutters!
ONLY solid carbide drill-bits or router-bits can even be CONSIDERED to mill
glass-epoxy!


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

More what Phenolic....I got lots of it....

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Marconett KM6VV [mailto:KM6VV@...]
Sent: Monday, July 22, 2002 6:02 PM
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Easy to machine circuit board?


Hi to the list,

I'm back from the U.K. and also my (too short) vacation, and anxious to
get 'cuttin!

Just before I left (about a month ago), I cut some small PCB's for a
digitizer probe I built, and the first pieces I cut were Phenolic (some
scrap that I had). Search for my earlier commends "G10 dust".

I wouldn't mind finding some more!

Alan KM6VV

> From: "rschlierbeck" <scott@...>
> Subject: Easy to machine circuit board?
>
> There was a discussion recently about how tough circuit board is to
> machine and how quickly it damages the cutters. I noticed that
> McMaster-Carr has copper clad phenolic board at what looks like a
> reasonable price. Would this phenolic board be easier to cut than
> glass-epoxy board?
>

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JanRwl@... wrote:

>
>
>Yes. The cutters will last longer, provided that is not "glass-fiber
>reinforced phenolic". It is the glass fibers in FR-4 that do-up cutters!
>ONLY solid carbide drill-bits or router-bits can even be CONSIDERED to mill
>glass-epoxy!
>

Reminds me when I went to cut a 900mm length of FR4 using a jigsaw.
After about 3/4 of the way through the HSS blade was concave, with
almost no middle teeth remaining. Carbide tooth jigsaw blades are
available. A bit pricey but they probably last a hobbyist for ever.