Cutting blank PCB's to size

[Clifford Heath]

Yep, pretty hard on the tools. Fibreglass boards are pretty hard on
standard HSS drill bits too. Tungsten Carbide tipped generally tends to
last longer.

You can save the plane and use a bench-mounted belt sander or even a
disk sander to true-up the edges. Works a treat, but wear a facemask.

 

[Alan Rutlidge]

You can save the plane and use a bench-mounted belt sander or even a
disk sander to true-up the edges. Works a treat, but wear a facemask.

For small runs I just clamp the PCB and run a mill file over the edges and
vacuum up the dust.
Still not overly keen on the score and snap method, but if the tracks aren't
too fine near the board edges it shouldn't become an issue.

Oh the joys of DIY

Cheers,
Alan

 

[dmm]

Are you sure of that?
What are the optimum respective cutting angles for shear blades for
metal and fibreglass?

Did you read the first 17 words of my sentence? Emphasis on "small number of cuts".

 

[Terry Collins]

Did you read the first 17 words of my sentence? Emphasis on "small number of cuts".

Yep, you made a fudge statement that I know from various cutting
devices isn't necessarily true. some blades do not like even being near
foreign material.

 

[Jason S]

Yep, pretty hard on the tools. Fibreglass boards are pretty hard on
standard HSS drill bits too. Tungsten Carbide tipped generally tends to
last longer.

Cheers,
Alan

Thanks guys.

 

[Mark Harriss]

Yep, pretty hard on the tools. Fibreglass boards are pretty hard on
standard HSS drill bits too. Tungsten Carbide tipped generally tends to
last longer.

Cheers,
Alan

Hi Alan,

I found it depended on what speed you ran the drills at: TC drills run
well in a fast PCB drill but I find they snap easily and are expensive.
I found wire gauge HSS drill in a normal drill press last for quite a
long time but burn out and go blunt in a Dremel almost immediately.

Even at the fastest speed of a small tabletop press they seem to go on
forever and do drill fast: I retired some last month from bluntness. I'd
estimate they did close to 1000 holes minimum.

 

[dmm]

Yep, you made a fudge statement that I know from various cutting
devices isn't necessarily true. some blades do not like even being near
foreign material.

True enough for the foreign material. To answer your previous post first, it's been >25yrs
since I was working with a 10' sheet metal guillotine, and I don't recall the blade angle exactly, but
it must have been only a degree or two. Much greater than that and the grips that held the metal
down on the bed during the cut would allow the metal to rotate along the cut, and you'd have a
curved cut instead of a straight cut. I wouldn't have a clue what the angle would be for a guillotine
that specialises cutting copper/fibreglass laminates, as I've never seen one, but someone here
may be able to tell us. But then again, it's not really relevant to the original post, is it?

The op'er has the option of either taking someone's advice or rejecting it. He can take his
boards to a sheetmetal shop, or a pcb manufacturer (they do still exist in Australia), cut
it with a knife and a ruler, nibbler, etc, so long as he can get it done with the minimum of fuss.