I make prototype pc boards, with several experiments on one board, for circuits that are not reasonable to Dremel. Production will build them for me, but not if I slice them into sections first.
Maybe this cute little table saw with a thin carbide blade would cut them up after they are stuffed. I seldom put parts on the bottom.
Yep, I have a similar tabletop saw from Minitool. You are right about needing to fit the right kind of blade for fiber-glass pcbs. It is slower than snapping a pre-scored or routed breakouts but does the job OK.
piglet
I use a cheap tile saw. It already comes with a diamond blade, and the water keeps the nasty glass dust to a minimum.
-- RoRo
Looks nice.
The 10mm arbor is kind of small for the milling machine solid carbide slitting saw blades. I think 16mm is standard in 60mm (also 50/63mm) dia.
Probably could make a part or two on the lathe to bush it up use standard metric slitting saws eg. 60mm x 0.8mm. Standard sizes in 60mm are 0.3/0.4/0.5/0.8/1.0/1.2/1.5/2/2.5/3/3.5/4/5mm
-- Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
If I specify v-score, some of the crabbier pcb houses whine that I am trying to get lots of boards for the price of one. Some do that anyhow.
I used to shear them up and then build by hand, but some of the leadless and BGA parts need to be assembled on the big pick-and place, and cutting up in advance messes up the programming.
Also V-groove scored edges are ragged and have skin-irritating fibers sticking out. A clean cut might avoid most of that.
-- Best regards, Spehro Pefhany
mandag den 25. januar 2021 kl. 23.21.55 UTC+1 skrev Spehro Pefhany:
a diamond blade cut FR4 like butter
You mean they can't tell just by looking at the boards?
We have a sort of pizza cutter that does pretty good on v-scores, but it still is a little ragged. Sanding helps, if you don't mind that hazard.
We're ordering the saw, so we'll get one of those too. The kit comes with the carbide toothed saw.
I expect them to charge by area and layers and drills and stuff. The circuits are none of their business.
tirsdag den 26. januar 2021 kl. 01.16.23 UTC+1 skrev John Larkin:
if your boards had v-score between the boards they would have to more scoring, so look at the extra charge as charge for scoring more than the outline of the area you paid for ;)
The hazard exists in the dust from a carbide saw, too; you'll want a good air movement and filtering setup... glass fiber isn't pleasant if it gets onto skin. A shop-vac should be dedicated to such a saw.
A cheaper, more hobbyist choice than John's saw might be the $70 wet abrasive tile saw from HarborFreight. Takes care of the dust, handles up to 7" wide cuts and being HF, I'm sure coupons come along regularly.
-- Regards, Carl
Sure, charge for scoring. But don't charge as if they were separate board orders.
That looks interesting. I like that price.
We bought a different one that is quite a bit more expensive:
I do like the byrnes. I've made some very precise PCB cuts with it.
s
ood air
rasive
ide cuts
My lifelong experience with tiny, miniature tools is they rapidly become too small.
Nothing wrong with the tool - the fault is in the user, who gets more ambitious. Whether this is a good idea depends on the exact physics involved, which can be complicated.
-- Bill Sloman, Sydney
We ordered one, with both the carbide and diamond saws. I'll let the group know how it works.
We can use a shop vac to slurp up the dust. We wouldn't use this saw often, just to chop up loaded prototype boards. I have an old hane shear that I use to cut up copperclad FR4, or un-stuffed proto boards. I'm not allowed to use the good foot shear on epoxy-glass. I own it, but the machinist guy is bigger than me. He does let me use the bandsaw to cut up Tartine sourdough.
-- John Larkin Highland Technology, Inc The best designs are necessarily accidental.
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