Re: circuit board makers

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "Terry Fritz" <twftesla-at-qwest-dot-net>

Hi Ken,

I think most circuit board shops will cut the board for you too...

"I" just draw a line and cut outside it with a hacksaw and then use a 
little palm sander to bring in the edge.  The belt sander can "fix" 
anything too.    I just clamp the board over the edge of the bench and 
clamp it down with wood and C-clamps.  Works perfectly well for me.  It 
does make fiberglass dust which may bother some people...  Never bothered 
me in the least.

If you really need a "perfect" cut, if the pizza cutter at the board shop 
just is not there, if water jet is just too messy...   Find a pal with a 
milling machine.  A 3/16 cobalt cutter and a mill would make it a trivial 
task.  Perfectly straight and like 0.001 inch tolerances then ;-))  Even a 
real for pay machine shop would probably cut it for "real cheap".  Two 
minutes setup, two minutes cut, two minute to shop vac...  If you can 
provide say 0.200 inch holes and other alighning marks to speed setup 
(machinist like that ;-)) and screw it to a wood block (make it easy to 
mount in the mill vise) then set up and cutting is like 60 seconds ;-))  If 
you tell them it is for a Tesla coil and the details of what you are doing, 
they will probably forget to charge you ;-))

You could make a real good home mill with any small mill cutter, an cheap 
X-Y "cross" vise from Harbor Freight or Sears, and any drill press that 
could easily chop a PC board to remarkable tolerances.  However, your 10 
inch dimension is a little big for a little mill without remounting.

Any milling machine and some thought about how to mount the PC board in it 
should give you perfect cuts and low cost...  Of course, if you solidly 
mount the boards all on top of each other, a mill can do like 10 boards at 
one time...

So, I am not sure what you are up to or need there, but it sounds like a 5 
minute milling machine task worst case...

Cheers,

         Terry


At 10:23 PM 11/20/2002 -0600, you wrote:
>Are there any places like pcb123-dot-com or whatever that will CUT up yout
>finished boards to the size you want? I"m looking for some boards around 2"
>x 10" or so.
>
>I'm not going to pay to have a circuit board made if  I have to take a hack
>saw to it to give it the "finishing touches." I can make awful, distorted
>crooked boards at home already, and want to do nothing but solder parts to a
>proerly made board.
>
>KEN