Re: [sdiy] Plastic Panels.. why not pcb?

[Roman]

I've used PCB laminate as enclosure matrerial for years.
The smallest was 1cm square cube for battery cells,
the biggest - top part of the case of my unfinished
7.5-octave keyboard (that thing is 1.4m long)
You can do miracles with it if you know how to use it.
It's light, can be soldered, copper-free side can be nicely
finished and it's cheap.
Why don't I use it anymore? Because it was killing me!
Every time you file it or cut it, or even worse - sand it,
small particles of glass come into your lungs and may probably
cause some serious illnes (can someone say cancer?), they make
you cough all day after you make serious work with it.
And it's not so strong anyway. I only made 2 modular panels
with 2.5mm epoxy before I switched into brass, and then
aluminium.
I don't even make PCBs at home now and if I have to cut it,
I use scisors. I hate that stuff.

Roman

---- Wiadomość Oryginalna ----
Od: denshi <denshiblocks at yahoo.com>
Do: David Reichert <dreichert at sympatico.ca>, synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
Data: Tue, 30 Dec 2003 23:49:13 -0800 (PST)
Temat: [sdiy] Plastic Panels.. why not pcb?

>ive been fascinated with plastic panels myself, mainly
>for the purpose of lighting them - but one thing i
>think might be very interesting is using the copper
>clad fiberglass material that pcbs are made from. 
>sort of a case of the panel reflecting the contents
>^_^  its also very strong, and can be etched with
>panel legends if you are feeling industrious.  seems
>to be pretty cheap at surplus, and practically free if
>you feel like scraping used pcbs.  
>
>i seem to recall a william gibson novel foretelling
>the use of pcb material for shanty towns in the
>future... hmm
>
>anyway, its a material i will be looking at using for
>future projects
>
>seth 
>
>
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