Homebrew PCBs

> Is the purpose of the shear to cut PCB's?

Yes.

> It's instruction manual says it will shear up to 20ga metal, which
> is 0.035in. Seems that if I were to get a shear (and I have thought
> about it), I'd want to cut 0.062in PCB material, which the model
> referenced below will not do . . . unless I'm missing something?

On other shears, they break the max thickness down by type - steel,
copper, aluminum.  Softer metals allow a thicker piece.  One would
assume that something as "soft" as FR4 could easily be cut with such a
tool, even if twice as thick as steel.

> What thickness of board are you talking about?

1/16" (0.062") as these are commercial boards. For my own boards, I
use two layers of 0.010" prepreg clad, which I can cut on a regular
paper cutter before adhering together.  Between those, the tape, and
the copper, it works out to be about 0.31" thick.