Homebrew PCBs

Peter,

You’re going to wear your punch very fast as FR4 is loaded with glass which is very abrasive.
Unless you can have a very high resistance punch which would cost hundreds of dollars.

I used a punch press to cut boards in a previous job. The wear of the punches and dies were very costly.
so we replaced the whole process by a router. But that was for 0.062” FR4. You have also to make sure that
there is no copper in the cut area.

Jean-Paul
AC9GH


On May 10, 2014, at 8:31 PM, Peter Johansson rockets4kids@gmail.com [Homebrew_PCBs] <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com> wrote:

> I have a project idea that would require hundreds (possibly thousands)
> of very small PCBs, each one being a circle approx. 1/2 inch in
> diameter. Does anyone know if it would be possible to punch them out
> of thin FR4 with a punch press? That is, use the material that is
> normally discarded when punching out a hole.
> 
> Aside from that, what (if any) are the issues with using thin (0.010"
> - 0.030") PCB material in general?
> 
> -p.
> 
>