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Vintage threads from the first ten years

Re: Which Materials for Turret Boards

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4/15/2000 10:19 PM
Brian	Re: Which Materials for Turret Boards Where can you get G-10 type board? I noticed Swamp and Hoffman amps sells 3.125 inch strips of it, but is there a place like McMaster that I can order a larger sheet. I haven't tried any local plastic stores where I live, yet, but wondered if there was site online to compare prices/buy.

4/16/2000 6:05 PM
Stuart	Re: Where to buy? Here are some laminate manufacturers: Nelco Polyclad Isola They probably won't be interested in selling to an individual, but they should be able to refer you to a distributor. Your best bet might be to ask for some FR4 offcuts at a PCB shop, or see if they will sell you some. FR4 is the flame-retardent verison of G10.

4/15/2000 10:40 PM
MJ Harnish	Re: Which Materials for Turret Boards I've also used a powered jigsaw with a multi-purpose blade. It works fine but you end up ruining the blade pretty quick. I've also used a dremel tool's abrasive cutting disk in a pinch and that works fine but obviously isn't the most efficient way to make a cut. MJ

4/17/2000 5:27 AM

Bryan Prud'Homme

Gil, I have the feeling that I may be the person you describe as having a hell of a time cutting G10. When I first tried cutting the stuff I got sparks, smoke and ugly black stuff all over the place, not to mention all the teeth breaking off the saw blades. After switching to metal cutting blades I had a little more success, but at that time I was cutting only a few small boards, but still destroying blades even at slow speeds. When it came time to cut a bunch of boards including large boards I tried several blades that sucked including cheap carbide blades with poor results. However, late last week I got some good carbide coated blades that work extremely well, even at high speed. They cut this stuff as if it were wood. When buying carbide blades, get the better ones with good build up on the edge, and avoid the super cheapies.

I agree with Gil that G10 is very desirable material from which to build boards. My stock came from a local plastics seller, but it was not cheap. He had G10 in 3' x 4'x 1/8" sheets at $120 per sheet. The only cheaper dealer is 35 miles away and would have save me only $20. Bryan Prud'Homme

4/17/2000 4:43 PM

Sure Brian, you ARE the one I described.

I must admit I am very surprised to hear that you guys had all this trouble. I built not one or two, but THREE amps, and I made some scrap boards in the process, always using this $2 blade I got for my trusty $30 jigsaw that I pickp up at Home Deport (or was it Orchad Supply?). I bought the saw for the amp project and my only criterion for the selection was: which one is the cheapest?!

The blade (singular) I used is still in perfect shape, and I am sure it would be good enough to make at least another three amps with mutliple boards each.

Gil

quote:
"Gil, I have the feeling that I may be the person you describe as having a hell of a time cutting G10. When I first tried cutting the stuff I got sparks, smoke and ugly black stuff all over the place, not to mention all the teeth breaking off the saw blades. After switching to metal cutting blades I had a little more success, but at that time I was cutting only a few small boards, but still destroying blades even at slow speeds. When it came time to cut a bunch of boards including large boards I tried several blades that sucked including cheap carbide blades with poor results. However, late last week I got some good carbide coated blades that work extremely well, even at high speed. They cut this stuff as if it were wood. When buying carbide blades, get the better ones with good build up on the edge, and avoid the super cheapies.

I agree with Gil that G10 is very desirable material from which to build boards. My stock came from a local plastics seller, but it was not cheap. He had G10 in 3' x 4'x 1/8" sheets at $120 per sheet. The only cheaper dealer is 35 miles away and would have save me only $20. Bryan Prud'Homme
"

4/16/2000 6:31 PM

To cut the stuff, most small PCB shop use a 36" or 48" sheet metal shear.
A jig-saw is OK but the trick is to clamp the material on the cutting bench in such a way to prevent it from vibrating with a piece of wood and c-clamps. Use a fine toothed metal blade and a somewhat slow speed if possible.
I found that putting a piece of masking tape on both side of the material goes a long way in getting a cleaner cut.
While we are at it...
Cut aluminium with a bench or radial saw, using carbide teethed blades. If all you have is a jig saw-saw,use a rough cutting blade, say 12 teeth to an inch CLAMP THE MATERIAL! and start slow! do not allow it to vibrate, WHAT happens is that a thooth will catch in the material and the stuff will simply shake with the blade. This is also very hard on the mechanism of the saw.
Cuting perspex, acrylic etc...
Use a fine metal blade, put masking tape on both side, and put some CRISCO or other vegetable baking
grease on the blade!! go for it, put a lot and often
Yes it will make a mess! but it can be cleaned with windex do not use alcohol, I use soapy water with dish soap.
What happens is the plastic heats up quite a bit with the friction of the blade, it melts, and solidifies right behind the blade. So when you cut, you are actualy welding it back!
The masking tape prevent this somewhat, but the lard does the trick. Also, the dust does not stick as much because of static electricity!
Luc

4/17/2000 3:10 PM

G 10 boards

I have been having a hell of time in production with those, but I found a solution with I think will be interesting for you guys. The solution lies in the board using the same design as old Marshall plexis, but here the catch Vector doesn't mmake those board anymore, and moreover the hole sizes of the grid are too small for the Keystone turrets we use and the grid size is too small, only .1 separation between the holes, so I had CUSTOM ORDERED, G 10 boards from one of the suppliers with a grid of 0.250 between the holes and 3/32 diameter of the holes, to fit our belowed turrets, more, the board dimentions are 4.5X8.5 inches, the look of the board is the same as old Marshall plexi, look at Obsolete electronics web site, also it is much easier to cut through the board when it perforatied and it makes a clean cut and looks very pro. If anybody interested I can sell those to you at about $13.50 each, the price will not include shipping. In the future I will lower the price to about $10 bucs each, due the bigger run of the board from the company I am using. As you all know the set up cost was added on to the first run. Let me know you guys think.
Mike Kach
M&G amplification

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