Message	Date	From	Subject
9935	2014-04-21 13:03:06	Mike Czuhajewski	Cutting PCB material with a benchtop shear
Brooke Clarke mentioned using a 12" benchtop shear for cutting PCB material.and included a link to his web page where he described it's use. (The original thread was "Scoring PCBs to be broken apart".) Chuck Adams, K7QO, uses the same item (Enco #130-5700) and talked about it some time ago on the QRP-TECH forum on Yahoo. If you want to see his description of it you can find it in chapter 6 ("The Shear") of his lab notebook. He goes into somewhat more detail about it. You can download his notebook at-- http://www.k7qo.net/lab.pdf The title is "K7QO's QRP Lab Notebook" and it covers a number of homebrew topics that he discussed on QRP-TECH over the years. (If you already downloaded it you might want to do it again; it's been revised a few times and the current version is 4.20, dated March 15, 2014.) The shear is not cheap (somewhat over $100 plus shipping), not small (the lever is about 3 feet long) and not light (about 60 pounds), but everyone who has one swears by it. And now that I'm no longer working at a company that has a large sheet metal shear I'll probably get one of these myself. (You can find it online at www.use-enco.com and search for the item number. They also have smaller ones although it's probably best to get this one, which is the largest; click on the master catalog page to see them.)
9936	2014-04-21 14:53:24	Ed Manuel	Re: Cutting PCB material with a benchtop shear
I also have a shear like Chuck describes - mine was purchased from Northern Tool on sale but it's the principal and size. The magic is in the careful preparation of a side table that is bolted to a base that holds the work precisely at the level of the shear blade table - all completely described by Chuck. If the work to be cut isn't prevented from moving, it will tend to walk and edges will have a slight curl. Do it like Chuck did! Extra time spent in preparing the work surface around the shear blade will pay off in precise results. I made mine with just hand power tools - it would have been super simple with a table saw. Ed, N5EM

Brooke Clarke mentioned using a 12" benchtop shear for cutting PCB
material.and included a link to his web page where he described it's
use. (The original thread was "Scoring PCBs to be broken apart".)

Chuck Adams, K7QO, uses the same item (Enco #130-5700) and talked
about it some time ago on the QRP-TECH forum on Yahoo. If you want to
see his description of it you can find it in chapter 6 ("The Shear")
of his lab notebook. He goes into somewhat more detail about it. You
can download his notebook at--

http://www.k7qo.net/lab.pdf

The title is "K7QO's QRP Lab Notebook" and it covers a number of
homebrew topics that he discussed on QRP-TECH over the years. (If you
already downloaded it you might want to do it again; it's been revised
a few times and the current version is 4.20, dated March 15, 2014.)

The shear is not cheap (somewhat over $100 plus shipping), not small
(the lever is about 3 feet long) and not light (about 60 pounds), but
everyone who has one swears by it. And now that I'm no longer working
at a company that has a large sheet metal shear I'll probably get one
of these myself.

(You can find it online at www.use-enco.com and search for the item
number. They also have smaller ones although it's probably best to get
this one, which is the largest; click on the master catalog page to
see them.)