Use coping saw and cut an undersize square/rectangle then file it to dimension...

Carefully...

On 23 Jun 2019, at 16:20, Harvey White <madyn@...> wrote:

On 6/22/2019 1:00 AM, Jim Pruitt wrote:

I need to cut out an area of the top of a pc board enclosure (enclosure made using double sided pc board material).? The cutout is for a 16x2 LCD display.? Can someone tell me how to do that and keep the lines straight?

The best answer is that if you have a mill, you find a 1/8 inch carbide pc rasp/router bit and mill the hole.? Carbide is very fragile but very hard, so while it lasts a long time, it's easy to break and cannot be used in a handheld application.? Another possibility is to make a fixture that allows you to use a cutoff wheel in a dremel, lower it, and pretend that it's a radial arm saw.

Not the easy way with the dremel.?

You might try a tile saw, cutting it wet, but the saw blade is likely too big.

I might suggest using plates of pc board material, soldering them to get the right size hole, then covering that with a 3D printed cover, if you have the cover.

Sorry that this does require somewhat expensive toys.

You could try an XY vise and a drill press, that might work.

Harvey

I used a coping saw to do the first one but needless to say,? the cutout did not stay straight and with filing I ended up with part of the cutout too big.? I tried just using a razor knife and cutting the lines but could not get the board to break on those lines.

I have in the past been told to use a Dremel tool but I have not found a bit for the Dremel and have not seen the little 1" diameter saw blades for a while,? not that I would trust one to go straight for me anyway.

There has to be a reliable and neat way to make these cuts.? Does anyone know how to do this?

Thank you.

Jim