Shaving a PCB?

[Uncle Erik]

Has anyone out there ever shaved the sides of a PCB so it would fit in a case?

Here's my situation:

I received a PCB for a Millett Hybrid yesterday and have a donor case that'd be perfect. Almost. It's a defunct older Lambda power supply that's in a heavy-gauge perforated steel case. The plan is to gut it, strip it, paint it, add a new face plate, rubber feet, and turn it into a nice headphone amp. The tubes will fit without having to drill holes in the top. Further, heat dissipation will not be a problem and the tubes ought to light up the case. I think it'd look great.

Thing is, I think the PCB may be a hair too wide to fit in. I still need to gut it to make sure, but is it possible to take, say, 1mm total off both sides of the PCB without compromising it? The amount I'd have to remove would not touch any traces or planes.

My gut says, 'yes' but I thought I'd throw this out here to see if anyone has done it successfully and to find out how they did it. I suppose my other option would be to use the angle grinder to ease back the inside of the case.

But, anyway, what do you think would be best?

P.S. Yes, I will put up pics when I'm done. And if anyone wants to check these out, search for "Lambda power supply" on eBay. These are heavy, well-made and attractive cases you can get for a few dollars. Check them out.

 

[blueworm]

As long as you dont damage any traces you can shave a few mm of the sides.
Besides the millet PCB is design'ed with euro card case rails in mind.
You can safetly remove at least 2mm of each side.

 

[Garbz]

Use a metal file or a hacksaw. I manufacture my own and that's what I cut with.

 

[tangent]

The best tool for this is a bench type disc sander. You can take off a millimeter every second or so with one of those.

Don't be tempted to just thin out a trace a little bit. Even if a trace doesn't need to be as wide as it is, you don't want to expose the copper at the board edge, particularly in this case, where the board edge will touch the case sides.

 

[Vladco]

Mine board was too long for my case so I cut about ¾” of it. I use off board pot and have to install jumpers.
Vlad