I've been drilling PCBs for years with a regular handheld electric drill and non-carbide bits. I've had surprisingly good results and broke very few bits. But holding that drill does get old after about
100 holes.
I'm looking for an alternative solution to this. A drill press at
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looks decent for 150-200 USD. How about a Dremel? This seems like an ideal solution, but I've been reading a lot about the Dremel drill press stands that aren't precise enough (too much wobble for carbide bits). Ebay has a lot of super-cheap small drill presses, but the price makes me think they're junk.
Anyhow, I'd just check out a Drill-Press stand at Lowe's or HD. You could even buy it, try it out and return if not satisfied. Provided you didn't scratch it or anything like that.
My dream some day would be one of those micro lathes. Well, got to have dreams.
If you need really good tools for precision jobs ask a jeweler. They know what works.
A small drill press or the Dremel with the drill-press attachment will work. Consider staying with steel drills, as the carbides break easily if speed and feed rates are not exact.
I drill boards with Dremel. When installed in their drill press it's just fine for carbide bits. I never broke one, even the tiniest bits are fine with that setup.
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I disagree. I have a Proxon drill + drill-press. It is similar to the Dremel stuff. I've drilled thousands of holes with it using carbide drills. In over 15 years I broke 1 or 2 drills. Steel drills get dull too quickly (after about 30 holes) when drilling epoxy/fiberglass boards.
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If you need dual layer, paying a PCB house maybe cheaper. These days you can have a lot of PCBs made before the 'investment' and hassle of having your own etching equipment pays itself back.
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In my experience carbide bits with thick shafts (3mm) break easily when not perfectly centered. You cannot seek for the hole in the copper island. So I tend to use carbide bits with thin shafts, as thin as the holes they are suppose to drill, normally 0.8mm. I ever started a project to use a camera and monitor for perfect centering but it is on hold. Busy, busy, busy with other things.
Considering the time, effort, annoyance, storage space, ruined clothes, the tedious getting and disposing of chemicals and the often sub-standard results
*I* got with home-made PCB's, I decided that the PCB house is well worth the money.
They are better quality than the Dremel and the Minicraft drill and stand I use; the bearings don't have so much slop in them. My Minicraft drill has nearly 1 mm play at the chuck, but I don't break too many tungsten bits.
I have used a Dremel in it's stand, but found there was a fair bit of slop and wobble. I now use a 3-speed Proxxon 28121 with used carbide bits discarded by PCB houses. With the right contacts, you can get unlimited supplies for free. Start schmoozing.
If you value your time it would be cheaper to use a PCB house, but sometimes your time is better considered free. All depends on your interests vs desire for income.
I can drill with small carbide drills in one of the particular Dremel drill press stands I have, though I've shimmed it so the table doesn't wobble so much. Also, I've shimmed the Dremel collet so that the drills run true. This is for #80 and smaller drills, the sizes I most commonly drill for "vias" in my mainly surface-mount work. But I like the drill press I have access to at work a bit better, even though it can't turn much above 10k RPM.
I've thought of making a better stand for the Dremel (or for a Sioux
1/8" air powered die grinder--love that 50,000+ RPM!). Since the travel distance required is very small, you can do it by making an "A" shaped frame, from wood even, mounting the drill motor to the apex of the A, and attaching the opposite ends firmly to a base. You can use a cam or lever arrangement to push the apex of the A (and the drill) down. If the legs of the A are a foot long or so, the offset that the arc that the drill swings through in drilling a 1/16" board is inconsequential, if the axis of the drill is aligned with the direction of travel accurately. With a single A frame, there is nothing to hold the axis of the drill motor perpendicular to the base (the frame can twist), but with two A's offset vertically by a few inches, the axis is also held rigid. Then only the bearings and collet contribute significant wobble. Springiness of the wood will return the drill to the "rest" position. The materials are cheap, but the construction would have to be done carefully to get things aligned right.
I've broken plenty of drills over the years, but it's mostly because either I'm being careless or the drill is getting dull after a few thousand holes. Even without shmoozing PCB manufacturers (no longer common in every large town now anyway), you can get drills for $.50 each or less.
FWIW, I've used a Dremel drill press, and always got good results. A real Dremel drill press thing is pretty stable, and I don't think they're anywhere near a hundred bucks.
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