PCB drilling question

Jun 01, 2005 2 Replies

In commercial CNC setups, is the drill motor powered during the entire drilling operation (except tool changes) or is it cycled on/off at each hole location?


When I saw that operation at a local board house, the drill spent as about much time in the stack as out. There was no pause to let the motor spin down and back up, and I doubt any shop would do it that way.

--Larry Brasfield email: donotspam_larry_brasfield@hotmail.com Above views may belong only to me.

Me too. I foolishly went and bought a SSR with zero-crossing and snubber circuitry for motor control in my CNC setup then realized that even though X and Y speeds are slow at 20 IPM, it still probably didn't justify cycling the power on/off at hole locations.

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