Which Drill Press for PC Boards?

Hi, L. The faster the drill bit spins, the better. It's easier to control the drill bit, because a sharp drill bit at high speed won't skate around. If you've got a few bucks, try a Dremel. They have a small drill press/holder available as an accessory which makes the hand drill ideal for small PCB drilling jobs. Don't use it without the little drill press, though. You can't keep the drill perfectly perpendicular by hand, and you'll break a lot of drill bits.

The Dremel is good for a lot of other things, too. It might be worth it for you.

Good luck Chris

Hi, I would use a smaller , more precise drill or perhaps a mini milling machine setup. You can us an X,Y table on the drill press to make life easier. If you drill more than one size hole, a multi head tool would be nice but for the quantity you are doing probably not worth the money. I used a Unimat combo mini lathe and mill for most of my PC work and I was happy. Tom

A few years ago I made a 'relatively' simple PCB drill from a couple of linear slides, and a cheap dremel style drill.. Basically it drilled from the bottom up, and a centered guide pin allowed me to align the holes from the top [usually component only, no copper] layer..I made a foot pedal to lift the drill, and just held it with both hands, maybe 1/2" total travel. Turned out to work fairly well, quick and easy to aligh, as well no vibration on the hands, and the drill was straight.. The guide pin and the drill both moved up when I pressed on the foot pedal, when drilling through the copper first it seemed to make a noticably cleaner hole..

enjoy..

I'd strongly consider a hand-held Dremel instead of a press, unless these boards have to have perfectly vertical holes. And never, never use a drill bit. Drills for PC boards need to be made of carbide, and they will break at the slightest side load. Instead, use a ball-tip dental bur (ask your dentist where to get these). They will last essentially forever. (My set is over 20 years old and still going strong.) You will want to lightly center-punch your holes first, then you should be able to do about one hole per second or two once you get the hang of it. You can only drill one board at a time this way, but it's hard to beat it for speed or convenience.

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Best regards,

Bob Masta dqatechATdaqartaDOTcom D A Q A R T A Data AcQuisition And Real-Time Analysis

Something using the Dremel tool, perhaps, or using a router motor. Small (.040") diameter drills, especially solid tungsten carbide ones need lots of RPM (20,000-30,000) if you're going to get any sort of precision and life out of them. It's all down to feet per minute peripheral speed.

I'm looking at pearson's online catalog as well as others. None of them seem to use the sizing convention mentioned at -

Is there some other kind of measurement convention that the dental places use?

Lump

Thanks to you mentioning the dental burs a while ago, I searched around for them. I got mine from Pearson dental supply.

They're not cheap, due to $25 minimum order requirement. As I recall, they were 10 for $12.00.

Ed

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--Get a Criterion; they're made in Sonora, CA and they're slick as snot. I've had one for years; finally sent it in for a little maintenance and they went above and beyond at no extra charge; for all intents and purposes I got back a new machine. Good company.

I don't know what they use. It took me a lot of searching to determine that what I wanted was M580010 Midwest Carbide Bur No. 1 That seems to be an ideal size for a PC board drill. I would recommend getting a larger size as well as the No. 1, but I can't say what size it should be. As a guess, I would say order No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. That brings you above the $25.00 minimum. The coding I did figure out: FG = friction grip and SS = short shank. You want FG and you don't want SS.

You could go to a different brand, like Miltex, to get over the 25 dollar minimum with 2 packs of burs instead of 3. For example. Miltex costs $13.05 for a 10 pack of one size. Add a second size and its $26.10.

Ed