PCB drill press

Photon · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 7:35 am Post subject: PCB drill press

Some introspection reveled that the #1 thing keeping me from making some SDIY progress is my hatred for drilling hundreds of tiny holes in pcbs. The fiberglass dulls the drillbits like nothing I know and most drills spin way too slow for the job.
So I gave it some thought and here is the result -- a dedicated pneumatic circuit board drill press. This sucker spins at 56,000 RPM! I'm using long lasting carbide drills made specifically for drilling circuit board. The basis of this drill is a cheapo, import pneumatic die grinder ($14.99 from Harbor Freight).
I decided to build this for use at work (during my lunch break, of course Very Happy

)
because 1.) I don't have a compressor at home & 2) they have all these cool mechanical parts kicking around that I used to make the stand from.

So, its maiden voyage will be the Thomas Henry VCA-1 today (at lunch, ha ha)
I'm already expecting that I need to improve the way I'm attaching the grinder to the stand. we'll see.

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Coriolis · Joined: Apr 11, 2005 Posts: 616 Location: Stilling, Denmark

Jeezaazzz! That thing looks deadly! I dub thee "Top Fuel PCB Drill"...

C

Peake · Posted: Thu Sep 11, 2008 11:54 am Post subject:

Collide any Large Hadrons with that thingie? Yer messin' the the boundaries of nature! Wink

leo62 · Joined: Apr 11, 2021 Posts: 1 Location: Murmansk

And how is such an option from a microscope?

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wakyct · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2021 12:44 pm Post subject:

That is surely one of the best thread revivals I've ever seen. Beautiful!

My contribution (not my drill press): https://acidbourbon.wordpress.com/2015/02/01/semi-automated-drill-press-table-for-pcb-manufacture/

Ayab · Joined: Oct 27, 2015 Posts: 186 Location: London, UK

Yes that microscope drill is just absolutely gorgeous!

Grumble · Posted: Tue Apr 20, 2021 9:03 pm Post subject:

Beautiful but very dangerous because I see no dust removal and the dust particles from glass fiber sheet is hazardous.

http://www.acculam.com/MSDS-Melaglas.pdf

Ayab · Joined: Oct 27, 2015 Posts: 186 Location: London, UK

That is good to know Grumble thanks for the wise tip - Hope that the creator of the microscope drill press uses dust extraction.

Stupidly I didn't think of pcb dust being dangerous. Luckily I enjoy being out on the roof of my building whenever possible so use my dremmel with an extension lead on a nice day. And was so wife didn't complain about mess. I live in a flat and don't have a workshop. Will also wear a dust mask outside now.

Trying to get through less drill bits!