drilling pcbs

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home depot has the dremel precision drill bi kits, around 7 bucks give you the 2 smaller sizes. or can order the smaller bits from digikey. i myself go to a local industrial supply shop, most any of those type stores will have the 0.040 size you'd like. think they actually go by numbers, like #60 or something...
 
Look on eBay and you will find people selling them too... usually specified in millimetres though. 0.6mm, 0.8mm and 1mm are usually good enough for most things, but you really need a drill press of some kind - a mini one for a hobbycraft drill will do.
 
you can ask your dentist for used teeth drills.

it may be not useful for teeth drilling anymore, but can be for home use.

they have several models, including some incrusted with diamond powder that are great for smoothing corners, even if wear.

also very handy to scare your little sister :smash:
 
You don"t need a Drill Press or anything like that at all....I simply use a Dremmel Rotary tool and get very accurate drill holes....

You can get a set of Carbide Mini Drill bits for about $15 on e-bay and they work great for even the smallest holes......


:D
 
If you don't have funds for a press, I've had plenty of success using small, light modelling drills, the smaller the better. The Dremel type is far too big and heavy for hand-held use at 1mm & less. You should be able to rest your arm from elbow to wrist on the table to keep things steady.

Also carbide bits may stay sharp longer, but they're far more brittle than hss.
 
Costs nothing, works well:

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I never felt like spending the money for a drill stand for my dremel-size drill, so, for drilling PCBs, I suspend the little machine by simply clamping its cable to a piece of hardboard (about 5x30" was what I had at hand, vertically clamped to my workbench) that then acts as a spring, allowing me to hold the (now weightless) drill like a pen and to precisely guide it over the horizontal plane (i.e. the PCB). By gently pulling, I can lower the drill (practically without canting it) and make a nice hole. That way, I can drill up to 30 holes per minute and rarely break a 0.027" (0.7mm) carbide drill bit - not more often than I would using a drill stand, as I actually have finer control over the bit.

I bought used carbide drill bits on ebay from a PCB manufacturer for next to nothing (compared to what they'd cost new). They came in perfect shape.

My drill bits are actually more of router bits and don't have a pointed tip, which would make the bit slip right into the center of the copper pad even more easily (--> check out Eagle's drill-aid.ulp if you don't know it).

For drilling PCBs with the machine handheld (which is practical if you're no frequent driller), I strongly recommend HSS instead of carbide drills. High rpm are useful in either case.

JPG
 
jpg i take it your camera is broke since you took the time to draw this up on a computer and managed to throw in the shadows

My camera isn't broke. My workshop's just too messy to show to the world. :D

What you see above isn't a drawing, it's a rendering (from Cinema4D). Modelling those super simple objects took me less time than mounting my ingenious high tech drilling rig. Plus, it's in the middle of the night here and I really didn't feel like getting up from my cozy chair, let my tea get cold and go down in the frosty cellar in my, uh, evening attire.

An externally hosted image should be here but it was not working when we last tested it.
 
I just did about 15 boards, each with about 40 holes. In fact, I didn't do them, the dozen or so Scouts in my unit drilled the holes. I had a good chance to compare HSS vs. carbide. For comparison, I used "screw machine length" 1/32" drills and also some 1mm carbide circuit board drills.

The winner?

HSS. They lasted plenty long enough. I would imagine that a single drill could easily do 300-400 holes. The carbide drills are simply too brittle.

We used a Dremel tool and had the kids "learn" at 5000RPM and once they had the hang of it, run WFO at 15,000. We used a two handed technique. You don't need a press. It would be nice, but it's not needed.
 
Drilling FR4 boards (glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin) wears down HSS drill or router bits comparably quickly. With FR2 boards (phenol formaldehyde resin impregnated paper), they last much longer. FR2 is easier to drill, but FR4 is the more common material. While FR2 is said to emit formaldehyde, you run the risk of inhaling glass dust when drilling FR4, so you should really wear a dust mask or clamp a vacuum nozzle next to the PCB that you drill (--> HEPA filter in the vacuum cleaner).


My camera isn't broke.
...
But it might be broken. ;P

I was broke after buying my cam.
 
Homemade one

i made it at home with cassette player motor, operate at 24 v , u'll get high speed .. and the drill bit is also hand files one..little practice will make perfect holes.
 

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