How to do the etching

Karakacha · 21st November 2006, 07:00 AM

Please may someone give me information about the best size of drills to use when doing the etching and where possibly they can be found.

Nordic · 21st November 2006, 09:56 AM

Being in even darker Afrika than myself, you may have to order those online. most common low wattage resistors and most capacitors will need an 0.8mm drill and maybe it is handy to have a 1mm drill too for fatter legs.... you can always make the hole a little bigger when needed with the point of a knife...but you can't make too big holes smaller...

djQUAN · 21st November 2006, 10:34 AM

I would recommend 0.8mm as smallest to use. any thinner and it will snap easily. 1mm would be good for large transistor legs or diodes.

Nordic · 21st November 2006, 10:39 AM

Sorry for posting again, I forgot to say, buy many more than you think you need, as they do break very easily.... cheap ones go blunt quickly, and expensive carbide types on the other hand are very brittle and can be damaged by just dropping them.

djQUAN · 21st November 2006, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Nordic
Sorry for posting again, I forgot to say, buy many more than you think you need, as they do break very easily.... cheap ones go blunt quickly, and expensive carbide types on the other hand are very brittle and can be damaged by just dropping them.

with the carbide ones, even not using a drill press will break them! no kidding!

dangus · 21st November 2006, 11:41 PM

#72, #68, then some larger ones to cover fat diode leads and such.
There's various dealers on eBay selling surplus or resharpened carbide bits (search for "micro carbide drill bits"). Sometimes bargain tool dealers will have assortments of those bits for good prices.

Regular high-speed-steel twist drills are OK for those occasional larger holes, but if you can't get the carbide bits, you can get by with HSS bits if you resharpen them frequently (a ceramic sharpening stone works). Machine-shop suppliers should have the "number drills" as they're called over here, or the metric equivalents.

AuroraB · 23rd November 2006, 08:31 PM

Here's a small tip for you guys, that I have been using for 35 years..
Take some round banana plugs, fit a selection of small drills, say 1, 1,2 1,5 and 2 mm, use ordinaray HSS drills, not carbide types..
and voilá - you have a selection of finger drills to fix holes that are too small.....

AndrewT · 23rd November 2006, 10:41 PM

It's the 0.6 and 0.8mm that are usually the bigger problem.

pinkmouse · 23rd November 2006, 10:48 PM

I find 0.8mm and 1.2mm cover 95% of my needs.

Karakacha · 28th November 2006, 07:18 AM

Thanks to all those who gave me information I would be giving feed back after going through the project

21st November 2006, 07:00 AM	#1
Karakacha diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2005	How to do the etching Please may someone give me information about the best size of drills to use when doing the etching and where possibly they can be found.

23rd November 2006, 10:41 PM	#8
AndrewT diyAudio Member Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: Scottish Borders	It's the 0.6 and 0.8mm that are usually the bigger problem. __________________ regards Andrew T.

23rd November 2006, 10:48 PM	#9
pinkmouse diyAudio Moderator Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Chatham, England	I find 0.8mm and 1.2mm cover 95% of my needs. __________________ Al I conceive of nothing, in religion, science or philosophy, that is more than the proper thing to wear, for a while. Charles Fort

28th November 2006, 07:18 AM	#10
Karakacha diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2005	ETCHING Thanks to all those who gave me information I would be giving feed back after going through the project

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21st November 2006, 09:56 AM	#2
Nordic diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2005	Being in even darker Afrika than myself, you may have to order those online. most common low wattage resistors and most capacitors will need an 0.8mm drill and maybe it is handy to have a 1mm drill too for fatter legs.... you can always make the hole a little bigger when needed with the point of a knife...but you can't make too big holes smaller...

21st November 2006, 10:34 AM	#3
djQUAN diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: manila	I would recommend 0.8mm as smallest to use. any thinner and it will snap easily. 1mm would be good for large transistor legs or diodes.

21st November 2006, 10:39 AM	#4
Nordic diyAudio Member Join Date: Sep 2005	Sorry for posting again, I forgot to say, buy many more than you think you need, as they do break very easily.... cheap ones go blunt quickly, and expensive carbide types on the other hand are very brittle and can be damaged by just dropping them.

21st November 2006, 11:41 PM	#6
dangus diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2004 Location: Vancouver Island	#72, #68, then some larger ones to cover fat diode leads and such. There's various dealers on eBay selling surplus or resharpened carbide bits (search for "micro carbide drill bits"). Sometimes bargain tool dealers will have assortments of those bits for good prices. Regular high-speed-steel twist drills are OK for those occasional larger holes, but if you can't get the carbide bits, you can get by with HSS bits if you resharpen them frequently (a ceramic sharpening stone works). Machine-shop suppliers should have the "number drills" as they're called over here, or the metric equivalents.

23rd November 2006, 08:31 PM	#7
AuroraB diyAudio Member Join Date: May 2001 Location: Norway, -north of the moral circle..	Here's a small tip for you guys, that I have been using for 35 years.. Take some round banana plugs, fit a selection of small drills, say 1, 1,2 1,5 and 2 mm, use ordinaray HSS drills, not carbide types.. and voilá - you have a selection of finger drills to fix holes that are too small.....

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