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drilling holes for your own circuit boards? — Parallax Forums

drilling holes for your own circuit boards?

vettezr1vettezr1 Posts: 77
edited 2010-09-14 07:10 in General Discussion
Hi guys its mikediv I guess I will be stuck using vettezr1 for ever now but anyway.
Can I ask what you guys are using to drill your own home made circuit boards? I was wondering if anyone can tell me what size drill bit to use??
Also do you use any kind of jig I have been looking at these little cnc machines they drill, mill, and have a lathe just the small hobby ones I have seen them for under 1K dollars would somehting like that make sense or can you use a drill press I have a home depot one its not to small but its pretty sturdy I only make a few boards a week and to be honest have been wire wrapping or point to point but I would like to make some permanet ones for finished projects?

Comments

  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2010-09-10 13:07
    You may consider this crazy in our modern age, but I drill my circuit boards by hand with a device called a pin vise holding the drill bit.

    The problem is that small drill bits are fragile when used in heavy drills. And if the bit is sharp, it isn't much effort to do the holes by hand. I just take the board to Starbucks, read the newspaper, drink a latte, and drill the holes.

    Also, I can easily drill out soldered filled holes with the bit smaller than the actual hole, but large enough to populate the repair with DIP sockets or just plain old components. Bit sizes range from 2.00 mm down to 0.50 mm, mostly 1.2 mm.
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-09-10 13:28
    I use 0.7 mm for ICs and 0.6 mm for wire links. 1 mm for headers. That covers most of the holes I drill. I use tungsten carbide reduced-shank drills at about 16,000 rpm, with a MiniCraft drill and stand.
  • PJAllenPJAllen Banned Posts: 5,065
    edited 2010-09-10 16:19
    0.025 (that 0.7) and 0.0276 inches, and a drill press, and a flip-down magnifier.
    They're little drill bits, they break easily, definitely not for hand-drilling. I've pin-vised "starter holes". Those are close-conforming component holes, helps hold stuff on, but not for landing lead-in wires (big stuff.)

    PE - I wear the magnifier to get the hole placed, right, watching the drill going down, and then I can see quill wobble at the point. Remain calm, be patient, no hurry.
  • vettezr1vettezr1 Posts: 77
    edited 2010-09-13 12:09
    Thanks guys ,, anyone know where I can buy the drill bits online??? my local home depot has nothing that small
  • LeonLeon Posts: 7,620
    edited 2010-09-13 12:12
    I get resharpened ones from here:

    http://www.megauk.com/carbide_drill_bits.php
  • vettezr1vettezr1 Posts: 77
    edited 2010-09-13 16:11
    Thanks Leon
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2010-09-14 07:10
    I'm beginning to thing that P.J just likes disagreeing with me. I use a pin vise because I broke too many of those tiny drill bits with a power tool.

    Each to his own.
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