little OT : drilling pcb's

[Grant Richter]

You can pick up the tungsten carbide drills at Ham-fests.
Also called electronic swap meets.
I got a box of 30 of them for US$5.
Nuts and Volts magazine has a list every month
of the locations in the US.

Very brittle though, must be used in a real drill
press. My little drill adapter for a Dremel Moto-tool
is not stable enough for the carbide drills.
They snap off under vibration.

----------
> From: Fraser, Colin J <Colin.Fraser at scottishpower.plc.uk>
> To: 'Dr. Jörg Schmitz' <JSchmitz at patho.bonn.com>;
'synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl'
> Subject: RE: little OT : drilling pcb's
> Date: Friday, December 03, 1999 8:33 AM
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Dr. Jörg Schmitz [mailto:JSchmitz at patho.bonn.com]
> > Sent: 03 December 1999 13:39
> > To: 'synth-diy at mailhost.bpa.nl'
> > Subject: little OT : drilling pcb's
> > 
> > 
> > I etched 12 PCB's the last two days, and now I'm going to drill them.
> > The problem is : the drill grows blunt after 20 - 30 holes, 
> > and I have to
> > take
> > a new one. I use expensive 1 mm HSS - drills, which should work, in my
> > opinion.
> > 
> > Anyone any idea, who to do this work economical ? (I.e. not 
> > 12 drills for 1
> > PCB
> > but 1 drill for 12 PCB'S)
> 
> Your drills will last longer if you use sheet resin bonded paper instead
of
> fibreglass pcbs, but then your boards won't last so long...
> 
> Tungsten carbide drills last longer but cost more, and they are not as
stong
> laterallly, so really need to be used in a drill press.
> I've never actually worked out whether they are more cost effective.
> 
> Maplin UK sell t.c. bits for 3.29 ukp a shot (ouch!)
> 
> 
> Colin f