Archive of the former Yahoo!Groups mailing list: Homebrew PCBs

Hey again,

I've gotten more and more interested in throwing together a tiny press
for the boards. I looked at some shock innards on howstuffworks and
asked someone, but it looks like the part I was interested in isn't
the "snug slide" part that I would want. I did however, maybe come up
with a solution which won't be that difficult here, involving some
fiberglass. I'm getting more interested in something extra small and
portable that I can keep for a while, but MOST importantly, something
that looks cool. ;)

Back to the question- Which of you have heard or used a cheap roto-
tool that was noticeably "quiet". I may get one for permanent drill
duty. We've got the HomeDepot's and Lowes here as well as Walmart,
Sears, etc., then there's always eBay and the net.

Also, if I can scrounge up the parts, I may go ahead and start soon
(without the roto). What would be a safe guess on housing diameter for
the carriage? I've got the fancy looking new one here with the gray
rubber grip sleeves. It measures 1.85 inches diameter in the "barely
adequate" straight cylindrical section. That area is only about 1.25"
long and there's about 3.25" from the end of that to the end of the
chuck. There's also that little tapered "finger" section right at the
nose where the arbor sticks out, if that's a common clamp point. I
guess all the clamping should be as close to the nose as possible.
Since it really just gets adjusted and clamped in once, a generic jaw
shape might suffice, like a "V" with stepped notches to handle
different shapes or sizes.

Are there any tricks, etc. to getting the whole crap aligned
perpendicular to the table? I thought about maybe a rod or something
in the chuck which was temporarily stuck into the table right at the
drilling point. -???

George

PS- I just cranked my Dremel to full throttle for the heck of it. Good
lord that thing's obnoxious!