Homebrew PCBs

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Stefan Trethan" <stefan_trethan@...>
>> But what's up with the holes? Are the bits breaking on you?
>
>
> You just made it sound like the bits don't break, ever, unless the user is
> a klutz.
> Either you haven't tried or you have other drills than most people.

It's a question of the tool, not of personal ability. If the bits are 
breaking, check that it's rigid enough, straight enough, and spinning fast 
enough. Fast enough covers a lot of sins. (Mine spins at 30k, and is loud 
when it does so. The alternatives -- going slower, or spending a few 
hundred -- aren't very attractive compared to suffering it or wearing ear 
plugs.)

My rig is gravity fed, un-counterweighted. I dropped it once from 2" up, to 
fall full force into the MDF backer. The .032 bit survived. That's about as 
klutzy as you can get, short of piercing a body part.

Is it the drills, then? I use resharpened carbide from Drill City (url 
posted a couple times this month). There's very little preceptible drag on 
new ones straight out of the box. It drags increasingly more as it dulls 
with use. I suppose they'll eventually break to mark the end of their 
service life. I haven't hit that point yet.