Homebrew PCBs

I was looking at the small grinders in a tool shop only a few days ago,  
but they all have pretty bad collets. The Dremel were actually the better  
ones they had, with a tapered fit, but still nothing like the proxxon  
ones. The cheaper grinders all had nasty collets that i wouldn't even want  
to try.
I don't need one now but i'm always looking if there's a good one so i  
don't need to take the proxxon grinder out of the drill press for other  
work.
Maybe i'll get one of the "cheaper" proxxon models, they should have the  
same collets as the IB/E. You can get like a micromot for under 30eur new,  
that's much better than the IB/E for about 100eur, and it has the same  
precision colltes and the shaft seems to be of the same high quality. Only  
the front of the case is plastic not aluminum, but that shouldn't really  
matter, and the cheaper ones are 12V of course - not really a problem  
since i need a 12V PSU anyway for the lights.

Anyway, seeing that the lower range proxxon units are not really much more  
expensive than the cheapo grinders i would much prefer getting one of  
those, knowing the quality.

I don't know about the laminate cutters, those might well have good  
collets too. 100eur and up probably has good ones, as have the large die  
grinders but they seem a bit large and loud for pcb work. Best look  
closely at the collets in the shop, if they are brass or aluminum or  
nickel plated junk they are probably no good. You want steel and you want  
a good tapered fit in the shaft, the collet must  be centered and straight  
in the shaft - if the collet isn't centerd how can the drill be? Proxxon  
says 3 flutes is superior to 4.

ST


On Wed, 18 Jan 2006 09:48:59 +0100, Adam Seychell  
<a_seychell@...> wrote:

> For many years I've used a Bosch
>
> http://auptocs.bosch-pt.com/boptocs-au/
> Product.jsp;jsessionid=E8C80E9C3D0286A199ED2A5EF701ED44?division=gw&ccat_id=9568&prod_id=5687&template=productimage.xsl
>
>
> ,which is probably very similar in power/size/weight to the RotorZip
>
> series mentioned by Mike Young. Metabo, and others make similar short
>
> length straight (die) grinders.
>
> e.g
>
> http://www.metabo.com.au/metabo/au/en/produkte/diegrinders/500wattstraightgrinderg500_6_06301_19.html
>
>
> Prices are about 2 times that of a Dremel kit.
>
>
> Adam