Homebrew PCBs

Alessio,

Stefan's advice is spot on..

half an hour with some MDF and a couple of hinges and you can build a drill press good enough to save breaking carbide bits.

And a cheap dremel type tool will be fine to start with..
but the investment in a slightly more expensive proxxon is well worth it in the longer term and it is capable of all kids of jobs. They are buiult with greater precision than the dremmels, the collets are three jaw steel and centre the drills much better than the 4 jaw ones that fit a dremmel

I started with a cheap dremmel knock off, graduated to a Proxxon IB/E with a homemade drill press, then a homemade foot operated drill press. Currently I'm using a CNC micro mill with a proxxon attached to it and about to build a new CNC machine specifically for drilling which will be much faster. The new machine will still use a proxxon as the spindle ..  in fact the same proxxon that has drilled all my boards for the last few years !


I can get many thousands of holes from a carbide bit..

Chris




--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, Alessio Sangalli <alesan@...> wrote:
>
> I do not plan to do much through-hole (for this reason I am reluctant in
> investing in something pricey/bulky) but I occasionally need to make holes.
> 
> I have bought some carbide bits at harborfreigh and I have a dremel; on
> the other hand, I've been told those bits can  break easily (well I
> think one can break them just by watching them too much, they are so small)
> 
> What is the recommended solution?
> 
> Thank you!
> Alessio
>