Homebrew PCBs

Thanks for the ideas, Dave ;-)


I already had thought about a simple footswitch, But it would only 
turn on the Dremel. 
MCM? or Mouser? has a footswitch with phono plug for about $7.00.
I can mount a phono jack in a cheap power strip and plug the 
footswitch into it to enable foot operation for the whole power 
strip. I think Dremel gets about $45 for their footswitch...Ouch!

You don't need the spring to pull down on the Dremel. You might need 
it to provide counter-balance for a true-gravity feed, though. 
Gravity does the job fine. (Adjust the pivot bolt just snug enough 
to remove "play" in the arm). I used a little melted candle-wax to 
lubricate the pivot points.
The feed arm on mine has the feel of a regular drill press with just 
about 80 deg. arc providing the full 1/4" travel. Works just fine 
for my purposes :-)

I chuckled with your suggestion of an auto-tool changer! I came from 
a CNC production environment with over 500 various CNC machine tools.
Most had tool changers. They are a pain in the A$$...(I was CNC 
Maintenance Leader there.)
My Dremel set came with Hex and Knurled collet nuts.
The knurled collet nut allows pretty fast changes just using "finger-
tight" if you stick to the Carbide drills with 1/8" shanks. They are 
only about $4.25 for a pack of 5 (resharpened) at Drill Bit City.

As for auto-feed and retract, I suppose if you were really serious, 
you could mount a stepper motor w/controller to a modified feed arm, 
and provide a limit / microswitch to do the retract.

Not sure if the solenoid would work, but it might if you let the arm 
free-fall and the solenoid do the lift.

I'm not THAT serious, though!

Well, maybe if I find an old printer that I can scrap...Hmmm...So 
much fun in such a small Yahoo Group! 
Next up: X/Y Table ?


--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "Dave Mucha" <dave_mucha@y...> 
wrote:
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "starsnstripes_2003" 
> <bwatson@a...> wrote:
> > I was so impressed with your Laptop Drill that I made a tabletop 
> > version. (I told ya I liked it!)
> > Elegant simplicity...
> 
> Nice pic, and it looks good.
> 
> I thought about the unit and if I were to modify it, I would add 
an 
> articulating arm magnifying light to see the hole locations 
better, 
> 
> AND....
> 
> I would add a foot operated lever.  spring load the lever so when 
you 
> stepped on it, the drilling arm drilled the hole and only the 
spring 
> pulled the dremel, not the power of your foot.
> 
> alternatly, mount a solenoid and a foot switch.
> 
> now, to design a fast change chuck for a Dremel.......