Guide $30 High-Speed PCB Drill Press

Just thought I would share my latest project. Very useful for anyone making their own PCB's.

http://www.instructables.com/id/E5ENZWHF2FRVIYM/

Questions / Comments are welcome as always.

 

Awsome tutorial there dude! About time someone came up with a cheap way too make a drilling press!

 

Very nice!

 

Thanks!

 

Great idea, I think it would be pertinent to mention that an Air Compressor is needed to power the thing... and that not included in the $30.

 

No offense, but if I had access to welding equipment, I'd probably already have ponied up $100 for a 10" drill press.

Now that that's said, it looks pretty good! I spent $40 on a portable drill press for my handheld drill and well, it sucked so bad I returned it after my first major usage attempt.

Although your homemade press is cheaply built it's still pretty advanced and probably as accurate as it looks! Nice work.

 

I dont think that's the point, you cant get an accurate drill press that will run at the very high speeds required for small drill bits for $100. Also, because the drill bits for PCBs are solid tungsten carbide, if theres any runout in the bearings or the shaft isnt perfectly straight you will keep breaking bits and theyre not cheap.

Yeah its not really $30 unless you already have an air compressor.

Moriquendi

 

Thanks. And you are right, you will need an air compressor to run it. A cheap $80 compressor should do the job, and they are soo very useful to have around the shop. Another option would be to build a accurate press for a small high-speed dremel tool.

Also, I do have a cheap 10" or so drill press (and plans to buy a much larger floor-standing model), however it will not come near the speeds needed to drill FR4 PCBs.

The highest speeds I have seen in a < $500 drill press is about 10,000 RPM, and under $300 you won't find higher then 4,000 RPM unless you are using a dremel. Which still only goes to about 25,000 rpm, and you would still need a custom press to get the accuracy. (Prof. PCB drills run at around 100,000 to 200,000 RPM)

Either way, you have many options. This project was made to fit my personal needs. You may need something else, this just worked for me.

 

A cheap compressor is actually a fairly decent investment; just think about how much you spend on canned air! You might get into airbrushing later, and remember...
There are always sweet homemade air-tools to be used!

 

Awesome!

 

Thats pretty sick setup.