I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

[CplusJ]

Newbie here.
Wish I would have found this forum before I did what I did.
I had two capacitors that needed to be replaced not the circuit board of my plasma TV.
Taking out the old capacitors was no problem.
Clearing the holes wasn't working, so I got the smallest drill bit I had, yes it was a fraction larger than the original hole, and I dialed out the old solder.
When I soldered in the new capacitors the problem was not fixed (obviously).
I read that it's a disaster to drill out the holes.
Define disaster?
Is the board hopelessly ruined and not worth taking it to a professional now?
Is it possible I just did a poor soldering job and that's why the repair didn't work and not because I drilled out the hole?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Is it possible I just did a poor soldering job and that's why the repair didn't work and not because I drilled out the hole?

It's -possible-.
Also possible the caps were not the only problem.

Is the board hopelessly ruined and not worth taking it to a professional now?

Probably.
I doubt a professional would take on the job and even if they did the outlook on fixing it isn't good.

Define disaster?

You know those strips of copper on the top and bottom of the board..
Multi-layer boards have them in between layers too.
The insides of the holes are plated and the plating is what connects to the strips in between layers. [It's called a Via.]
You removed the Via.
The odds of getting a good connection by filling the hole with solder are slim.

[Toasty]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Perhaps one of the TV guru's could help. There are hundreds of TV's out there and every board is different. Please include the make, model, size, and what board you did this to. Pictures are a great help, so take some of the whole board, the part number of the board, and the area in question. Also, post what the problem/symptoms were and why you believed it was the caps.

Welcome to the forums and I hope this works out for you.

Toast

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Follow the traces and find a different spot to solder the caps to. At worst, you cut some traces and you'll need to solder some wire to reconnect them. It isn't easy, but definitely not impossible.

Last thing i fixed with a piece of wire were 2 cut traces to the CPU socket of an AM2 board. That was definitely hard to do, but i fixed it. Board's still working fine atm.

[Toasty]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Follow the traces and find a different spot to solder the caps to. At worst, you cut some traces and you'll need to solder some wire to reconnect them. It isn't easy, but definitely not impossible.

Last thing i fixed with a piece of wire were 2 cut traces to the CPU socket of an AM2 board. That was definitely hard to do, but i fixed it. Board's still working fine atm.

I defy you to do that with the sandwiched traces --> the ones you can't see.

That's what PC is trying to explain here.

[PCBONEZ]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Exactly.

You can't solder to the traces between layers because you can't get the edge of the trace hot enough for a solder bond before the PCB material starts melting and contaminates the hole and solder with crap.

If CplusJ is lucky that particular joint doesn't have any connections between layers but there is usually no way to tell.

.

[kc8adu]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

if you are real lucky its just double sided.in which case its no big deal.
any more layers and you are f***ed.

[larrymoencurly]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

This circuit board repair company recommends drilling a slightly larger hole, to just the depth of the inner copper layer. That sounds easy, like brain surgery with chopsticks or the D-Day invasion.

http://www.circuitrework.com/guides/5-0.shtml

CPlusJ: I don't mean to rub it in, but why ever try a drill bit slightly larger than the hole, as opposed to slightly smaller, even if it's the smallest bit you have?

[PCBONEZ]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

This circuit board repair company recommends drilling a slightly larger hole, to just the depth of the inner copper layer. That sounds easy, like brain surgery with chopsticks or the D-Day invasion.

http://www.circuitrework.com/guides/5-0.shtml

CPlusJ: I don't mean to rub it in, but why ever try a drill bit slightly larger than the hole, as opposed to slightly smaller, even if it's the smallest bit you have?

It's not that easy.
I've done it with aid of a bottoming cutter and a mill.

If you cut too deep the copper is gone too.
If you get it too hot the copper might delam, catch on the bit and rip right out.
-
By hand forget it.
Even with a drill press chances are you will cut too deep.
Drill presses are sloppy when it comes to something with this little margin for error.

With an actual mill [a good one] and a REAL sharp cutter you can remove .001" at a time if you want to.
.

[MXM]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

wel dude at least you have finally found this site

hope you make it work again, take into consideration all youve been said here, some pics and specs will definetly help help you.


-and welcome to the site,

peace.

[severach]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Many bad capacitors are found on power supply boards and many power supply boards are single sided. If the board is single sided then drilling is safe but usually unnecessary. Single sided boards are easy to work with. Two sided and multi layer boards are where drilling is a problem.

If the through hole plating connected to an inner layer then the board is toast unless in the unlikely event you can find another way from the surface to connect to that same point.

If all the through hole plating did was to connect the two outside layers then you have a chance. Solder could easy fulfill the same job. The problem is that getting the solder to flow all the way through requires a lot of heat and you can't get it from a soldering gun alone. By the time the area is hot enough to flow the solder the gun will burn all nearby traces. A hair dryer is too hot and too wide.

A regulated soldering gun with a regulated hot air station has a chance to get the solder all the way through with some help from flux.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

It's probably just double sided. If he drilled thru anyway, why not simply use a piece of wire to connect the top and bottom traces?

[Agent24]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

I imagine that IF the traces on the internal layers also connected to another via nearby which also connected to one of the outside layers, you could hardwire it that way.

But that would no doubt require the schematic etc and then there's no guarantee that the vias you needed were actually there.

Hope like hell that it's only double sided!

[Toasty]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

I think the OP has been lost.......... helllooooooo?

[Agent24]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Maybe he forgot to enable email notifications and thinks nobody has replied to his post?

[Toasty]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Could be. i always thought some of the forum defaults were "backwards"...

[Agent24]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

Most forums I have signed up to seem to have email notifications disabled by default.

Got caught out once when someone replied to a message and I didn't know, only came across it again by accident almost a year later!

So after that, I always make sure the first thing I do when I sign up anywhere is enable all email notifications

[PCBONEZ]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

I just noticed this
~~~~~~~~~
Agent24
Fuhjyyu Killer
~~~~~~~~~

Isn't killing Fuhjyyu a mute point? They are already suicidal. - LOL

.

[shovenose]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

I lol'd at that!

[Agent24]

Re: I drilled out a hole... Is it a lost cause now?

I just noticed this
~~~~~~~~~
Agent24
Fuhjyyu Killer
~~~~~~~~~

Isn't killing Fuhjyyu a mute point? They are already suicidal. - LOL

.

Yeah, I guess so. I think I wanted something unique and couldn't think of anything else at the time...

Perhaps "Fuhjyyu correction therapist" would be better?