PCB Drill

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Guess what arrived today in the mail. A high torque DC motor fitted with a little keyless chuck, a push switch, a power jack and a random HP power brick tossed along with it. Works with 0.4 to 1mm bits. Looks super ghetto but it only cost me $17.60 postage included.

Does it work? Hell yeah. Drills thru blank PCBs in a blink of an eye, clears soldered holes with ease (someone mentioned using a sewing needle for that...), i even drilled thru one of my screwdrivers with it! It's centered very well, no breaking bits. Just the thing i needed to get serious about making PCBs.

I'll post some pics for the curious later on.

[Toasty]

Re: PCB Drill

>>clears soldered holes with ease <<

Just don't use it on via's, or multilayer boards.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: PCB Drill

A via is a tube so i can't see why it wouldn't work. I have a couple motherboards i can sacrifice, we'll see.

[mathog]

Re: PCB Drill

A via is a tube so i can't see why it wouldn't work.

On multilayer boards vias can have electrical connections at internal layers. If you drill out a via the odds of destroying the conductive tube are high, and the odds of reconnecting those internal layers with just the blob of solder in the resulting hole are not good.

Should be safe to use your tool on a two sided board though. Just be careful not to push up a trace on the side when going through. Also, don't breath the dust.

[Th3_uN1Qu3]

Re: PCB Drill

Who said anything about drilling OUT vias? The thing works with drill bits smaller than the via so i can simply drill THRU. I tested it on a scrapped Geforce 4 Ti and drilled thru almost all the vias - NONE came out and the sides of the vias are visible.

[severach]

Re: PCB Drill

Sewing needles are lousy for clearing holes. Solder sticks to needles. Needles are too small. The pointy end doesn't clear much.

Put that drill backwards into a needle nose vice grip, apply heat, and you can clear those holes without damage to the vias. The solder gun and the drill can be on the same side of the board if access is limited.

When the via is full of solder you can't center the drill well enough to keep from drilling the via and everything else. Lots of vias are only half full and drilling works much better. Unfortunately between brass vias and carbon steel drill bits, any mistake and the brass loses.