$30 High-Speed PCB Drill Press

Hello everyone.

I am a long time lurker / new poster. I have a project to share that I thought everyone here would find interesting. The link is:

**broken link removed**

I would post the actual instructions here, but I don't want to use up my bandwidth ATM. I hope this is a descent contribution to the DIY community I have been leaching off for years.

Comments / Questions are very welcome.

Very cool

Heres mine so far

**broken link removed**

Full build story here :

https://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=37790

Just been working on the stepper drives today.

Interesting project but I use this that I purchased new for a mere $39.00

https://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=44506

It works very nicely, also is handy for drilling holes in panels and chassis, and I use a small chuck inserted to the press' chuck to hold the PCB drill bits... even though the larger chuck closes tightly. Quill has no runout so the bits do not walk around, missing the mark. Plus it looks more impressive in the shop than a teeny flex-cable jobby!

Nice CNC! I think that's at least a few years down the road for me though.

The only problems I see with using a normal drill press is that they aren't terribly accurate and the speed is only about 3000 RPM. A typical production machine will run the PCB bits at 100,000 to 200,000 RPM.

devenfore said:

The only problems I see with using a normal drill press is that they aren't terribly accurate and the speed is only about 3000 RPM. A typical production machine will run the PCB bits at 100,000 to 200,000 RPM.

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They work OK. I have used mine with carbide bits. Am sure a faster RPM would be better but it does not break bit unless you goof.

Have only used it a few times. Using CNC now.

devenfore said:

Nice CNC! I think that's at least a few years down the road for me though.

Click to expand...

Thanks

Suprisingly cheap to build apart from the bearings and rails.

If I'd have gone down my original route of using drawer slides the whole machine would have come in at around £100 ($200) including the motors and controllers

The bearings, rails, mounts and blocks came in at around £180 delivered ($360) but for the time and messing about they have saved me I consider that money well spent.

Will be slow, not extremely accurate (to other peoples standards) but its been fun to build so far and will be more accurate then me waving a Dremel about trying to drill holes

Yeah, it seems to me that I always enjoy the work on the project more then using it afterward. Can't wait to see how your CNC table turns out!

devenfore said:

Can't wait to see how your CNC table turns out!

Click to expand...

Neither can I lol

Got a trip over to RS to pick up some high speed rectifiers in a couple of hours then I can test my homegrown motor controllers