Drilling 500 holes per pcb

[Screech]

Theres got to be a better way.

Stack pcb's on top of each other, then drill?

Build a robot to do it for you?

Don't drill, just use a breadboard.

Any suggestions?

 

[simoV8]

Have you tryed stacking and found the drill wandered and the bottom board was way out ?? there's the jig or CNC and in anything soft as those circuit boards , plus those small holes your drilling theres bound to be problems,

 

[Screech]

I havent drilled yet.
But I'm wondering how i should do it.

 

[stevez]

My brother runs a machine shop. One customer has him drilling 3,700 holes, 0.08" diameter in a piece of plywood. He programs the machine and lets it run. The program is easy because of the simple pattern. If holes are not in a uniform pattern the programming is a bit more challenging however at some point the CAD file can be downloaded easing the programming burden.

So, if you need lots of holes drilled where spacing, intervals, etc is easy then anyone with CNC or better equipment will offer a lower cost. As complexity goes up so will programming costs. It would seem that having a proper CAD file will help to keep costs down.

My brother has another customer who requires 3,600 holes to be drilled in a 1/4" thick aluminum plate - to copy exactly the pattern in a piece of perforated metal. He works it out so a young lady who runs a landscaping business can work on it (drill press) between jobs or on rainy days. She puts in a few rather dull hours here and there over the course of a week or two and it gets done. You might consider making a metal pattern which might ease the layout/location burden.

 

[simoV8]

I havent drilled yet.
But I'm wondering how i should do it.

If you have a board of yours you need to make one copy of, you could gang them , ( clamp yours over the new )and take it nice and easy driiling, iff you want to make a few spare boards , use your board clamped to alluminium sheet and go thru every hole nice and easy and you can use it as your drill guide , iff you want to make heaps of copys ,after you drill the ally, clamp the ally to a bit of steel sheet and drill,

 

[simoV8]

And iff you need more boards than that Stevez sounds like a handy bloke to know

Simo

 

[Screech]

I was thinking about making my own mini cnc machine, useing stepper motors, and my own software, but,
I just realised , my dad has a copy milling & copy drilling machine.

 

[stevez]

While building your own CNC machine is certainly possible the time/effort has got to be enormous. I'd suggest you invest a little time in obtaining costs to have someone do the work for you. It's one thing getting something to work once but machinery that is reliable and accurate over the long haul isn't something that's developed without some hard and expensive lessons. Good luck.