Drilling PCBs using dental burs!

[whiz115]

i just want to let you know that you can use dental burs to make holes on your PCBs instead of the usual black HSS-R drills which wear and brake easily...

ofc there are other types of drills which wear less like cobalt drills or titanium drills or carbade drills... but lately i tried a dental bur and i'm very satisfied!!! it drills perfectly leaving much less swarf and it's not as easy to brake it though i haven't evaluated yet how long it can last...but after drilling two heavy populated epoxy PCBs the bur hasn't lost any of it's ability.

i'm using a 0.9 mm bur of this company, i could source it localy and the price was equal to the drill bits i'm using.

Hager und Meisinger GmbH

 

[Boncuk]

Hi,

you can get the burs and drills free at your dentist.

Dentists don't normally use drills until they torture patients.

 

[gabeNC]

I was building guitars for awhile and needed some small bits for inlay work on the neck. I asked my dentist and he gave me probably about 20 or so bits. Too dull for teeth but not for wood.

Thanks for the tip about using these on pcb's. I might give that a try for tiny detail work.

 

[MrAl]

Hi,

I have a set of diamond bits, but unfortunately the smallest one is only good
for the largest electronic part leads i normally use.

 

[whiz115]

i'm glad that you liked it! indeed you can spot them more easily at the dentist and ask for some.. rather than searching for a specialized shop...