A couple of weeks ago I posted about the Inkjet/Toner Hybrid PCB printing method.  Now it’s time to drill the through holes, a job which I never find much fun – I guess that’s why I’ve put it off for a couple of weeks, that combined with the fact that I didn’t really have the right tools.  My big old clunky drill press really isn’t up to the task, it has far too much horizontal play and is nowhere near fast enough for 0.8mm drill bits.

I would have loved to pick up a Dremel 300, Dremel Drill press and Dremel mini-chuck.  Dremel make fantastic tools but all up it would’ve cost me over $200NZD which I really didn’t feel like spending just to drill some tiny holes.  I already had a pretty decent Makita power drill so I decided to see what I could knock up from junk I had in the garage.  Here’s what I came up with.

Materials Used

  • Various scraps of wood and MDF I had lying around the garage
  • Rack mount server rail (Cut in half) from an old Dell server – this provides the slide mechanism
  • A bunch of wood screws I had in my collection
  • Mini chuck (This was the only thing I had to purchase – TradeMe $17NZD inc P&P )
  • Short tension coil spring from a box of bit’n'pieces

Tools Used

  • Table saw
  • Hand saw
  • Hack saw
  • battery drill
  • Screw drivers
  • Google sketchup

That’s it! ~75 tiny holes later and no bent or broken drill bits! It’s nice and accurate but very loud!

Thanks for reading.