Hand held PCB drill

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I was looking for a way to drill holes in home-made PCB boards.  It seemed that my only option wa investing in a rotary tool (i.e. Dremel) with a drill press.  However there seemed to be many forum discussions where a slight swing of the drill bit during lowering the drill press was causing a misalignment of drilled PCB holes.  Then I came across small 12V motors that had a drill bit attachment. Some have made their own drill presses for this.  Search Ebay or Amazon for "pcb drill press" and you'll be able to pick one up for a few pounds/dollars.  I soldered a small button onto the side of mine and, lo and behold!  A working, hand held PCB drill!  It's easy to find sets with the motor, drill attachment and several drill bits.  I found one with a set of 2 x 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and 1.5 mm bits.


So how does it fair?  I've hooked it up to a 9V battery and hey presto...:
Those are mostly 1.0 mm holes I've drilled there and by my eye they look pretty spot-on, certainly sub-mm accuracy.

TIP:  I found it useful to position the drill tip, pulse the on button lightly to drill a shallow hole in the surface and then press fully on and drill all the way through.  Useful to have a piece of wood underneath!

Always wear safety specs kids.  Flying broken drill bits are not good for the eye.

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