PCB drill is the most important "must have" tool for every electronic hobbyist.
There's huge variety of different homemade and professional hand held tools, flexible shaft attachments and bench top drill presses that can be used for that purpose. For my hobby project I normally use MicroLux mini drill press from MicroMark.com
| MicroLux 3-Speed Mini Drill Press with attachments. |
It's an extremely useful and easy to operate light weight tool for all kinds of light duty precision works.
Motor is very quiet, high quality wobble free spindle and very smooth lever provide very accurate drilling even with smallest drill bits.
There are 3 speed settings for work with different materials: 2100, 4500 and 6500 rpm.
Speed can be set by shifting belt on 3-step pulley.
| MicroLux mini drill press. Basic set. |
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Originally drill press is provided with 3-jaws chuck but it was not the best quality stuff so I've replaced it later with more convenient keyless chuck with capacity 0 - 1/4".
| MicroLux drill press. Original chuck. |
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Many different accessories can be added to increase tool effectiveness. To complete set I've purchased spare belt, flexible shaft,
X-Y table attacment and miniature drill press vise.
| X-Y table attachment. |
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Main purpose of X-Y table attachment is to increase accuracy of hole positioning.Now it's much easier to drill strait line of 0.8 mm holes for 40 pins chip.
| MicroLux mini drill press with X-Y table attachment. |
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Last useful accessory. Cute little drill press vise. Light aluminum frame is good only to hold tiny things.Don't even think to use it as anvil.
| Miniature drill press vise. 1-1/4" capacity. |
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As some people may think, drill press with X-Y table attachment can be used as improvised manual milling machine. Well, It works but only for plastic, wood and other soft material.| MicroLux 3-Speed Mini Drill Press. Good choice. |
