Forum Home
PC World Chat
 
Thread ID: 120317 2011-09-03 09:52:00 PCB routing\milling bits Agent_24 (57) PC World Chat
Post ID Timestamp Content User
1228477 2011-09-09 11:52:00 10Pcs 8mm (0.05") Carbide PCB CNC End Mill Drill Bits. $AU11.99. HERE (www.ebay.com) braindead (1685)
1228478 2011-09-10 01:29:00 10Pcs 8mm (0.05") Carbide PCB CNC End Mill Drill Bits. $AU11.99. HERE (www.ebay.com)

Not bad pricing that's for sure, but not what I'm looking for either.

What I want are the bits for completely cutting through the material, not just milling the actual circuit design.
Agent_24 (57)
1228479 2011-09-10 01:45:00 Try here (www.ebay.com) or here (kinsten.com.au) braindead (1685)
1228480 2011-09-13 00:16:00 Thanks, that made me have another look on eBay and I up finding a pretty good seller there, just made an order today!

Cheaper than Drill Bit City, so I put some extra drill bits in with the router order.
Agent_24 (57)
1228481 2011-09-13 00:46:00 Hi Agent_24...which seller did you finally choose?

Also, thanks for alerting me earlier to the fact that router bits don't drill. It was too late for me to change my order but no worries, I'll use them for something.

Glad you got it sorted :)

PS: what do you use to power your PCB drills?
braindead (1685)
1228482 2011-09-13 01:18:00 Seller's name is drillman1, his store is "Carbide Plus" (stores.ebay.com)

I have a Proxxon FBS 240/E tool used in the MB 140/S drill stand\press. A photo of mine (and some other stuff you might find interesting) is here (www.flickr.com). There's a little story behind why I bought them here (pressf1.pcworld.co.nz).

Note that while the IB/E shown in the first video is better quality\precision than the FBS, it's more expensive and can't use the standard chuck (only collets). Not really a big deal, but this was another reason why I chose the FBS.

They cost me about $240 NZD or so (IIRC) for the tool and stand. It's not super cheap but I think it's worth it. If you buy one yourself, make sure you get the /E version, as they are the 240v versions (unless you want to buy a step-down transformer as well, or already have one). Also, don't buy from the NZ distributors as they for some reason have decided to put the prices up about 3-4x the RRP.


The only downside with a setup like this is that you don't get a nice viewfinder attachment: I've used a machine similar to the FTX Optical Drilling Machines listed on the bottom of this page (www.megauk.com) and they are marvelous! (and that's probably an understatement) but at £3810 you aren't going to want to buy one in a hurry :(
Agent_24 (57)
1228483 2011-09-13 02:44:00 Thanks for that ebay link Agent_24.

That's brilliant info and links on your Flickr pages. So much great stuff I had not seen before.

I got totally depressed looking at Proxxon NZ's prices for their drill and stand. They wanted to charge me close to $NZ1000.00 plus GST. They are totally greedy and out of their bloody minds.

I'd already got a Dremel 300 and bought their crappy 'workstation' stand which I've modded to eliminate drill creep. Dremel's engineers were asleep when they designed this thing!

I recently looked at a YouTube vid called something like Proxxon vs Dremel and was totally impressed with Proxxon's professional build and accuracy. You made the right decision.

Thanks for the seriously cool info. I'll keep me going for a while :)
braindead (1685)
1228484 2011-09-13 06:02:00 Good to hear the stuff I've posted on Flickr has been useful to someone :)

If you're doing PCBs with the toner-transfer method, I highly recommend a laminator. I've had nothing but great results with it so far. However things are a bit less rosy with double-sided boards. It's certainly doable, and doable well, just not something you'd actually want to do very much :lol:

Unless I can refine the process somehow, I think I might end up using the UV method for double-sided boards (keeping the laminator for single-sided of course, it's still faster and cheaper (no pre-sensitized boards\developer chemical) for single-sided boards.



As for the NZ Proxxon distributor... definitely out of his mind if he thinks anyone with a brain is going to pay that much. But to be fair, he actually wanted to sell me the product though, unlike Electroflash, who were completely useless. I wouldn't recommend them at all either. (see the last post on other thread I linked to if you haven't already)

I saw the same video as you no doubt: www.youtube.com - good to know your drill stand was fixable though!
Agent_24 (57)
1228485 2011-09-16 07:48:00 Agent 24

Have a look at www.micromark.com

I just received their latest catalogue and noticed that they sell Milling machines, lathes and tools etc
Zippity (58)
1228486 2011-09-16 10:13:00 Not a bad site but they don't sell the ones I wanted, and the most similar ones that they do sell are more expensive than the ones I have already ordered from eBay. Agent_24 (57)
1 2 3 4