Small Drill Presses For Electronics Repair

[Too_Many_Tools]

This thread might hold some interest if you'd quit playing 20 questions.
Why not paint a complete picture for us? What, for example, do you mean
by "access?" To what end? How might a drill press assist in that
endeavor? You've asked for recommendations for a tool, but it's
difficult to offer those recommendations with any validity if you don't
tell us what the hell you're doing, or plan to do. I'm going to keep an
open mind, pending some actual information from you, but so far I'm not
envisioning a drill press as a very useful tool for PCB surgery.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I am not playing 20 questions.

Based on your response it sounds like you have little on hands
electronics experience...drill presses are used in electronics
development and repair.

I asked for what others have for a drill press which used for
electronics work.

Thank you for your response.

TMT

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

<snip>
How might a drill press assist... <snip>

Actually I think that this is a very good question and no one has
really answered with any make and model information for quality
minidrill press tools. If the definition of "repair" includes
"rework", "modify and engineer", "ECO", "FCO", etc. this tool
is _absolutely_ _essential_ in any well-equipped shop. I use
a Sherline MiniMill, but it is not ideal as a drill press since
its Z-axis deflection requires many turns of a handwheel. I also
use the Stahler PCB milling attachments for conventional drill
presses to clear areas on PCB copper for pads and vias and these
tools make very good small drill bit holders as well. The
ubiquitous high-speed hand tool like Dremel is also frequently
used to drill although I don't use the press attachment.

There are a class of precision drill presses that ought to be
mentioned by any one owning one...

Regards,

Michael

I for one Michael would like to hear more about your setup...do you
have a link to pictures?

TMT

 

[Smitty Two]

I am not playing 20 questions.

Based on your response it sounds like you have little on hands
electronics experience...drill presses are used in electronics
development and repair.

I asked for what others have for a drill press which used for
electronics work.

Thank you for your response.

TMT

Little hands on experience? Well, in repair, that's true. In electronics
manufacturing, I've got 22 years as production manager of a job shop.
Across the hall is a full machine shop including toolroom lathes and
mills, CNC equipment, machining centers, and turning centers.

I've put together a few million PCBAs, and I'll wager I've personally
hand soldered a few hundred thousand solder joints. I've never run into
any need to use a drill press in PCB work, save maybe making a
rudimentary prototype board, and for that I'd use a CNC mill, anyway.

Since you've been nothing but coy about your reason for inquiring, I'd
call that playing 20 questions. You have YET to tell us WHY you want a
drill press. Saying it's for "development and repair" is completely
meaningless. Cut into a multilayer board with a *drill press* in order
to make ECOs to the circuit? Have fun with that.

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

Little hands on experience? Well, in repair, that's true. In electronics
manufacturing, I've got 22 years as production manager of a job shop.
Across the hall is a full machine shop including toolroom lathes and
mills, CNC equipment, machining centers, and turning centers.

I've put together a few million PCBAs, and I'll wager I've personally
hand soldered a few hundred thousand solder joints. I've never run into
any need to use a drill press in PCB work, save maybe making a
rudimentary prototype board, and for that I'd use a CNC mill, anyway.

Since you've been nothing but coy about your reason for inquiring, I'd
call that playing 20 questions. You have YET to tell us WHY you want a
drill press. Saying it's for "development and repair" is completely
meaningless. Cut into a multilayer board with a *drill press* in order
to make ECOs to the circuit? Have fun with that.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I still say that you have little on hands experience...with
electronics and now I suspect with people.

As I said, specialized drill presses are used for modification of
buried circuit traces in circuit boards...this is a fact.

An educational link for you...

http://www.servoproductsco.com/html/drill_presses.html

As for being a manager, your responses tell me that you likely have a
problem dealing with people. If you are like this at work, I am glad
that I do not work with you...note I did not say work for you.

Thank you for your time....it has been educational.

TMT

 

[Smitty Two]

I still say that you have little on hands experience...with
electronics and now I suspect with people.

As I said, specialized drill presses are used for modification of
buried circuit traces in circuit boards...this is a fact.

An educational link for you...

http://www.servoproductsco.com/html/drill_presses.html

As for being a manager, your responses tell me that you likely have a
problem dealing with people. If you are like this at work, I am glad
that I do not work with you...note I did not say work for you.

Thank you for your time....it has been educational.

TMT

All right, if you know so god damn much about it, why the **** are you
asking others for advice? But whatever drill press you think you need
for whatever the **** you think you're doing. Next time you ask a
question, try to tell us what the question is about. I don't have time
to be diplomatic with morons.

 

[Arfa Daily]

Little hands on experience? Well, in repair, that's true. In electronics
manufacturing, I've got 22 years as production manager of a job shop.
Across the hall is a full machine shop including toolroom lathes and
mills, CNC equipment, machining centers, and turning centers.

I've put together a few million PCBAs, and I'll wager I've personally
hand soldered a few hundred thousand solder joints. I've never run into
any need to use a drill press in PCB work, save maybe making a
rudimentary prototype board, and for that I'd use a CNC mill, anyway.

Since you've been nothing but coy about your reason for inquiring, I'd
call that playing 20 questions. You have YET to tell us WHY you want a
drill press. Saying it's for "development and repair" is completely
meaningless. Cut into a multilayer board with a *drill press* in order
to make ECOs to the circuit? Have fun with that.

Ne' mind Smitty. We all still love ya ! For what it's worth, I have been
directly involved, right down at floor level, with electronic REPAIR for
over 37 years now, working on a huge variety of equipment from full-blown
industrial to general domestic, and in all that time, I have never had to go
down to break an internal layer of a board to effect an ECO. That's not to
say that I haven't *seen* it done. I used to work with some computer
graphics equipment that employed, as I recall, 6-layer boards, but it might
even have been 8, now I think back. Some prototypes or early development
versions of boards had occasionally had this done to them at the factory,
but such problems were quickly corrected in the design. If you had to do
enough of them that it involved having to have your own equipment for doing
it at a repair, rather than factory level, I don't think that it says much
for the design of the board, or of the ability of the designers and PCB
manufacturers to rapidly correct any such problems of design, 'on the fly'.
If you are figuring on having to do touchy delicate work like this on a
regular basis, I hope that your clients have deep wallets to be able to pay
you what you will need to charge to make a living at it ...

Arfa

 

[m kinsler]

I am considering getting a small drill press for electronics
repair...what suggestions does the group have?

Thanks

TMT

Perhaps I've led a sheltered life with the groups I normally post to
and am thus feeling unjustifiably offended by the unpleasant exchanges
I've been encountering on this one lately. There is never
justification to be either crude or impolite within a technical
group.

In this particular squabble, it seems that the confusion might stem
from the fact that drill presses do not loom large in the arsenal of
electronics repair equipment. There are many levels of electronics
repair, and most of them don't require a drill press.

There are, as has been stated, procedures which require fancy
operations on printed-circuit boards: you'd have to cut out sections
of foil or do weird stuff related to waveguides integrated into
microwave equipment. For that I suppose you'd want some sort of
precision mill-drill, with the servos and maybe a digital read-out.

In the sort of stuff I've done, the usual application for any sort of
power drill is to drill out a stripped screw. I used to use a hand
drill to make an occasional hole for mounting a heat sink or
something, but that was about it.

If you are building or perhaps modifying electronic equipment, that's
another story. For this, you'd need a minimal bench-top machine with
about an eight-inch swing, the sort of thing that Harbor Freight Tools
sells on sale for about fifty bucks. I have one, and it's perfectly
fine.

So calm down, already.

M Kinsler

 

[Michael Black]

I still say that you have little on hands experience...with
electronics and now I suspect with people.

As I said, specialized drill presses are used for modification of
buried circuit traces in circuit boards...this is a fact.

Okay, then you're missing the obvious.

This newsgroup, sci.electronics.repair is about the repair of electronic
equipment.

People questioned why you'd need a drillpress for repair. And
you respond with lines that are more about electronics in general.

Nobody is arguing that a drillpress is useful.

They are just questioning where a drillpress comes into use in
the repair (not prototyping, not production changes on existing
equipment) of electronic equipment.

Michael

 

[GregS]

Okay, then you're missing the obvious.

This newsgroup, sci.electronics.repair is about the repair of electronic
equipment.

People questioned why you'd need a drillpress for repair. And
you respond with lines that are more about electronics in general.

Nobody is arguing that a drillpress is useful.

They are just questioning where a drillpress comes into use in
the repair (not prototyping, not production changes on existing
equipment) of electronic equipment.

I do make more and more use out of Dremmel like tools and bits. Using
a drill press for this would be a handycap.

greg

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

All right, if you know so god damn much about it, why the **** are you
asking others for advice? But whatever drill press you think you need
for whatever the **** you think you're doing. Next time you ask a
question, try to tell us what the question is about. I don't have time
to be diplomatic with morons.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Some advice.....

Good manners are always appropriate.

A lesson you apparently need to learn.

If you were my report I would require you to receive anger management
and interpersonal therapy. Refusal to attend would result in immediate
dismissal.

With your negative atititude, I seriously doubt that you are a manager
of anything.

TMT

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

Ne' mind Smitty. We all still love ya ! For what it's worth, I have been
directly involved, right down at floor level, with electronic REPAIR for
over 37 years now, working on a huge variety of equipment from full-blown
industrial to general domestic, and in all that time, I have never had to go
down to break an internal layer of a board to effect an ECO. That's not to
say that I haven't *seen* it done. I used to work with some computer
graphics equipment that employed, as I recall, 6-layer boards, but it might
even have been 8, now I think back. Some prototypes or early development
versions of boards had occasionally had this done to them at the factory,
but such problems were quickly corrected in the design. If you had to do
enough of them that it involved having to have your own equipment for doing
it at a repair, rather than factory level, I don't think that it says much
for the design of the board, or of the ability of the designers and PCB
manufacturers to rapidly correct any such problems of design, 'on the fly'.
If you are figuring on having to do touchy delicate work like this on a
regular basis, I hope that your clients have deep wallets to be able to pay
you what you will need to charge to make a living at it ...

Arfa- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

He doesn't bother me...I have seen (and crushed) much worse.

Life is too short.

Thanks for your comments.

TMT

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

Ne' mind Smitty. We all still love ya ! For what it's worth, I have been
directly involved, right down at floor level, with electronic REPAIR for
over 37 years now, working on a huge variety of equipment from full-blown
industrial to general domestic, and in all that time, I have never had to go
down to break an internal layer of a board to effect an ECO. That's not to
say that I haven't *seen* it done. I used to work with some computer
graphics equipment that employed, as I recall, 6-layer boards, but it might
even have been 8, now I think back. Some prototypes or early development
versions of boards had occasionally had this done to them at the factory,
but such problems were quickly corrected in the design. If you had to do
enough of them that it involved having to have your own equipment for doing
it at a repair, rather than factory level, I don't think that it says much
for the design of the board, or of the ability of the designers and PCB
manufacturers to rapidly correct any such problems of design, 'on the fly'.
If you are figuring on having to do touchy delicate work like this on a
regular basis, I hope that your clients have deep wallets to be able to pay
you what you will need to charge to make a living at it ...

Arfa- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I think that is why I am asking about what is the norm...I have had to
fix problems on 12 layer boards because of cost and time
constraints...and obviously that is the exception, not the norm.

Perhaps I should ask the more general question...what power tools tend
to lend theirselves to the electronics bench?

I have the typical soldering setups, desoldering station and Foredom/
Dremel tools.

Anything else that you would recommend on my shopping list?

Thanks

TMT

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

Little hands on experience? Well, in repair, that's true. In electronics
manufacturing, I've got 22 years as production manager of a job shop.
Across the hall is a full machine shop including toolroom lathes and
mills, CNC equipment, machining centers, and turning centers.

I've put together a few million PCBAs, and I'll wager I've personally
hand soldered a few hundred thousand solder joints. I've never run into
any need to use a drill press in PCB work, save maybe making a
rudimentary prototype board, and for that I'd use a CNC mill, anyway.

Since you've been nothing but coy about your reason for inquiring, I'd
call that playing 20 questions. You have YET to tell us WHY you want a
drill press. Saying it's for "development and repair" is completely
meaningless. Cut into a multilayer board with a *drill press* in order
to make ECOs to the circuit? Have fun with that.

The only use that I know of for a drill press in electronics PCB
repair or manufacturing is for an ECO, where you drill out a Via because
of a layout change, or mistake. Otherwise, the floor model drill press
is used to remove rivets. to make sure you remove no other material.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

All right, if you know so god damn much about it, why the **** are you
asking others for advice? But whatever drill press you think you need
for whatever the **** you think you're doing. Next time you ask a
question, try to tell us what the question is about. I don't have time
to be diplomatic with morons.

He has the same chip on his shoulder on: where most people either ignore him, or have him killfiled.


--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[Smitty Two]

Some advice.....

Good manners are always appropriate.

A lesson you apparently need to learn.

If you were my report I would require you to receive anger management
and interpersonal therapy. Refusal to attend would result in immediate
dismissal.

With your negative atititude, I seriously doubt that you are a manager
of anything.

TMT

You, sir, are a smug, sarcastic, sanctimonious, arrogant jerk. "Thank
you for your time, it has been educational?" is a perfect example.
Perhaps you should heed your own advice, and learn some manners. You
could start by not believing people you don't know to be too dimwitted
to know when you're insulting them. Goodbye.

 

[Too_Many_Tools]

He has the same chip on his shoulder on: where most people either ignore him, or have him killfiled.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida


He has the same chip on his shoulder on: where most people either ignore him, or have him killfiled.

LOL...yeah Mike...just like YOU are doing now. *chuckle*

Mike...are you serious thinking that siding with Potty Mouth here will
add to YOUR credibility?

You are only revealing your own twisted political agenda....and when
did you start stalking as a hobby?

I guess you meet all kinds on Usenet.

TMT

 

[Michael A. Terrell]

LOL...yeah Mike...just like YOU are doing now. *chuckle*

Mike...are you serious thinking that siding with Potty Mouth here will
add to YOUR credibility?

I didn't "Side" with anyone. I merly pointed out that your attitude
was the same on another newsgroup that was very relieved when you were
gone for a while.

You are only revealing your own twisted political agenda....and when
did you start stalking as a hobby?

Stalking? I've been on the newgroup for years. It seems like you're
the one following me around.

I guess you meet all kinds on Usenet.

Luckily, most are NOT like you.

TMF

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I've got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

 

[[email protected]]

In this particular squabble, it seems that the confusion might stem
from the fact that drill presses do not loom large in the arsenal ofelectronicsrepair equipment. There are many levels ofelectronics
repair, and most of them don't require a drill press.

Over in rcm, Too Many Tools already said that he had purchased a small
drill press. I think he is just trying to get people to say that what
he bought is useful in electronic repair.

Dan

 

[Radiosrfun]

Over in rcm, Too Many Tools already said that he had purchased a small
drill press. I think he is just trying to get people to say that what
he bought is useful in electronic repair.

Dan

Maybe(?) he is into "PC" fabrication! A drill press could/would certainly be
handy for that. OR if he is into reworking metal for repairing an item or
maybe making cases/cabinets/enclosures for electronics equipment. But for
repairs, I doubt it. I "hope" he's not using one with a screwdriver tip or a
socket tip for removing or replacing hardware! For doing PC boards, I have a
dremel with a small stand which works well and is not bulky/heavy or
cumbersome to use - for my "occasional" PC board making.

Just my guess and 2 cents.

L.