An Index System for Hand Drilling Circuit Boards

**rgsparber** · Apr 7, 2019, 01:04 PM

I occasionally design, etch and drill simple circuit boards. My drilling "skills" are pathetic. Often I had to twist connectors to make them fit into the holes.

Now I have an indexing system that solves the problem. The best part is that it uses just a perf board, some white Elmer's glue, and two pins stolen from a connector.

If you are interested, please see

https://rick.sparber.org/DremelIndexTable.pdf

Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.

Thanks,

Rick

**bruce.desertrat** · Apr 8, 2019, 06:42 PM

Awesome, it's a FMC pcb machine (Finger-Manually-Controlled) :-) Clever solution.

**rgsparber** · Apr 8, 2019, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by bruce.desertrat

Awesome, it's a FMC pcb machine (Finger-Manually-Controlled) :-) Clever solution.

Does this make it digit-al control?

Rick

**DIYer** · Apr 9, 2019, 08:42 AM

Thanks Rick Sparber! We've added your Dremel Index Table to our Drilling and Drill Presses category,
as well as to your builder page: Rick Sparber's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Dremel Index Table by Rick Sparber

tags: PCB, drilling

**tonyfoale** · Apr 9, 2019, 01:05 PM

I used to use pre-perforated board as a guide to drill needed holes into metal drilling jigs which in turn were used to drill unetched PCB. I would then use the holes as a guide to draw the tracks prior to etching.

An Index System for Hand Drilling Circuit Boards-80s_pcbs.jpg

Click for full size.
Two examples of the drilling jigs and the finished boards.

I had a tiny high speed drill (much smaller than a Dremel) and the whole operation was manual.

An Index System for Hand Drilling Circuit Boards-drill.png

**wizard69** · Apr 14, 2019, 08:22 AM

Pretty cool but I’m surprised you have not made a CNC machine by now.

**rgsparber** · Apr 14, 2019, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by wizard69

Pretty cool but I’m surprised you have not made a CNC machine by now.

I do have a CNC driven mill but can drill all the holes in a one-off board faster than it takes to boot up.

To see my CNC set-up, you can go to

https://rick.sparber.org/ma.html#Mill

and scroll down to the CNC section.

Now, if I was going to mill the board rather than chemically etch it, I would certainly use my CNC mill.

Rick

**tonyfoale** · Apr 14, 2019, 03:52 PM

Originally Posted by wizard69

Pretty cool but I’m surprised you have not made a CNC machine by now.

It is unclear if you were addressing your comment to Rick or me. Rick has already answered. My comment above referred to boards that I made in the early 1980's.
I have a Bridgeport which was fitted from new (quite a while back for the one previous owner) with an Anilam Crusader CNC system. Although the servo motors, drives and encoders are still reasonably current tech the controller was very old tech and clunky so I fitted a modern Galil controller with PC control. IIRC I made a post on this form recently about using it to make PCBs but I can't find it, so here is a link to a video description