In article . com,
says...

A fair bit back, Jim Rozen described a drill press for Printed Circuit
Boards that sounded like a good design. A microscope with a cross hair
to align the board, and a drill that comes up from the other side to
drill the hole.

Good memory. I had run that thing at the university of arizona
at tucson, in 1978. I honestly cannot remember if it was a
commercial unit, or was home-made by the shop's boss. He was
that kind of guy so it may have been home-made.

The spindle and motor were out of a Dumore drill press, I remember
that. They were rigged to rise up from below under the action
of an air piston, tripped by an electric foot switch. I seem to
recall that the drill was held in a chuck, maybe the tiny albrecht
one, on the motor spindle. A collet of course would be less expensive.

It was pretty filthy work, I think there was a vacuum rigged up to
pull the swarf out of the working area. If I were doing that today
I would vent it outside, G-10 is not the best stuff to be working
with.

This was nearly before the days of NC pcb machines, and for protoypting
work it was pretty nice. They also did their own multi-level boards
via tape on acetate, which were then optically reduced. Then they
had their own expose, develop, and etch setup as well.

These days board houses are numerous, good, and inexpensive - if
you are doing even a few, you might consider just shipping them a
gerber file.

Jim


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