Idea to make pcb drilling easier

[3v0]

I was just thinking and I know there is little new under the sun so I would not be surprised to find that this has been done. It is more of an adaptation then an invention.

For years a company called IncraJig has been precision manual positioning systems for woodworking. They work by using two racks with interlocking teeth.



These tracks limit movement to units of 1/32 of an inch. They also have metric version. The neat thing is that the teeth ensure 1/1000" precision.

It is not hard to imagine how such a tool, with 1/10" inch teeth, would be useful in drilling through hole PCBs. Just line up a row of holes with a fence to get the Y position of the row and use the rack to precisely move to the next hole in the row. You could use a 2nd rack to restrict movement of the fence.

You could even automate this sort of thing. I am not sure how far one would want to go given that a CNC mill will easily drill holes. My thinking is that this sort of thing could be built inexpensive, at least in the manual mode.

The down side is that you would need to keep you holes on the 1/10 inch grid or drill them by hand.

 

[3v0]

The Incra Jig people are selling their unit for $60. I wonder if we can get them to sell 1/10 or 1/20 inch tracks. If not I do not think they would be hard to make with a CNC.

**broken link removed**

 

[3v0]

Called Incra Jig Tech support. They have a limited supply of 1/20" racks. The original incra jig takes 4 of them so that is $8 for a set.

I have a CNC that I can use but it is up at school. I think I am thinking about getting a set and see how well it works.

Bob's your uncle.

Edit: You will not want to work with the knob to do each hole. Maybe put a spring under it to allow you to move the rack by pushing it. Or a quick release.

 

[DirtyLude]

I don't want to be negative, but this would just make drilling a bigger pain for me. Maybe it's because I generally don't have that many holes to drill, but accuracy has never been a big issue for me. With the drill press I just speed through header holes as quickly as possible. Some deviance helps hold the header pin straight in the holes for soldering.

 

[3v0]

It depends on how easy it is to move the board to the next position. If one leaves it stock and uses the hold down knob it would be a PIA. I would replace it with some form of quick release or maybe a spring.

How the PCB is laid out would matter. If it has long rows of holes it would work well.

Would say more but have to run. Will continue.