Drilling templates... with perfboard!
Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2011 11:31 am
I've been doing this for a while, but it was usually just when I needed perfectly straight holes, I'd glue a bit of perfboard to the template. This time, I needed a LOT of perfectly straight holes, so I just made the template out of perfboard.
Here's the pics:
Team Tesla! Drilling template... by McSpunckleFX, on Flickr
Templates get results! by McSpunckleFX, on Flickr
Basically, you cut out bits of perfboard the hight of the enclosure, and line them up on center lines. I'd recommend clamping them to the enclosure to hold them in place-- I used double sided tape and it was a bit tricky. Once I had all 4 sides attached, I laid it up-side-down on the top bit and used some epoxy glue (the loctite "professional heavy duty" stuff) to stick it together. After the glue sat up enough to hold on its own (but was still flexible), I removed the enclosure and let it dry. Then marked the holes with a sharpie.
The down side:
You -need- a drill press. The material will bore out out fairly easily. The bigger the holes, the less accurate it will be. You wanna use a really high speed, too. I've noticed that helps.
The first one you do will be kind of a pain because there's so much dust. I use a 1/16" drill bit-- that's just a -bit- bigger than the holes. If you have a bit the exact size of the hole, that would be ideal.
And finally, all the extra holes can be sorta confusing, but you can cover it in masking tape and poke a pen or something through the holes to cover them up.
So, yeah! Thought I'd share 'cause it worked out pretty well for me and it's relatively easy to do (especially if you have a shear to cut the perf.
Also, if you're just doing one, making the template is probably a waste of time. You can simply take a bit of perfboard big enough for the area you're drilling, and use some thin double-sided tape to hold it in place while you drill. I did that for a prototype-- it works just as well, but you'll want to sand the under-side of the perf after each use so the tape sticks to it.
w00h! Happy drilling!
Also, does anyone know what I did with my pliers? I can't find them anywhere...
Here's the pics:
Team Tesla! Drilling template... by McSpunckleFX, on Flickr
Templates get results! by McSpunckleFX, on Flickr
Basically, you cut out bits of perfboard the hight of the enclosure, and line them up on center lines. I'd recommend clamping them to the enclosure to hold them in place-- I used double sided tape and it was a bit tricky. Once I had all 4 sides attached, I laid it up-side-down on the top bit and used some epoxy glue (the loctite "professional heavy duty" stuff) to stick it together. After the glue sat up enough to hold on its own (but was still flexible), I removed the enclosure and let it dry. Then marked the holes with a sharpie.
The down side:
You -need- a drill press. The material will bore out out fairly easily. The bigger the holes, the less accurate it will be. You wanna use a really high speed, too. I've noticed that helps.
The first one you do will be kind of a pain because there's so much dust. I use a 1/16" drill bit-- that's just a -bit- bigger than the holes. If you have a bit the exact size of the hole, that would be ideal.
And finally, all the extra holes can be sorta confusing, but you can cover it in masking tape and poke a pen or something through the holes to cover them up.
So, yeah! Thought I'd share 'cause it worked out pretty well for me and it's relatively easy to do (especially if you have a shear to cut the perf.
Also, if you're just doing one, making the template is probably a waste of time. You can simply take a bit of perfboard big enough for the area you're drilling, and use some thin double-sided tape to hold it in place while you drill. I did that for a prototype-- it works just as well, but you'll want to sand the under-side of the perf after each use so the tape sticks to it.
w00h! Happy drilling!
Also, does anyone know what I did with my pliers? I can't find them anywhere...
