I recently got a small XY-table also, quite similar to the Proxxon but built a bit more sturdily, but still very similar.. Its one that is also used in milling, I know the
table is capable of it. the manufacturer says so.
but Ive only done drilling using it, no lateral cutting yet.
I'd like to try that.. if I can be confident- of its safety by some means of being sure the tool wasn't going to fall out unexpectedly. (
) And only going very slowly as to not cause the bit to become deformed.
What kinds of bits do you use to do that? and how do you keep them in? Do you heat up the drill's part that accepts the chuck's arbor so as to make it expand so it then can contract around the arbor? (I may have the terms backwards here)
First I would like to try that for doing one off on PCBs, especially very simple ones.. cutting lines etc, first.. with a small router bit or something like that.
Cutting holes sideways, I am kind of worried about detachment. The problem is drills are not meant for lateral motion and mills are. On a drill the only thing holding the chuck in is the taper. A mill actually locks the cutting tool in.
Until I'm satisfied enough with my knowledge that Ive figured out a way to eliminate what I see now as significant risk the of drill bit and chuck detaching and falling out, becoming a projectile, I am not so eager to do it.
This is mostly because I still have very little experience with using it in the normal fashion.
Well, the proper way to do it is with milling machines or routers, to be honest. Waterjets not so much.
I put a small X-Y table (Proxxon; do not buy the absolute cheapest shit) on a cheap shitty drill press, and added CNC control to the X and Y axes. Works a treat if you can put up with the slight peculiarities. I believe there are some fairly inexpensive ($200 and up) CNC routers on eBay, but they're probably also terrible in many exciting ways, and have fairly significant limits in the Z axis.