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I did put a transparency over the screen, laser printed one.? I have the plans for a video crosshair generator in the works, which would be much better.? The camera is an old security camera which runs off 12VDC or 24VAC.? The whole thing runs off 12VDC, so that's why I got the camera that I did.? Hamfest stuff a while back.?

I used the rototool (Proxxon) because it's got a higher RPM, much better bearings, and a much better chuck than the dremel.? I did have a dremel on a stand, but the parallax was horrible.? The reason for making this as is?? I wanted a fixed setup that could be left in one piece.? The stand was from an old (and no, I didn't buy anything but the stand, all there was) Pace desoldering system.? I bought a second one and made an adaptor for the existing hot air desoldering system I have.? Then again, the metcal tips work even better with less trauma to the chip.

You can argue that mine is a bit of overkill, but then again, why not?

Harvey

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Yes, I see from the photos that they are in principle much the same. A spinning drill bit that can be raised and lowered, a place slide the pcb around in any direction to reach each of the holes to be drilled, and a camera on the opposite side to have a consistent viewing angle. You are using a roto-tool to get higher rpm for the drill bit, a single axes slide with a stepper motor to advance and pull back the drill and a much fancier camera than I have. Plus yours, as you have said, has the drill upside down so that you see the board the same way as the camera does. Do you have crosshairs taped to the display screen? I needed them on mine because the axis of rotation of the drill bit is not parallel to the vertical axis.

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Yours does look very substantial. Mine can still be used as a regular drill press between circuit boards without any disassembly and reassembly. I wish I could post pictures of mine, but it is still locked up in a shipping container along with the rest of my workshop waiting for the new workshop to be finished. I added my approach just to provide people with an alternative so that they can choose which suits them best.

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