ExpressPCB Plated Through Hole Drill Sizes?

[Steve Mavronis]

Anyone have a good guide for this to account for the plated through hole copper thickness for various parts to fit? If a component lead is of a certain mil diameter how much extra should be added for the copper plated in the holes?

I know this is DIY here but their service may not be too bad in a pinch since you can probably fit 6 pedal circuit boards (2 each) onto their set of three $51 mini board size.

[theehman]

I use their Mini-board service all the time.  I get anywhere from 6 to 24 boards from an order, depending on which boards I'm having made.

That being said, while I don't know exact sizes, I've never had any trouble loading it with standard 1/4w resistors and most caps using their default sizes.  Transistor leads and 1N4148 diodes also fit well.

I don't think you need to account for the copper in the plated-through hole.

[Steve Mavronis]

Thanks, my ExpressPCB custom pad holes are small at 20 mil to aid as a drill centerpunch. It seems the default ExpressPCB pad hole size is 29 mil. So if I ever use their service I'll have to keep this in mind.

[Steve Mavronis]

I got this reply back from ExpressPCB support:

We do not advise on hole diameters. I will tell you that it is much better to make a hole a little too big, rather than a little too small. When you select a pad from the drop down list box in the ExpressPCB program, notice that it displays the hole diameter along with a hole tolerance. This diameter represents the finished hole size after plating. Use this information to determine how small the hole might be.