Comments on: Drill Your Own Precision Pinhole Apertures

By: Tim

Tim — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 01:55:03 +0000

It took me some time to figure a way to make pinholes that are on par with laser drilled. Every method I used looked awful under the microscope untill I heard a reference that advised submerging the pinhole in a little water with a spoon of washing soda. The result of using that with a micro drill bit was as perfect as a laser.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 23:31:10 +0000

I find that drilling holes works better than using a pin. A miniature drill set and a Dremel tool work great. You still have to sand the back as there will be a burr. The thing about a drilled hole is that it will be very round.
You can use a drill bit set like found at: http://www.micromark.com/20-piece-Micro-Size-Drill-Bit-Set-with-Index-61-80,6758.html

By: Victor

Victor — Fri, 14 May 2010 14:38:16 +0000

What about this idea? Using a pointy drill bit like some bits used for glass, for example, drill into a block of something. The result is a cone drilled out of the material. To create the appropriate diameter aperture, simply sand down the point side until the desired aperture is achieved.

Perhaps easier and more useful would be to stack a bunch of thin shims and drill through them. Now you have a whole series of pinholes with different diameters.

I thought up the first idea in order to make a device that has a pinhole on one end, and a cone acting like a lens shade on the other. Blocking the extra light should help keep unwanted light out of the camera.

By: Nathan

Nathan — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:03:44 +0000

I’m not sure how I didn’t stumble across this site before. This is exactly what I’ve been looking for. Although I didn’t realize it was going to be so much work. Thanks!

By: Cheeky Geek

Cheeky Geek — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:26:13 +0000

Look in hobby supply stores (like Hobby Lobby) for “beading needles”. Also, you can get very fine sandpaper (like 1500 or 2000) at an Auto Supply store, especially one that sells paint and auto body work supplies.

I’ve also heard that some people have success with “blowing” a nice hole in foil with low DC voltage. Anyone familiar with this?

I’m going to try it with a 24 VDC 1000mA transformer on various thicknesses of material and see what happens. I’ll try the scanner method of sizing/inspection. The person who told me about it uses 12-15 volts and 2 Amps. (You alligator clip one wire to the foil and the other holds your needle. A quick touch of the needle point to the foil creates a short that makes the hole. (No sanding required?) We’ll see!

By: Dayne Adams

Dayne Adams — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:25:39 +0000

I recently acquired an inexpensive set of mini drill bits and handle from Amazon, the smallest bit yielding about a 0.4mm hole, which is about right for 4×5 film, though I do have trouble getting such a small hair-thin bit properly positioned into the chuck of the pin vise. Also discovered a very inexpensive lighted scale loupe (in 0.1 mm increments) from JacksToolShed, which makes viewing the size and roundness of a hole much easier.

By: Michael Riblet

Michael Riblet — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 02:24:40 +0000

I’ve made several homemade pinholes based on different sets of instructions I’ve found on the web. The better ones do mention dimpling the metal and sanding flat on both sides to get a small round hole. What they don’t mention is a pin vice, micrometer, and never sandpaper with grit over 600! I’m lucky to have Japanese sandpaper at 1000 and 2000 grit. Great for this kind of job. One last point, if you can get stainless steel shim stock instead of brass or even worse copper, it would be better. Copper oxidizes very quickly!