Hi Bartosz,

Unfortunately, there is no "quick trick" to solve this problem. The only thing you can do is learn why it happens, then practice and gain experience dealing with it.

You are probably using HSS (high speed steel) drill bits to drill your board. The problem is that you are drilling through minute strands of glass fibers. The relatively soft steel dulls extremely quickly under such conditions. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to make up a condition to dull a steel drill bit faster. And once the bit becomes dull, the increased friction produces more heat and small thermally isolated features (like pads) are melted loose.

You can do things like increase the size of your pads, but you're still going to have to change your bit at a ridiculous rate. The other option is to use a carbide steel bit.

Carbide bits are extremely hard and stay sharp for a long time. By staying sharp they don't tend to melt off the pads, at least until they start getting dull. But another way of saying "extremely hard" is to say "extremely brittle." The problem becomes keeping the bit in tact long enough for it to get dull. If you have ever tried to use a carbide bit it probably broke in very short order. But, with practice you can learn how to use carbide bits without breaking them.

First you need to understand why they break. Commercial machines use them to drill hundreds of holes a minute without breaking them. Why does yours break after the first hole or two? Because the bit can not withstand even the slightest, imperceptible lateral force.

If you want to use a carbide bit, you must use it with a small drill press. I have used a Dremel tool in a press stand for years. This ensures that the motion of the bit will be vertical. Now here's the part you have to practice with discipline. Put the board in position and think of your left hand as a clamp. Hold the board in exactly that spot with your left hand until the drill bit has been lowered and completely retracted from the board with your right hand. You must resist the impulse to start moving the board to your next hole too soon.

This is not as easy as it sounds. Your tendancy will be to try and work faster and faster until the bit reminds you to slow down by breaking. But with practice and discipline you can manually drill entire boards, hundreds of holes, without breaking a carbide bit. You will, eventually, have to start watching for signs that the carbide bit getting dull. When it does, it too will melt off your pads. But it will take a lot longer to happen.