Drill bit stuck in Micarta

BarberFobic1992

BarberFobic1992

Joined
Jan 21, 2008
Messages
3,346
I am handling this blade:
kb2000.jpg


With a block of micarta. I was drilling the pilot hole and the drillbit snapped and a good portion of it got stuck. I tried drilling around it, and manged to get part of it out, but there is still more in there. I don't want to have to scrap the micarta and start over, so what should I do? I think that my two options are to either grind the blade tang to fit around the bit, or just to remove the bit. I don't think that I want to go grinding on the tang though, as I don't want to weaken the knife any.

Also, are you supposed to have a special bit to drill micarta?

Thanks,
Brendan
 
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ummmmmmmmmmm is there such a thing as a hollow drill bit to drill AROUND the broke off bit? lol, just a thought.

A regular drill bit should be able to drill through, perhaps the one you used was just too thin.
 
No special tooling is required to machine micarta, and unlike a lot of plastics, it doesn't melt when it gets hot. It is actually pretty nice to work with except for the stinky fumes.

If you can get hold of the broken bit, turning it counter clockwise you may be able to screw it out.
 
If you can line up the hole and drill from the other side then tap it out with a pin punch or the back of your broken drill, making a template will help locate it.

Richard
 
How about soaking it in acid to dissolve out the steel bit.

The micarta should be unaffected.

Muriatic acid, Hydrochloric acid (toilet bowl cleaner)...are all the same thing.
 
It does help when drilling micarta to drill a little and then back the drill out to allow it to clean the hole. If the drill is not getting the micarta dust out fast enough it will tend to overheat, bind the bit and snap it off especially if it is a smaller bit like a 1/8th inch or so.
 
measure to the centre on the opposite side drill a very small hole and punch the bit out backward.
 
Funny how I was the first to respond to this thread and today while tapping a piece of 1/8" A2 steel, I managed to snap off a brand new tap ! And now it's stuck in the steel with not enough to grab onto to screw back out ! ARRRGH.
 
If you have thickness to spare you could maybe file the micarta down beside the bit to grab on and do what Nathan said?
 
In my experience FC will not work faster than HCL. It will be far less dangerous to you and your shop, however. FC will not hurt the mircarta (but it could stain it).
 
Leu,

They do make tap extractors that may help you out with that broken tap. It has little fingers that slide into the grooves on the sides of the tap.
 
Lew, take a punch and shatter the broken off tap and pick the chips out.

I am assuming that this is a block of micarta that has the drill bit stuck in it. Why not just split it, use it for scales on another knife and get another block to drill to replace this one. Unless your time is worth nothing, you will spend much more time trying to get the broken bit out than the block of micarta is worth and it can probably still be used to make a set of scale handles once it is split.

Use a sharp bit, back out the drill often to clear the micarta dust out of the hole, let the drill do the work with out forcing it and you shouldn't have the problem again.
 
I have used a paper clip and thin pieces of rod from ace hardware to get out broken drill bits by turning counter clockwise after jamming the two ends of the rod or paper clip into the bit's fluting. You may not need special tooling for micarta, but I've had it "pop" a cloud of dust out of the hole when backing the spinning bit out on the drill press- it handles heat differently that wood or antler.
 
I had the same thing happen on some G10 a few weeks ago I took the Harry Mathews approach and just got a new piece. The time it took to get out the broken bit was worth more than the $6 I was losing to replace the handle material. Now I use that piece for other things around the shop, so it's not really wasted.
 
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