Recommendation? Drilling Hardened Steel

G

gatorforge

Joined
Jul 2, 2010
Messages
176
Hoping someone here who has done this before might have a tip or trick.

I ran our of my 1084 bar and haven't ordered more yet, but I saw an old dull Nicholson file I hadn't used in a while, and I saw a knife in there.

I ground it to shape, and went to drill the holes for pins. I thought it might be a little hard going, but I can barely make a dent. I'm using Dewalt bits for drilling steel, and am running my Powermatic drill press at the recommended 1500 rpm, for 1/8" in hard steel. I cannot even get it to start though.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
gatorforge said:
Hoping someone here who has done this before might have a tip or trick.

I ran our of my 1084 bar and haven't ordered more yet, but I saw an old dull Nicholson file I hadn't used in a while, and I saw a knife in there.

I ground it to shape, and went to drill the holes for pins. I thought it might be a little hard going, but I can barely make a dent. I'm using Dewalt bits for drilling steel, and am running my Powermatic drill press at the recommended 1500 rpm, for 1/8" in hard steel. I cannot even get it to start though.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
Well ....welcome in my nightmares :D I just drilled lot of holes ...big one holes in 5mm M2 steel ,64-65 hrc .....MF :mad:
UPgc3dc.jpg

kEGWlsG.jpg

Here ...............dril bits for ceramic tile would work
https://bladeforums.com/threads/drilling-hardened-steel-easy-cheap-way.1625415/
look in this to https://bladeforums.com/threads/sharpening-masonry-drills.1540592/
 
gatorforge said:
Hoping someone here who has done this before might have a tip or trick.

I ran our of my 1084 bar and haven't ordered more yet, but I saw an old dull Nicholson file I hadn't used in a while, and I saw a knife in there.

I ground it to shape, and went to drill the holes for pins. I thought it might be a little hard going, but I can barely make a dent. I'm using Dewalt bits for drilling steel, and am running my Powermatic drill press at the recommended 1500 rpm, for 1/8" in hard steel. I cannot even get it to start though.

Any help would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
On what kind of knife you are working ? Full tang handle with scale or hidden tang ? Maybe torch would help you to aneal steel where you need hole ? And did you temper file , it is to hard /fragile to use it as it is ....
 
Thanks N Natlek I’ll grab a tile bit and give it a go! It’s a full tang. Gonna do bolsters and scales.

Yup it’s tempered. Thought about heating all of it but bolster holes would be too close to blade.
 
Natlek said:
Well ....welcome in my nightmares :D I just drilled lot of holes ...big one holes in 5mm M2 steel ,64-65 hrc .....MF :mad:
UPgc3dc.jpg

kEGWlsG.jpg

Here ...............dril bits for ceramic tile would work
https://bladeforums.com/threads/drilling-hardened-steel-easy-cheap-way.1625415/
look in this to https://bladeforums.com/threads/sharpening-masonry-drills.1540592/
Click to expand...
Tile bits I got here in the USA aren't sharp enough to cut steel. I need to find some quality ones like you have haha. The carbide bits I use will chip out on me.
 
Carbide drill bits will do the job. Slow your drill press down to 6-800 rpm and use a tad of oil or cutting fluid for threading pipe. There is a sweet spot in your pressure . Ease into it and cut some, then back off and add a bit more oil.
 
As mentioned, carbide drillbits.
I use StrongArm drill bits. They are used by locksmiths and safe specialists to drill thru hardplate inserts.
Just get the oil, speed and pressure right. They work very well.
 
I've drilled hardened steel with cheapo carbide tipped masonry bits. The hole is not pretty and the tips break off easily but they work if in a pinch.

You can always wrap the blade in a wet cloth and draw back the temper where you want the holes with a torch.
 
Black and Decker glass/tile bits work. I have drilled quite a few holes now using the tile bits on power hack saw blades that are M2 with 64-65 rc for hardness.
 
X2 on the carbide bits, and also x2 on the slow speed and sweet spot on pressure. I do t use oil - it does not seem to make a difference and just generates smoke.

A HUGE difference came from something horsewright suggested: use a small diamond burr in a dremel to create a small “divot” to keep the bit from wandering. This idea worked very well to get the bit biting right away and doing so where you really want the hole.

Back the material with something like aluminum, and buy multiple bits - they break
 
scott kozub said:
I've drilled hardened steel with cheapo carbide tipped masonry bits. The hole is not pretty and the tips break off easily but they work if in a pinch.

You can always wrap the blade in a wet cloth and draw back the temper where you want the holes with a torch.
Click to expand...
Next time sharpen them on diamond disc for dremel .Just light touch on edge,same angle ..............big difference , they will cut much better .........
 
I get short carbide paddle bits from Amazon for around $8. They work great but sometimes they hang up and snap when you push through the last bit but I get several holes out of each one so its worth it. I haven't had much luck with the tile bits for the getting through the steel but they work fine to enlarge the hole. A carbide burr also works great for that.
 
Regular carbide drill bits are about $20 each. They're worth having at least one of each size you use for your standard pin holes. Carbide should run high speed/low feed with a coolant flood. Just enough pressure to keep making swarf (fine dust mixed with coolant.) Any chip that is bigger than fine dust is too much feed.
 
Thank you to everyone for the advice!

For some reason I didn’t get notifications for the other responses. I went ahead and took N Natlek ‘s.

Worked like a charm. Nice clean holes, made chips not dust, but went through with minimal pressure at 1175 RPM

These are the cheap bits to have if you need em.
b40GNfR.jpg

z6KpiC6.jpg
 
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