Drilling problems

cobalt drill bits
HSS-co

 

Reverse the direction of the drill and see if that helps.

Hoss

 

I bought cobalt bits from drill hog and love them.

 

This may be more basic than you are looking for, but generally speaking, when drilling a hard metal, I find that slowing your RPM and increasing your pressure helps. Otherwise the bit tends to skate on the surface of the steel rather than biting into it as it should. That will wear out and/or overheat a bit. I see a lot of people over the years trying to drill steel by running the drill as fast as it will go. In my experience that doesn't work well. (Note that my experience has been drilling steel on construction projects or warehouses. NOT the sort of steel you are trying to drill)

I don't know what oil is best. But certainly use something. don't drill dry.

 

+1 to cobalt bits. I use the Norseman/Viking Ultra S/P metal cutting and drilling lube that was recommended at USA Knifemaker though it's available elsewhere. It's viscous and sticks around a little better versus a runny watery lube.

 

So you are using a hand drill?
How is the blade held? Do u have a rigid setup to hold your blade?

Anyway...If you aren’t feeding fast enough through the material then the end of the drill will just rub instead of cut. If your steel is truly soft annealed, it's likely you are simply not using enough pressure IMO

Just roughly it takes about 10 seconds max to drill a 3/32” hole in 1/8” annealed steel

Generally speaking in machining , drilling is the fastest way to remove material, next to sawing

I just did one and if you like I’ll upload a little video to my Instagram story So U can see the feed rate by hand

I generally drill dry in annealed material, if I want to use oil, I like these little bottles with a needle spout, you need very little oil for most of the holes we do and the other bottles just leave a big mess. If you want to use oil/coolant, practically speaking, "anything" is fine and will work. It's a knife, we aren't drilling into Inconel for aerospace parts.

this #43 drill I'm showing just did 12 holes

 

Dont feel bad I had this very issue today I understand the struggle

 

Do you know somebody that has a drill press that you could use? If so you would probably change your mind, drills much easier than a hand drill. I dont use any kind of coolant (because I use the same drill press for woodworking)and never have problems. I really like the USA made bits from USA knifemaker, the bits from lowes just aint the same.

 

A drill press would definitely help. When in doubt, slow your speed and increase your pressure. If the chips and/or the bit are turning colors, you're getting things too hot and dulling your bit. If you want a good relatively cheap oil that works really well, grab a gallon of sulfur based cutting fluid at your local big box store. It'll likely be in the plumbing section where your pipe cutting/threading dies are. A couple drops per hole should be plenty.

How big of a hole are you trying to drill? It may help to start with a smaller bit around the side of the webbing of the final drill size that you're going for.

 

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A friend brought over a knife blade he made out of a file. He had ruined several bits trying to drill it. I used a masonry bit in my drill press and easily drilled the holes he needed. Masonry bits have a carbide insert.
If you can, use a drill press, it will be much easier.