Drilling tips?

Maqua

Maqua

Joined
Jan 21, 2005
Messages
2,396
I'm just guessing here, but it's not such a good idea to set your drill press at the fastest possible speed for drilling holes in steel, right? I was drilling some holes in the tang of my first knife when the bit heated up and made smoke out of the cutting fluid, then the bit wouldn't drill any more. The spot on the blade is now so hard that no bit will drill it out. :barf:

Any tips for a newbie?
 
slowing it down would certainly help ;)

what kind of bits are you using? If you're not already using them, try cobalt, if it's too hard for that, you might have to try a carbide bit, a center cutting end mill will go through it no problem, if you have enough of the hole to keep the bit in line<---I say that because if you're using a shi**y drill press like mine, it tends to wander and grab the blade from your hand.
Steve
 
If you have not hardened the blade yet just put a torch to the drill spot and slow cool. Reanneal the spot. Then drill as normal. ;)
 
Kim Breed said:
If you have not hardened the blade yet just put a torch to the drill spot and slow cool. Reanneal the spot. Then drill as normal. ;)
Click to expand...

Do I heat the blade to red hot? I've never anealed anything. You have a nice website, btw! I may have to procure one of your fine cutting instruments! :)
 
The big question is the type of steel you are using. If your using a stainless alloy heating the blade with a torch to red hot will only make it harden up more. If its non stainless the torch trick will work. Just heat the area that your working on.
 
It's a piece of 154CM. I think I'll either just stick the scales on and move on to the next blade, which will be hacked out of ATS-34, or try the carbide drill bit/end mill bit approach. And use a much slower speed.

Hopefully by then, I'll have the skills to not screw up that expensive S30V that's awaiting the hacksaw and file. :)
 
paintfool said:
slowing it down would certainly help ;)

...I say that because if you're using a shi**y drill press like mine, it tends to wander and grab the blade from your hand.
Steve
Click to expand...
You realy should be placing the blade in a vice and not holding it by hand. If it does grab it out of your hand you might just lose a few fingers when it makes that 600 RPM round trip before you can get out of the way:eek: . We would not want that to happen.

Matt Matlock
 
Matt, Ask Mister Thumb on my left hand what happend to him.... Surprizingly he was still there with just 13 stiches to put him back together again. First year I was making knives is when that happend.
 
the sad thing about it is, I can almost completely stop the press when it snags, that's how shi**y we're talking.....

I do use a vise for most things though, it's just when the blade has an odd shape and I don't want to mess it up, I risk my hands instead of risking the blade :barf: :D
Steve
 
I use only carbide drill bits & end mills, I find they last a very long time
and can be sharpend for the price of HSS bits, I have been using the same
drill bits for the last 6 mos. and have never sharpen them yet.

Blademan

James
 
Steve

If your workpiece doesn't fit in your vise well, then use a C-clamp or a pair of vise-grips to clamp it to the table of your drill. You can position it so that it is already bearing against your clamp to better resist the torque of the drill bit cutting through it. Please do something other than hold it with your hand. If you are worried about marking the blade, use some wood scraps to cushion the jaws of the vise or clamp. Once you have one or two holes drilled, you can screw the workpiece onto a piece of 2X4.

Spinning a drill bit too fast will burn it out. Spinning slow means you will take just a bit longer to drill the hole, but not as long as it takes to drive out and buy a new bit. If your drill is really that weak, setting it to turn slower may give you a bit more torque at the bit as long as the belts aren't slipping.

Phil
 
If you do decide to use carbide drills, you will want to surely clamp the blade securely because the carbide drill is incredibly hard and any movement while drilling could break the bit. One other thing with carbide, either drill dry without any coolant or if you use coolant, use alot of it. In otherwords, flood the hell out of it with coolant or don't use any at all. Any intermitant heating and cooling on carbide could crack and break just like glass. Anyways, good luck and I hope this helps!

Luke Smart
 
Awesome advice...especially about how not to get a finger lopped off! I've been using c-clamps to hold the blade in place, but now I have an added measure of paranoia to where I won't be eyeballing the bit so closely during drilling.

I'll be looking for some carbide bits. Hopefully I won't have to use MSC Direct because their shipping is often more expensive than their products. :eek:
 
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