holes in cobalt

4

4hawks

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Dec 12, 2009
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in the process of (trying) making a drill guide from a piece of cobalt (old lathe cutter) any suggestions on how to get a couple precise .25" holes thru this stuff? messed around trying to anneal the other nite with no luck but i kno nothing about this stuff far as heat processes go. ideas? the holes do need to be pretty exact so thinking die grinder with some kinda cutter isn't the answer.
Scott
 
What cobalt alloy? What was your annealing temperature?

I've seen a cobalt alloy heated to over 2,000° that would not move under a forging hammer. It drilled easily at room temperature with carbide drills.

Chuck
 
If it’s a square of large tooling then it’s a high speed steal. It’s designed to stay hard at elevated temps. Best bit would be to use a mill and carbide drills or a ball endmill and then finish the holes with a carbide reamer. Aneeling it will be difficult. But if you considered annealing it then I’m guessing it does not matter if it’s hard. If that’s true then why not just use mild steel, it drills easy.
 
4hawks said:
in the process of (trying) making a drill guide from a piece of cobalt (old lathe cutter) any suggestions on how to get a couple precise .25" holes thru this stuff? messed around trying to anneal the other nite with no luck but i kno nothing about this stuff far as heat processes go. ideas? the holes do need to be pretty exact so thinking die grinder with some kinda cutter isn't the answer.
Scott
Click to expand...
buy something like this ...........I drill many holes in HSS cobalt steel with them .
https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/sharpening-masonry-drills.1540592/#post-17748361
 
ya, the end result needs to be nice and hard, using for a drill guide. mild steel the holes get wobbled out after time. will prob go plan b and make one from an old file=anneal-drill-heat-quench=hard, yes? Just had this old no good lathe cutter laying around, says cobalt right on it and it seems really hard, skates a file and easily snapped a corner off of it-vise and hammer. its about 1/4" thick
Scott
 
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