Moron Part 2 or drilling hardened CPM154

Bummer, Patrice!

I've not done it, but I think I've heard that the answer is carbide drill bits and/or carbide dremel bits. Good luck, and I'm interested to hear the solution too!
 
You're going to need a carbide bit and a decent drill press. You can try a masonry bit, but I've not had success with these.

I've done it twice, once with A2 and once with 154CM. You need to make sure there's no real play in the drill press or you may break the bit.
 
Carbide bits will do a good job. Run your drill fasat and maybe without a tapping fluid. Start with if you have some and watch the results. Frank
 
That's great Stacy. I have a 10% off coupon from Home Depot. Any idea in what aisle I can find the lasers? :D

Thanks guys. I don't have a carbide drill of the right size but I'll give the masonry bit a try. I think I tried that a while back but not on stainless.

I'll let you know how it works.
 
The masonry bit will not drill an even hole or give you the size hole that the bit is listed at, if you get it to work. Just an FYI.
 
Patrice,
It's always a good idea to have some screw-machine length carbide bits in your common pin sizes. They've saved my butt on a few occasions.
FYI, MSC is having a sale on their cutting tools today and tomorrow... 35% off (certain brands are exempt). I'm thinking about stocking up myself (I really need some #30 cobalts). ;) Code is CTB35W.
 
I had this problem with a D2 blade recently. What I did was carefully anneal the tang with the torch. It took a few tries before it was soft enough to drill.
 
If you have a carbide bit bigger than what you need you might just use it and then sleeve your pin or whatever is going through the hole.
 
The problem with the laser isn't finding one, it's affording the power. My family used to be in the printing cylinder business and used lasers to do the engraving. My dad joked that the commercial electrician loved him and the power company hated him. It seemed like every new machine was even more power hungry than the last and always exceeded what they'd thought was sufficient expansion capacity the last time.
 
From one moron to another :o... Carbide is the way to go, I wouldn't use the masonry bit. unfortunately you probably won't find a Carbide at Home Depot or other hardware stores. I order mine from Grainger unfortunately they are not the cheapest bits out there.

Shorter the better 118 Degree angle.
 
Her is what I have done in the past. Place the blade area in a bucket of water with only the tang sticking out heat with torch tell red hot then rap the tang in kwool nice and tight to keep the heat in for as long as possible. You would be suprised how well it keeps hlthe heat in. After it is do e cooling it should be plently soft for drilling
 
yep torch the tang but you need notwrap in wool to keep it warm as it will still cool too fast

in truth all you are doing it wreckingthe temper on the tang and thats mostly fine but you have to get the steel over 1100f cpm154 goes from 62 at 1000 to liek 50 at 1100 thats why steels that have a 2nd temper curve are tricky as if you over shoot a little it gets ugly fast (or in your case is great news :) )

but i woudl still then use a colbolt bit to make the hole .
 
Stubby length carbide drills and use a Bridgeport if possible for all the rigidity you can get to prevent the drill from "walking". Try to spot the hole location with a spotting endmill if possible or even a hand punch, to prevent walking. Then drill underside at least a sixteenth or more. Then drill or even better use a relieved endmill for final hole diameter. Could then go carbide tipped reamer depending how critical the diameter is. IMHO

BH#90
 
Thanks for the tips guys. I will try everything but the heating of the tang first. I am too scared to ruined the temper.

I had a pretty good idea that if I do get it to work, I'll get something way oversized so I'll choose the drill accordingly. This is for a Corby bolt after all so I need the pilot hole a tad bigger anyway. No real precision needed here. Now that I think about it, I am using slabs, not a block, so why not just make it a hidden pin instead. Still need a hole though.

Erin, I so wished that I had the funds available to take advantage of that 35% off order. But I need belts, handle material and a few other things first and that will eat up the limited funds I have. (and even some I don't have :() The screw-machine length carbide bits have been on my to-buy list for a long time but when it comes time to order stuff, there is always something more pressing and I think to myself “I rarely need them anyway”. :(

I'll let you guys know how I do tomorrow.
 
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