Need help drilling 1095

G

GnilknarF

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May 31, 2015
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I am failing at drilling 9/16" holes in 1/4" 1095HR ...... I am using a mag drill and was able to get 1 of the 4 holes, the rest just went about half way, I was using cutting fluid.... Does this steel need to be further annealed?? I do not own a forge or HT oven, if this does require further softening, can this be accomplished with a mapp gas torch? Or oxy/acc?

Thanks for any help,

Aloha,
Gary
 
Not an uncommon problem usually caused by a pearlite structure .What you want is "spheroidized anneal" [rather than just HRA ,that is hot rolled annealed] When the carbides are in spheres it's much easier to machine.
Best way is to heat [sub-critical anneal] to 1200F for 2-3 hours.That means an oven !
 
On reason many of us buy our steel from Aldo is his products are most all fully spheroidal.

All you can do without an oven is to heat the tang area with a torch until it just glows red. Check with a magnet to make sure it is still magnetic ( you don't want to heat it up above 1350F and start to change the state to austenite. If the magnet stops sticking, it is too hot.). A dull red is about 1200-1250F. Once it is heated to that color, try and keep it at that temp for at least a minute or two. Allow to cool until it turns black ( drops below 900F) and dunk in water. Repeat a few times..... then go drill your holes.
 
Drill for a second, then lift for a second, then drill for a second...repeat. It's just like on the milling machine. Also, check your RPM against a drill chart. Other than this, I can think of no reason why the second half of the hole of this depth is any different from the first half.
 
Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith said:
On reason many of us buy our steel from Aldo is his products are most all fully spheroidal.

All you can do without an oven is to heat the tang area with a torch until it just glows red. Check with a magnet to make sure it is still magnetic ( you don't want to heat it up above 1350F and start to change the state to austenite. If the magnet stops sticking, it is too hot.). A dull red is about 1200-1250F. Once it is heated to that color, try and keep it at that temp for at least a minute or two. Allow to cool until it turns black ( drops below 900F) and dunk in water. Repeat a few times..... then go drill your holes.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Gonna give it it a shot.... think my wife needs to buy me an early Christmas gift. .. HT oven....
 
catalytic said:
Drill for a second, then lift for a second, then drill for a second...repeat. It's just like on the milling machine. Also, check your RPM against a drill chart. Other than this, I can think of no reason why the second half of the hole of this depth is any different from the first half.
Click to expand...

I dulled my mag drill bit as I was trying, I got my steel from a place that I'm now finding out, sometimes does not fully anneal their steel. Thank you for your feed back, off to amazon to buy some more bits and give it another go around..... my mag drill only has 1 speed, g onna switch to my drill press...
 
There is also the method of using a carbide tipped masonry bit to drill a hole in hard steel. They are cheap enough too. The idea is to not use any coolant and high speed, and NOT to interrupt the cutting action. The carbide tip will cut a hole for you. Thing to remember tho, the carbide tip is slightly larger than the diameter of the bit. So a 1/8" carbide tip masonry bit will drill a hole slightly larger than .125".
 
Often a smaller pilot hole will help before going to a bit as large as 9/16" The size to use I was told is the size of the "web" at the tip of the large drill to be used.
Frank
 
Lieblad said:
Wont help your 9/16", but if in the future, you can use holes 3/16 - 1/4", look at Strongarm Drillbits. They are special for drilling ultra hard steel (Relsom, etc. ) whats used inside safes to shield critical locking parts.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip!:thumbup:
 
Lieblad said:
Wont help your 9/16", but if in the future, you can use holes 3/16 - 1/4", look at Strongarm Drillbits. They are special for drilling ultra hard steel (Relsom, etc. ) whats used inside safes to shield critical locking parts.
Click to expand...

Frank Niro said:
Often a smaller pilot hole will help before going to a bit as large as 9/16" The size to use I was told is the size of the "web" at the tip of the large drill to be used.
Frank
Click to expand...

Thanks Frank, my next crack at it I will pilot hole, mag drills use a annular cutter as the drill bit so no pilot hole....going back to the good ole drill press with a pilot hole...:thumbup:
 
I have spot anealed in situations like this.
You place the blade on a flat piece of fire brick and with a steel rod the diamiter of the hole, heat the rod with an oxy acetaline torch andnd allow the heat to "move" into the area to be drilled. Spot polishing and watching the temper colour is important. This only aneals a very thin layer and is low as molassas but I have drilled and then taped through case hardened firearm receivers using this meathod
Best of luck YMMV
 
This was posted in an entirely different thread????? disregard.
 
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