question on drilling holes for folders

[Cliff Parker]

I drill my folder holes by hand with a flexible shaft machine.

How's that working for ya ?

Cliff

 

[javand]

Drilling is a roughing operation to remove material from a hole, but not to make an accurate hole. Not many people are following a drilled hole with a single point bore these days, but that will get it round and square prior to reaming.

For most needs, an accurate hole is spotted, drilled and reamed. You can use a "preream" endmill to chase a drilled hole prior to reaming to get it square and in position, similar to boring.

If you're just drilling and not reaming, your hole is not round or dimensionally accurate and, IMO, isn't good for much.


...my .02...

Nathan, I definitely agree with you in principle here, and you know way more about this stuff than me, or most of the rest of us, but it's one of those cases where, depending on what kind of folders you make, and how, this simply may not be necessary or worth the effort.


If you're making slipjoints with pinned spring and pinned pivot, the only hole that demands concentricity is the pivot hole on the blade, as it rides the peened and swelled stationary pivot pin.. In most cases the holes are just a place to put a tight pin for fit-up, that'll swell to fill whatever shape when permanently peened, the only thing that's really important is that they're bored square to the work (or it'll shift the components out of alignment when swelling the pins), and snug, for the same reason.


Now if you're making flippers with bearings and spacers and standoffs and such, you probably need much more precise boring, I can only speculate, as I've never made such.


So yeah, best practice definitely, but YMMV as always right? I drilled and reamed every hole on my slipjoints for a while, but I've found it unnecessary personally with those notched point straight flute drills, to bother for the 1/16 holes. Many of the best old makers I've spoken or spent time with, don't ream any of the holes. *shrug*

 

[Bill DeShivs]

How's that working for ya ?

Cliff

Works great! I build custom automatic knives- even miniature ones.
Here are a few:

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

but it's one of those cases where, depending on what kind of folders you make, and how, this simply may not be necessary or worth the effort.

You're right, I misspoke.

It's easy to get in the mentality that "the way I do it is the right way". It's human nature. I was looking at things from the POV of what it would take for me to be successful at something and extrapolating that to other people. I spot more and ream stuff now that I didn't used to because it prevents and solves problems for me, and ultimately makes things simpler and go smoother because I'm not chasing problems. However, some of the folks on this thread have a lot of experience in this subject and probably aren't chasing a lot of these problems.

Many of the best old makers I've spoken or spent time with, don't ream any of the holes. *shrug*

That said, I've seen a lot of wobbly old slip joints. Reaming is such a simple way to make a round accurate diameter that will have less play and age better than a rough drilled hole, I can't see skipping it on something like a pivot. Though the point about the other holes is well taken.

 

[Stacy E. Apelt - Bladesmith]

My opinion is that if you have a hole that needs a precise fit...and you drill it on more than one knife....you should by and use a reamer.

 

[javand]

That said, I've seen a lot of wobbly old slip joints. Reaming is such a simple way to make a round accurate diameter that will have less play and age better than a rough drilled hole, I can't see skipping it on something like a pivot.

100% agree with you.

 

[stezann]

Of course reamers won't solve anything if the hole is not square
Most of the problems stem from a crooked drill press table and that is the first thing to solve. That said, after fiddling with the table, a reamer is not that great expense, and after all the trouble it's worth to dig holes to be proud of

 

[Kevin Wilkins]

I feel for you guys trying to make quality parts with drill presses that are garbage. A good drill press – at least one – is an absolute must have for any shop. I have 4. One is a larger desk top made by Maxion in Germany; another is a large, free standing Flott from the 1970s and then I have 2 smaller desk tops machines that were made in East Germany. All are excellent. I bought the Maxion new about 15 years ago after buying a China one and immediately returning it for a refund. The Maxion cost a couple thousand $ but so what, it will last past my lifetime. The others were bought used.

Here a drill press is an excellent machine to buy used because they are easy to check for damage. Good brands are Alzmetall, Flott, Maxion / Ixion and there are many others. The East German made ones are also excellent.

Are there even still any companies actually making drill presses in the USA? I know you can buy Alzmetall and Flott new in the States.

 

[Daniel Fairly Knives]

I think a squared up press will be fine... I like to remove the table and shorten the column to reduce flex. An inexpensive dial gauge and holder is a good investment.

One tip is to drill on a 1-2-3 block and always slide your work around to be sure there is no debris, etc throwing your work off. The tiny chps will fall through the holes in the block if you missed any... they are easy to feel on one. I like using a cheap paintbrush to dust the block and my work area off easily between operations.

I drill a few thousandths under, deburr and ream the pivot and any pins. For tapping and clearance holes bits are just fine for me.

On a pivot I ream the blade to .001" under then lap with Clover Compound (and a brass needle eye lap) for a tight, smooth fit. One frame side is .001" under to press fit my pivot while the other is .001" over or the same for a slip fit.

Measure everything! Is that .187" standoff really .187" off the shelf? Probably not...

I make framelocks and that's just how I do it now... there a lot of good ways to go about this. I will say that having a squared up machine is probably the most important.

Be sure to check everything for thickness too, many materials will be thicker on one end, cupped, etc and this will throw off your holes a lot. I was micing some carbon fiber the other day and one end was .020" thicker... this would probably cause a bit to drift especially on tougher to drill materials like Ti.