Drilling out SS rivits and what does HSO mean on a drill bit?

[boggen]

my vote sanding flapper disc. ya it will leave some marks. but just thinking about trying to drill them out. that sounds like murder of the muscles, and then frustration of keeping the rivets from spinning on ya.

i had a rough time finding flapper discs in different sizes at local stores. even large hardware stores. looking from sanding, to drills, to dremals. i finally found a source at farmking near by me. if it was not for that, i would be forced to order the flapper sanding discs online. to get a smaller thickness.

i take above back, i found some small thickness sanding flapper discs in "toolshop" all in one kit for a dremal.

smaller size corded electrical drill with a lock button to keep trigger held. or a dremal has worked for me in other projects. though rivets have not had to deal with in ages...

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torch them out?

isn't there an actual tool to remove pop rivets?

[jimgerken]

Drilling out stainless pop rivets is challenging, especially if they are set in aluminum. I've drilled out hundreds (built a plane). First, get the mandrell out of there. Punch it thru inwards (from the front), with a pin-punch small enough to go through the rivet body. If you dont have a punch like that, grind one. Once the mandrell is out, take a new sharp drill of the size of the rivet, or a tiny step smaller, and drill it out with lots of pressure and very low speed, dry. Watch closely, if the rivet spins a little it may be OK, but if it spins fast, angle the drill as if you are drilling thru at an angle. That is counterintuitive, but will concentrate the drill cutting edges on the part of the rivet that is between the bushing and the head, and make it easy to pop the head off and then punch out the bushing part (another, larger pin punch is needed for this step), so it results in the least amount of drilling to remove the rivet. The rivet is less likely to spin if you drill at an angle. If the rivet stops spinning completely, you can try angling less, or you may have to angle while you woble around the drill over the work. Dont slip out, and dont break the bit. The shorter the bit, the better. A light cordless drill also is nice, and must be variable speed. The slower you turn the drill the better. A drillbit that just came out of your drill doctor will perform the best. The better the drillbit, the longer it will last. But even very good bits will need sharpening fairly soon when drilling stainless. Black and Decker had a drillbit named Bulletdrill. They were stepped on the cutting edges. They worked well for this work too, but mine have all disappeared now, and I dont know if they are available. Also, I cannot sharpen them, so they are kind of a deadend anyway. Good luck.

[ericher69]

For more information go to www.aircraft-tool.com and search on 1341S.

May be worth a shot?

[Cliff_Johns]

I will try drilling them out later this week.
I will have a few dremel grinder bits as a backup.
Thanks for the sugestions.
I will relate my experience here.
Still wondering what the HSO stands for.
Cliff

[Danno1]

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HSS stands for high speeed steel. O1 is a type of oil hardening tool steel. HSO? Maybe...


McMaster-Carr



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[Cliff_Johns]

OK, so life gets in the way sometimes. I finally got back to this. I found a good drill bit (I have no idea what type -- it's old) and using just a touch of oil, I drilled very slowly while moving the drill body around a little. I moved from rivit to rivit, and paused a lot to keep everything cool. By doing this, I successfully drilled out the eight rivits. That was very slow work. The most important tool available sometimes is patience.

The project is now complete. Thanks for the help, folks.
Cliff

[muddstopper]

Next time try a mansonary drill bit. They are carbide tipped and will do the job.

[SweBota]

When working with stainless steel, the fundamentals are

- sharp, suitable tools
- low speed
- high pressure
- good cooling

There are special drills for stainless steel and they make a huge difference especially when hand drilling. They use a different edge and spiral angle compared to normal steel drills. The leading drill brand is Dormer (Sandvik, formerly owned by SKF), and in their range they are called A108 drills.

Dormer A108 Hss Quick Spiral Jobber Drill For Stainless Steel 3.00Mm - Amazon.com

Cooling is best done with a cutting paste like RTD Rocol RTD Compound | Reaming Tapping Drilling

BR

/Marcus (who has built 20-ton dairy industry machines all in SS)

[LD1]

I too have never heard of HSO.

that said, plain old HSS works just fine on SS. But the keys (as already mentioned) are go slow, and keep things cool. SS work hardens and then its a PITA.

[sparc]

About removing the rivets.
if you are not worried about a painted surface or emery wheel marks. i remove alot of s.s. rivets at work by using an angle grinder with a 60 or 80 grit flap disc.
grind the rivet front or back flush to the sheet metal and use a drift punch or a center punch to remove the other half.
drilling many times will spin the rivet if you use too much pressure and will usually mark up the mounting surface too.
tom

or use a sharp chisel to knock the had off then pop them out with a drift pin or punch. I've done this many times with SS and Aluminum pop-rivets.