LD1
Epic Contributor
Some good advise, and some not as good IMO.
For starters you need good quality bits, as has been mentioned several times. I dont know what home depot offers, but dont strike me as a place I would buy drill bits for anything other than wood.
Mag drill is probably out of the question. They dont do well horizontally unless you have ALOT of metal for the magnet to get a hold on. 1/4" angle isnt enough.
Forget the pilot and stepping up. If the 1/4" bit is a split point bit (and most are) a pilot is not needed at all. Infact with a pilot, it makes all the subsequent attempts to enlarge the hole real grabby with the drill, as you are only trying to cut with just the outer tips of the bit. Going from 1/16 to 1/8, I bet you would break just as many 1/8" bits as you do 1/16
What you need to do is learn to read the chip. First step is pressure. You want enough pressure to actually remove chips, and not flakes or dust. Heat is removed in the form of chips. Smaller chips is less heat removed and you end up toasting the bit. Next step is speed. For that you read the color of the chip. Blue is bad. Straw color is good. Silver bare metal color isnt bad either, but you could go faster.
Simply put, the more pressure you give, the larger the chip, the more heat is removed, and the faster RPM you can go.
Less pressure removes smaller chips and results in a hotter bit and part, thus you have to go slower.
On a drill press drilling 1/4" steel, I'd be running ~1200RPM and enough pressure on the handle that it would take maybe 2 seconds tops to punch through. But you aint gonna do that with a hand drill.
And when it comes to lube, as a general rule I dont use lube on anything under 1/2" diameter and less than 1/4" thickness. If drilled right, it just isnt gonna get the part or bit hot enough to hurt anything, thus the lube is not needed IMO. Getting proper chips removes more heat than lube will.
For starters you need good quality bits, as has been mentioned several times. I dont know what home depot offers, but dont strike me as a place I would buy drill bits for anything other than wood.
Mag drill is probably out of the question. They dont do well horizontally unless you have ALOT of metal for the magnet to get a hold on. 1/4" angle isnt enough.
Forget the pilot and stepping up. If the 1/4" bit is a split point bit (and most are) a pilot is not needed at all. Infact with a pilot, it makes all the subsequent attempts to enlarge the hole real grabby with the drill, as you are only trying to cut with just the outer tips of the bit. Going from 1/16 to 1/8, I bet you would break just as many 1/8" bits as you do 1/16
What you need to do is learn to read the chip. First step is pressure. You want enough pressure to actually remove chips, and not flakes or dust. Heat is removed in the form of chips. Smaller chips is less heat removed and you end up toasting the bit. Next step is speed. For that you read the color of the chip. Blue is bad. Straw color is good. Silver bare metal color isnt bad either, but you could go faster.
Simply put, the more pressure you give, the larger the chip, the more heat is removed, and the faster RPM you can go.
Less pressure removes smaller chips and results in a hotter bit and part, thus you have to go slower.
On a drill press drilling 1/4" steel, I'd be running ~1200RPM and enough pressure on the handle that it would take maybe 2 seconds tops to punch through. But you aint gonna do that with a hand drill.
And when it comes to lube, as a general rule I dont use lube on anything under 1/2" diameter and less than 1/4" thickness. If drilled right, it just isnt gonna get the part or bit hot enough to hurt anything, thus the lube is not needed IMO. Getting proper chips removes more heat than lube will.
:laughing:
