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drilling holes in titanium equipment?
- Thread starter BOOMSTICK
- Start date
- Joined
- Aug 27, 2004
- Messages
- 12,955
I use Cobalt drills, slowest speed and even at that if its thicker or bigger diameter bits than 3/32 I rarely try to force the drill through in one push like you can get away with in thinner stock titanium with smaller drill sizes. Even at the slowest speed on my press the drills heat up and you have to take out bites causing the drill to cut, then back out the bit, wait a few which allows the titanium to cool a bit and then take another bite, and so on. Ti cools pretty darn quick but it will still stay fairly warm if not hot to the bare hand on the bigger holes. The trick is to not let the bit get so hot that it burn marks the cutting part of the drill.
I've often times made my drills last a lot longer after they are dulled down a bit from when I first opened them by resharpening them on the drill doctor from 1/8" up because anything smaller seems quite futile to sharpen, at least in the one I have. On those that get a bit dulled down even after sharpening which seems to be the case for some reason I've managed to drill my holes with a small drill first and follow in behind it with the bigger one. This not only reduces the heat build up which is more common in the bigger sizes because the bigger the drill diameter the more heat it will produce, but it extends the life of the larger diameter drills quite a bit in my experience so that all you are replacing much of is the smaller diameter ones you can't really sharpen that well anyways..Hope that helps.
You can also use carbides but the expense and the fact that they tend to heat up quite a bit as well as shatter on occasion prevents me from doing that a lot. I generally save those for hardened steel only. If you do use a carbide though, crank it up to the highest speed which is just the opposite of what most folks think they need to do. You'll break them by shattering the cutting edge and right quick by having them going too slow. Be particularly careful exiting out the other side with carbides also and I prefer the two flute type from MSC personally. The twist type or circuit board type carbides, although readily available from places like Texas Knifemaker supply and others are not really worth buying in my experience and don't last near as long as the two flute type drills like those sold by MSC and Jantz Supply.
STR
I've often times made my drills last a lot longer after they are dulled down a bit from when I first opened them by resharpening them on the drill doctor from 1/8" up because anything smaller seems quite futile to sharpen, at least in the one I have. On those that get a bit dulled down even after sharpening which seems to be the case for some reason I've managed to drill my holes with a small drill first and follow in behind it with the bigger one. This not only reduces the heat build up which is more common in the bigger sizes because the bigger the drill diameter the more heat it will produce, but it extends the life of the larger diameter drills quite a bit in my experience so that all you are replacing much of is the smaller diameter ones you can't really sharpen that well anyways..Hope that helps.
You can also use carbides but the expense and the fact that they tend to heat up quite a bit as well as shatter on occasion prevents me from doing that a lot. I generally save those for hardened steel only. If you do use a carbide though, crank it up to the highest speed which is just the opposite of what most folks think they need to do. You'll break them by shattering the cutting edge and right quick by having them going too slow. Be particularly careful exiting out the other side with carbides also and I prefer the two flute type from MSC personally. The twist type or circuit board type carbides, although readily available from places like Texas Knifemaker supply and others are not really worth buying in my experience and don't last near as long as the two flute type drills like those sold by MSC and Jantz Supply.
STR
- Joined
- Aug 1, 2008
- Messages
- 491
True, Carbide will shatter if you do not have the right feeds and speeds. Having the proper feeds and speeds also puts the heat into the chip and keeps it away from the cutting edge and the material being cut. I take .300"+ mill cuts daily at work and have bright blue chips and a luke warm surface and cutter. Same goes for drilling...chips that are burnt up and blue, cold cutting tools and surfaces. Unless there is access to a CNC, it is going to be tough to do, and do well.
- Joined
- Mar 14, 2007
- Messages
- 3,736
Lots of lubrication, more than lubricating the cutting edge it absorbs heat produced at the edge and cools the tool and pieces before they can really heat up. Cobalt drill bits should work pretty well. STR is mostly right about the Carbide bits, too slow and the torque will just shatter them, too fast and it'll crack up. There is a definite sweet spot with them.