Drilling Satinless Steel.

[Biggles]

I need to drill a hole in my Stainless Steel A Frame. Which drill should I be buying from the likes of B and Q to do this job quickly and efficently. Its only a small hole about 10 mm.
Seems like everytime I use one of my old drills to drill Stainless Steel I have to work real hard at it and end up with lots of small and hot shards of steel all over the place. Not too good near tubes.

[OceanEco]

good drill bit and a slow slow speed rather than a fast speed.

[bobbyjoeufb]

I managed to sheer a stainless steel bolt and had to drill a hole in order to extract the bolt.

Went through a number of drill bits until I purchased a set that were covered with titanium, they worked a treat.

I would recommend, using a good punch and starting off with a small bit and work your way up to 10mm.

As for the hot shards of metal it might be worth while covering up the tanks with something.

[Neil Harvey]

A trick my dad taught me when drilling metal is to lubricate with oil now and again to help keep it cooler. That said i still went through loads of drills when trying to drill my a-frame!

[Limey Linda]

Center punch location heavy and square: drill 3mm pilot hole thru. first wall of tubing. Use a dab of cutting oil, or any oil on drill bit. If it starts to squeak then add more oil. If you are producing hot swarf then you are too fast, keep constant pressure on, do not allow drill bit to skid. A variable speed drill makes this job a whole lot easier. Re-align drill square for drilling thru. back wall of tube and repeat. Open up the two holes with your 10mm drill bit, using oil again and keep the speed down and constant light pressure on but not too heavy, the drill bit will jam if you have too much pressure, when it breaks thru. Take it slowly.

From an ex-toolmaker. Hope the above helps.

[jyasaki]

Second Linda's suggestions.

Cutting oil is the best to use; breaks down less under high heat (also works quite well for lubricating door locks, which is completely unrelated.)

Definitely drill a pilot hole, and enlarge the hole in steps rather than jumping straight to the final size.

Use a lower drill speed than you think is necessary (though smaller bits may like a faster speed), and allow the drill bit to do the cutting, rather than hog the bit into the hole using too much pressure.

jky

[richardjawilson]

I used some Bosch Titanium tipped bits which i got from b and q. I started with a 2 mm pilot and them up from there. The bits were about 5.00 each and had no problem at all going thru my stainless a frame. Just let the drill cut the metal slowly, not spin so fast that it blunts the tip.

richard

[codprawn]

Not all titanium bits are the same - many have a pretty gold coating that wears off straight away. What you need are proper cobalt bits or failing that quality HSS.

It is so much easier if you use a drill press!!!

[benc]

Biggles,

I've just drilled a couple of holes to fix a new nav light, I've got some dewalt drill bits that went through like a dream...

If you can wait until the weekend, ill bring my cordless + drill bits... Can do it quickly on the slip way if you like?

Ben

[waverunner]

When I drill stainless I always use Parafin as a lubricant and any decent sharp drill starting with a small pilot hole of about 3mm.

Trust me Parafin works. I am an Engineer and this is the recommended lubricant for this material.