Drill bits for stainless steel1/14/2024 Pull the drill bit out of the hole, spray some oil on the bit, drill for a few more seconds, rinse and repeat. One of the simplest ways to lubricate the drill bit is to hit it with some WD-40 as you cut. Stainless does something called work-hardening when it overheats.īasically, this just makes a hard spot at the bottom of the hole, and you’ll quickly burn out drills that contact this hardened area. Lubricants also help keep both the drill bit and the workpiece cool. If you’re drilling it dry, the cutting edge will wear down extremely quickly. Stainless steel is actually pretty abrasive when you cut it. These ones are great and are really well priced (Amazon). More cobalt means that the cutting edges stay sharp for longer. They have different grades based on the amount of cobalt in them. Pro Tip: Not all cobalt drills are created equal. Once you try cobalt, there’s no going back. They perform better in higher heat situations, as is typical with stainless, and they help dissipate the heat as well. They cost more, but they are significantly better for tough materials. The cutting edge will wear down in no time and you’ll end up muttering a lot of colorful language under your breath.Īt a minimum, use High Speed Steel (HSS) drill bits. Those are not for metal.Įven for the drill bits that say they’re for “metal”, they might not be up for the task of putting holes in stainless.įor example, I’d highly recommend NOT using a simple carbon steel twist drill. This means no spades, augers, Forstners, brad points, or rotary percussions. Instead of getting into a whole discussion on the math involved in finding the perfect RPM for your drill bit, I just made this really simple calculator for you: The larger the drill, the slower you need to run it. The RPM to run the drill at will depend on the size of the drill bit. That can give you a kind of ballpark idea of how fast it’s running. If you are using a hand drill, there is usually some kind of marking on the drill to indicate (at the very minimum) the maximum RPM of the tool. This can be tricky if you’re using a hand drill, but most drill presses or other similar machines will give you at least a general idea of what RPM you’re running at. Running a drill too fast in stainless is hands down the most common thing that I see people do wrong. The point of all this being that if you need a 2″ hole and only have a cordless drill, seek professional help. Depending on the torque of your machine, you can actually drill some pretty large holes. On a drill press, the process is more stable since the setup is more rigid and the bit is more accurately align. Anything bigger or smaller than that is going to be iffy. If you’re using a hand drill, you’re generally going to be limited to a size range of 1/16″ to 3/8″ in stainless. Since stainless is a tougher material, it’s important to be realistic in terms of what sizes of holes you can make with the tools you have.
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