304 stainless work hardens if you don't put enough pressure on the drill
bit. Also slow is much better than fast, a surface speed of about 50
ft. per minute. If you have a workhardened started hole if you
continue drilling the new or sharpened drill will get dull as it cuts
the workhardened metal. Once you get through the work hard metal,
resharpen or replace the drill or you will wind up with another work
hardened hole.
You could get a carbide drill that would work much better.

John

Tim Wescott wrote:
I may have asked this before, but I'm slow:

I have some 304 sheet. I use it to make control-line model airplane
handles. Each handle needs to have about 20 1/16" or .050" holes drilled
in it, in a pair of tidy lines.

This stuff breaks my regular old HSS drill bits, and my drill hand-
sharpening mojo is pretty spotty at 1/16".

I'm using them in a drill press. The whole process feels weird -- it
feels like there's a skin on the metal which prevents the drill from
starting to cut unless I feed it fairly hard, but once broken through
doesn't cause much problem. Most of the time that I break a drill bit
it's because I'm feeding it "just a bit harder", then SPING -- I've
broken another bit.

Is there a better drill bit to use, or have I just doomed myself to
trouble? Is there a better flavor of _stainless_ to use? I understand
that 304 is difficult to work with, but it's what McMaster had in the
thickness I wanted; having experienced its joys, however, I'm ready to
consider something else.

I think my next step is to get a dozen 1/16" drill bits, but if there's
some magic material that'll help here, I'm listening.