I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint

PAROADHOG wrote:
I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint

Speed should be relatively slow. What size of drill? What thickness of metal?
Pressure should be high.
The worst thing you can do with stainless is to let the bit skid, without
cutting. This work-hardens the stainless, and makes it almost impossible to
cut.
A coolant, such as vegetable oil is a good idea.

Speed should be relatively slow. What size of drill? What thickness of metal?
Pressure should be high.

Mostly clearance and pilot holes for sheet metal screws in ,yep, sheet metal.

"PAROADHOG" wrote in message
...

Speed should be relatively slow. What size of drill? What thickness of
metal?
Pressure should be high.

Mostly clearance and pilot holes for sheet metal screws in ,yep, sheet
metal.

Don't center punch the location. This work hardens the exact point you want
to drill.
Use a center drill to start the hole.
Unibits are great for sheet metal, they make a nice round hole not the 3
lobed hole that is often made in sheet metal.
Use coolant.

In article , PAROADHOG
wrote:

I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to
drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint


Buy a bunch of cobalt drill bits the right diameter.
Cobalt bits that small only cost about a $1 each
I buy bags of 10.

If the bits have ground spit tips then center punching is unnecessary.

(PAROADHOG) wrote in message ...
I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint

Stay under 50 surface feet per minute and use very high drill pressure
and you will have complete succcess. Leigh@MarMachine

Leigh Knudson wrote:

(PAROADHOG) wrote in message ...
I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint

Stay under 50 surface feet per minute and use very high drill pressure
and you will have complete succcess. Leigh@MarMachine

And get some MolyDee. If you can clamp a piece of mild steel behind the work you'll not chip the drills
as readily.

michael

Odds are some or most of the holes will be near the edge of the sheetmetal.
In this case I've found using a punch (I use a whitney style) will give some
good results aswell. No distortion from the high drill pressure, no
scratches from the chips, easy to line up the hole (no walking drill bits),
plus the die's last quite a while even in stainless. Just a lil advice, but
some cases a drill is your only option.

--
Lynn "I have opposable thumbs, and I'm not scared to use em" Amick
http://www.amickracing.com

"PAROADHOG" wrote in message
...

Speed should be relatively slow. What size of drill? What thickness of
metal?
Pressure should be high.

Mostly clearance and pilot holes for sheet metal screws in ,yep, sheet
metal.

On Thu, 27 Nov 2003 02:40:04 GMT, Ernie Leimkuhler
wrote:

In article , PAROADHOG
wrote:

I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to
drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint


Buy a bunch of cobalt drill bits the right diameter.
Cobalt bits that small only cost about a $1 each
I buy bags of 10.

If the bits have ground spit tips then center punching is unnecessary.


If you need to centre punch to get good hole location grind your
punch to a three sided pyramid tip. The triangular indent gives the
drilltip something to bite on to cut through the work hardened layer.

Sorta off topic to the OP's question but one demo I did quite
amazed me. I wanted to demo burning out a bit with too much
speed. Bought some standard 1/4" jobber bits from MSC, set the
Bridgport at 2000 (!!) rpm, plunged it hard into a 1" block of
303 stainless with no lube. Expected it to go in 1/8" and turn to
mush. To my surprise it went right though! Tried it again, made
it 3/4 way though before the expected mush. Compared the bit to a
new one, it was almost 1/2" shorter.

PAROADHOG wrote:

I need to do some remodeling in a commercial kitchen that involves drilling a
lot of holes in stainless steel. I never realized the stuff is so hard to drill
or so tough on drills. What drill speed should I be using and how much feed
pressure is best? TIA Clint

wrote in message
...

If you need to centre punch to get good hole location grind your
punch to a three sided pyramid tip. The triangular indent gives the
drilltip something to bite on to cut through the work hardened layer.

I will have to try this.
Not being able to locate with scribed lines and a center punch is a PITA.
No problems with the three lobed hole?
Kent