I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?

On 9/9/2014 3:27 PM, Bob La Londe wrote:
I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My
drill press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves
an expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The
issue is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have
to flip the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One
idea I have had is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can
atleast drill all the holes that are in the same row before I have to do
a cleanup on the back. Any other suggestions?




If you can clamp the piece rigidly and use an end mill....

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message ...

I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?
================================================== =============

What exactly do you mean by a ridge? Is it a burr on the exit? What size
hole are you drilling, and how deep? Go to www.mcmaster.com and put 2446 in
the search window to show their selection of chamfering drill bits. The
chamfering ones have a short tip one diameter then a taper to chamfer the
hole. You could drill the hole from the top, chamfer if you want, flip the
piece, run the bit through again and chamfer/deburr the backside all with
the same drill bit. No second op with the air drill. Just have to be
drilling a popular fastener tap size, and not too deep. That might clean up
your ridge, you will just have to verify you are getting the hole size
accuracy you need. The guide fence and a toggle clamp would also speed up
things.

-----
Regards,
Carl Ijames

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My
drill press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have
had is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill
all the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on
the back. Any other suggestions?

1/2" bar. 21, 7, D, F.

On Tue, 09 Sep 2014 12:27:28 -0700, Bob La Londe wrote:

I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My
drill press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves
an expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The
issue is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have
to flip the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One
idea I have had is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can
atleast drill all the holes that are in the same row before I have to do
a cleanup on the back. Any other suggestions?

Make a channel as wide as the bar, with a slot a bit wider than the
holes. The bar will rest on the shoulders of the channel, and the burr
will (if everything's the right size) stay inside the bounds of the slot.

Drill, drill, drill, deburr, deburr, deburr.

--

Tim Wescott
Wescott Design Services
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 12:27:28 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?


Greetings Bob,
I think that what you are calling a ridge would be known in a machine
shop as a burr. That's what I am picturing when I read your post. And
what you call a reamer would be called a countersink. If I was doing
your job in my shop the way you are doing it I would start with a
piece of aluminum that is a bit bigger than the oputside dimensions of
your part and drill holes for pins that would locate the part on the
piece of aluminum. Then I would clamp a part to the piece and drill
all the holes through the part but not all the way through the piece
with the locating pins. This would leave a bunch of blind holes. I
would then remove the part and drill all the holes in the piece a
little oversize and countersink them so that there is no burr. I would
then put a new part on the piece and drill away. If the outside
dimensions of your part are close to the same for every part then you
could use pins to capture the part so that it always lines up with the
blind holes you drilled in the piece that your part sits on. I would
use some type of cutting fluid when drilling the holes. If you drill
the holes dry you could use MDF for the piece instead of aluminum. But
then you get bigger burrs. The reason for the blind holes is so that
if a chip falls into the hole when the drilling is done it can't stick
out of the bottom and catch when moving to drill the next hole. If you
are drilling a lot of these parts you may be interested in a Wahlstrom
Automatic drill chuck. See this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Keyless-Fully-.../dp/B006KJVDME
I have one of these, the 3/8 capacity one. I love it. You never stop
the spindle with this chuck. While it is spinning you grab the knurled
OD of the chuck and pull down. This open the chuck and the drill is
released. Then while pulling down you insert a new drill until it
stops and then pull up on the knurled OD and start drilling. With a
little practice you can change a drill in about 4 seconds. You can get
the chucks with either straight or Morse taper shanks. I've only been
using mine for about 25 years so I can't say how long it will last
because it still works great. Another tool I use a lot for certain
jobs is a Burraway. See this link:
http://www.cogsdill.com/products/deburring/burraway/
This tool deburrs both sides of the part when drilling through holes.
So you could, with the Wahlstrom chuck and a few different Burraway
tools, drill and deburr all the holes before removing your part from
the drill press.
Cheers,
Eric

On 2014-09-09, Bob La Londe wrote:
I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?

For aluminum, consider one of the drills made for wood (if it is
a common fractional size). They have a spur in the center to follow a
center-punch mark, straight radial cutting edges, and spurs at the
outside ends to cut through there before the force of the drill press
bends the aluminum (or splinters the wood) on exit.

Another possibility is a split-point drill, which does not need
as much force to cut through the aluminum and will leave less of a burr.

BTW A reamer to get rid of the ridge? Is this a ridge on the ID or
the hole, or a ridge on the back surface? If the latter (which
is what I have been assuming) then wouldn't a countersink do
better at removing the ridge?

If it is truly a ridge on the ID -- perhaps you are not going
far enough past punch-through. Just drill a little deeper to get
rid of that.

Good luck,
DoN.

--
Remove oil spill source from e-mail
Email: | (KV4PH) Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
...
I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My
drill press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have
had is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill
all the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on
the back. Any other suggestions?

Yes I meant countersink. I like the front and back burr removal tool. I'ld
probably use that for some holes if I had a third drill press over there.

I'll have to look at that quick change chuck. but it sounds pretty scary to
swap bits on the fly like that.

wrote in message
...
On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 12:27:28 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My
drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have
had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?


Greetings Bob,
I think that what you are calling a ridge would be known in a machine
shop as a burr. That's what I am picturing when I read your post. And
what you call a reamer would be called a countersink. If I was doing
your job in my shop the way you are doing it I would start with a
piece of aluminum that is a bit bigger than the oputside dimensions of
your part and drill holes for pins that would locate the part on the
piece of aluminum. Then I would clamp a part to the piece and drill
all the holes through the part but not all the way through the piece
with the locating pins. This would leave a bunch of blind holes. I
would then remove the part and drill all the holes in the piece a
little oversize and countersink them so that there is no burr. I would
then put a new part on the piece and drill away. If the outside
dimensions of your part are close to the same for every part then you
could use pins to capture the part so that it always lines up with the
blind holes you drilled in the piece that your part sits on. I would
use some type of cutting fluid when drilling the holes. If you drill
the holes dry you could use MDF for the piece instead of aluminum. But
then you get bigger burrs. The reason for the blind holes is so that
if a chip falls into the hole when the drilling is done it can't stick
out of the bottom and catch when moving to drill the next hole. If you
are drilling a lot of these parts you may be interested in a Wahlstrom
Automatic drill chuck. See this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Keyless-Fully-.../dp/B006KJVDME
I have one of these, the 3/8 capacity one. I love it.

How well does that work out at faster RPMs. I found demos on Youtube, but
the two I saw both showed it being used at pretty low RPM.

Presuming all previous advice from others fails to give a good result
for you, can you drill a large batch, then use a cogsdill burr remover
tool to clean it up afterwards in a large batch?

http://www.drill-hq.com/?s=cogsdill


--
Until you wake up, I will fight for you...

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
(800) 871-5022 x113
01.908.542.0244
Flagship Site: http://www.Drill-HQ.com
Automatic / Pneumatic Drills: http://www.AutoDrill.com
Multiple Spindle Drills: http://www.Multi-Drill.com
Production Tapping: http://www.Drill-HQ.com/?page_id=226
VIDEOS: http://www.youtube.com/user/AutoDrill
FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/AutoDrill
TWITTER: http://twitter.com/AutoDrill

V8013-R



On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 12:27:28 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?

On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 12:27:28 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:
snip
The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge.
/snip

Unless the exit burr is very heavy [too much pressure at
breakthrough?] you can try
http://tinyurl.com/qxmkyar


--
Unka' George

"Gold is the money of kings,
silver is the money of gentlemen,
barter is the money of peasants,
but debt is the money of slaves"

-Norm Franz, "Money and Wealth in the New Millenium"

On Tue, 9 Sep 2014 12:27:28 -0700, "Bob La Londe"
wrote:

I routinely need to drill a bunch of holes in aluminum bar stock. My drill
press does an adequate job, but when it punches through it leaves an
expected ridge which I clean up using a reamer in my air drill. The issue
is in order to make sure every hole drills pretty straight I have to flip
the plate over after each hole and back ream the ridge. One idea I have had
is to bolt a couple pieces of flat to the table so I can atleast drill all
the holes that are in the same row before I have to do a cleanup on the
back. Any other suggestions?


What tip and parabola are your flutes?

http://www.guhring.com/documents/catalog/drills/GT.pdf


"At the core of liberalism is the spoiled child,
miserable, as all spoiled children are, unsatisfied,
demanding, ill-disciplined, despotic and useless.
Liberalism is a philosophy of sniveling brats."
PJ O'Rourke

SNIP

If you
are drilling a lot of these parts you may be interested in a Wahlstrom
Automatic drill chuck. See this link:
http://www.amazon.com/Keyless-Fully-.../dp/B006KJVDME
I have one of these, the 3/8 capacity one. I love it.

How well does that work out at faster RPMs. I found demos on Youtube, but
the two I saw both showed it being used at pretty low RPM.


Greetings Bob,
I've been out of town so that's why the late reply. I use my Wahlstrom
drill chuck up to about 2500 RPM. Sometimes up to 3000 RPM but that's
rare. The chuck does take some practice to use. But you don't need to
grip the drill tightly when inserting it into the chuck. The chuck is
a real time saver.
Eric