Drilling technique
 

In one of my classes we're reflooring a trailer. Lucky me I get to
drill all the holes. #16 drill bit. 2" boards on top of steel frame
members about 1/8" thick. I'll drill the wood, clear the chips, then go
through and dill the frame. So far I've been sticking with relatively
low speed and high pressure. Is that the best way to do it, or should I
trade off for more speed/less pressure? A HSS bit will go about 40-50
holes before getting uselessly dull, but occasionally I'll strike a weld
over and old hole and that'll significantly shorten the drill's life
span.
Is 40-50 holes expected? Anything I can do about the welds short of
dumb luck?

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net
http://web2.airmail.net/thegoat4/

B.B. wrote:

#16 drill bit. ... So far I've been sticking with relatively
low speed and high pressure. Is that the best way to do it, or should I
trade off for more speed/less pressure? A HSS bit will go about 40-50
holes before getting uselessly dull,



Try high speed (around 2500 rpm) and enough pressure that the drill is
cutting continuously rather than just spinning against the metal. You
should get a lot more than 50 holes out of a bit unless you hit a weld.


--
-- Steve

"B.B." u wrote in message
...
In one of my classes we're reflooring a trailer. Lucky me I get to
drill all the holes. #16 drill bit. 2" boards on top of steel frame
members about 1/8" thick. I'll drill the wood, clear the chips, then go
through and dill the frame. So far I've been sticking with relatively
low speed and high pressure. Is that the best way to do it, or should I
trade off for more speed/less pressure? A HSS bit will go about 40-50
holes before getting uselessly dull, but occasionally I'll strike a weld
over and old hole and that'll significantly shorten the drill's life
span.
Is 40-50 holes expected? Anything I can do about the welds short of
dumb luck?


My drilling technique is this:

I watch the cuttings. I NEVER use high speed. As long as I can see
cuttings, I just keep up the pressure. Most of my drilling is at medium
speed or less. I think that when I am cutting at my best speed/pressure
combination, I see spiral cuttings.

Works for me, anyway.

Steve

When you're reflooring a trailer (or truck body) the first thing to do
is grind all the rust off the top of the cross member. Don't know why,
but drilling through rust will eat the day lights out of the drill bits.
After you have the cross member clean, the flooring laid out, start
making holes and install the floor. I used to own a trucking company and
we replaced and patched floors on a regular basis. It didn't matter
whether we we installing apitong on flatbeds and lowboys or laminated
oak in vans, be prepared to sharpen or change out the drill bits
regularly. I used to buy good bits and the if we "only" used 8 or 10 to
do a floor I felt lucky. It didn't seem to matter whether we used 1/2"
Milwaukee hole shooters or CP air drill, we got about the same mileage
out of a bit.
Greg
B.B. wrote: In one of my classes we're reflooring a trailer. Lucky
me I get to
drill all the holes. #16 drill bit. 2" boards on top of steel frame
members about 1/8" thick. I'll drill the wood, clear the chips, then go
through and dill the frame. So far I've been sticking with relatively
low speed and high pressure. Is that the best way to do it, or should I
trade off for more speed/less pressure? A HSS bit will go about 40-50
holes before getting uselessly dull, but occasionally I'll strike a weld
over and old hole and that'll significantly shorten the drill's life
span.
Is 40-50 holes expected? Anything I can do about the welds short of
dumb luck?

In article 4I43e.36058$AN1.24371@fed1read03,
"SteveB" wrote:

"B.B." u wrote in message
...
In one of my classes we're reflooring a trailer. Lucky me I get to
drill all the holes. #16 drill bit. 2" boards on top of steel frame
members about 1/8" thick. I'll drill the wood, clear the chips, then go
through and dill the frame. So far I've been sticking with relatively
low speed and high pressure. Is that the best way to do it, or should I
trade off for more speed/less pressure? A HSS bit will go about 40-50
holes before getting uselessly dull, but occasionally I'll strike a weld
over and old hole and that'll significantly shorten the drill's life
span.
Is 40-50 holes expected? Anything I can do about the welds short of
dumb luck?


My drilling technique is this:

I watch the cuttings. I NEVER use high speed. As long as I can see
cuttings, I just keep up the pressure. Most of my drilling is at medium
speed or less. I think that when I am cutting at my best speed/pressure
combination, I see spiral cuttings.

Works for me, anyway.

Steve

Unfortunately, I can't see the cuttings because I have a plank of
wood in the way.
Upon reading more I think I'll stick with the way I've been doing it.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net
http://web2.airmail.net/thegoat4/

In one of my classes we're reflooring a trailer. Lucky me I get to
drill all the holes. #16 drill bit. 2" boards on top of steel frame
CLIP

BB,

How many trailers are you doing? A single trailer? If so, you've probably
found the best method already except for maybe the addition of some cutting
fluid of some sort if you can get away with it...

If you have lots of trailers to do, I have an comparitively expensive, but
proven method that folks use. Maybe $3000 minimum depending on what you
actually need to do.

I just talked to a fellow that does the full length trailer boards all at
the same time across the short way, moves over X number of inches and does
the next row... Finishes a whole trailer with aluminum or wood planks in
less than an hour from what I can tell... Like I said, it depends on your
actual need.

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
(800) 871-5022
http://www.AutoDrill.com
http://www.Multi-Drill.com

Drill all of the wood holes in a piece of lumber, making sure that you
dimple the frame underneath. Then slide the wood aside and drill the metal,
using lubricant andd a fair bit of pressure. You want to use enough
pressure at a moderate speed so that you get nice curls from the metal
rather than dust. Some steels do tend to work harden and that is made worse
by not drilling the hole with enough metal removal at a turn of the drill.
You also get to redrill any holes that hit welds without problems.
Redrilling the wood to a #3 drill and pounding in a 1/4" dowel will fill
those misdrills.

--
Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

In article ,
"Bob May" wrote:

Drill all of the wood holes in a piece of lumber, making sure that you
dimple the frame underneath. Then slide the wood aside and drill the metal,
using lubricant andd a fair bit of pressure. You want to use enough
pressure at a moderate speed so that you get nice curls from the metal
rather than dust. Some steels do tend to work harden and that is made worse
by not drilling the hole with enough metal removal at a turn of the drill.
You also get to redrill any holes that hit welds without problems.
Redrilling the wood to a #3 drill and pounding in a 1/4" dowel will fill
those misdrills.

--
Why isn't there an Ozone Hole at the NORTH Pole?

I'm afraid I can't do it that way. The frame is distorted, so we
have to clamp a section, drill & screw it down, move the clamps over,
and repeat. There's no way I could talk everyone into letting me go
over everything twice, clamping everything along the way.
I'll just continue the way I have been (low speed/high pressure) and
see if I can get them to let me keep the drill doctor near the trailer
for a day.

--
B.B. --I am not a goat! thegoat4 at airmail dot net
http://web2.airmail.net/thegoat4/