Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?


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Sharp drill, low speed, firm pressure and oil.

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"Lawrence Zarb" wrote in message
news:98f4305bf698463b6385330677cc1ed1.52329@mygate .mailgate.org...
Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?


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"Lawrence Zarb" wrote in message
news:98f4305bf698463b6385330677cc1ed1.52329@mygate .mailgate.org...
Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?

What grade? If it is an austentic steel, it drills much the same as any
steel. Austentic grades are usually identifed with numbers in the 300 range,
although the older 18/8 and 18/10 are also used*, and they are non-magnetic.
Hardening stainless steels will glaze quickly if you do not keep up an even
feed rate, which can make them difficult to drill by hand. Once that
happens, you are going to have a seriously difficult time drilling any
further. The most common hardening grades are martensitic steels, with
numbers in the 400 range, and those are magnetic.

Tool manufacturers supply selector charts, to give you the correct speed
and feed rtaes for different materials and you can order one from

http://www.dormertools.com/

Follow the links to drilling and then selection of speeds and feeds to order
a copy.

* There is also a range of BS EN ISO numbers, but they are so complex that,
in practice, they are not used much.

Colin Bignell

Lawrence Zarb wrote:
Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?



You can use a decent quality HSS drill as well.
Start off with a small/pilot hole, then increase size of drill to full
diameter you require.
Oh, yes use plenty of cutting fluid as well. DO NOT use too much
pressure or you will quickly blunt the drills.

As I have only 35 years experience in engineering I don't know what I am
talking about! so you are free to ignore this.


--
Bob H
Leeds UK

Bob H wrote:
Lawrence Zarb wrote:
Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?



You can use a decent quality HSS drill as well.
Start off with a small/pilot hole, then increase size of drill to full
diameter you require.
Oh, yes use plenty of cutting fluid as well. DO NOT use too much
pressure or you will quickly blunt the drills.

As I have only 35 years experience in engineering I don't know what I am
talking about! so you are free to ignore this.

Plus, there is stainless and stainless, it varies from "what are people
going on about" to "I can't believe it's not diamond".
The first can in some cases also convert into the second, if you don't
press hard enough, and the drill gets to rotate without cutting.
Or if the drill is slightly blunt.
IMO, if you've only got a few holes to drill, too much pressure is better
than not enough.

Also, high speed on an electric drill should not be used for any but the
smallest drills.

Ian Stirling wrote:
Bob H wrote:

Lawrence Zarb wrote:

Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?



You can use a decent quality HSS drill as well.
Start off with a small/pilot hole, then increase size of drill to full
diameter you require.
Oh, yes use plenty of cutting fluid as well. DO NOT use too much
pressure or you will quickly blunt the drills.

As I have only 35 years experience in engineering I don't know what I am
talking about! so you are free to ignore this.


Plus, there is stainless and stainless, it varies from "what are people
going on about" to "I can't believe it's not diamond".
The first can in some cases also convert into the second, if you don't
press hard enough, and the drill gets to rotate without cutting.
Or if the drill is slightly blunt.
IMO, if you've only got a few holes to drill, too much pressure is better
than not enough.

Also, high speed on an electric drill should not be used for any but the
smallest drills.

Yes there is 'stainless' and 'stainless'. There is, if I remember
correctly 18.8.1 and 18.something else.1. I think the 'something else'
might be 13.

Its been about 5 years now since I had anything to do with that.
Cutting fluid is the key here tho'

--
Bob H
Leeds UK

Bob H wrote in message ...
Ian Stirling wrote:
Bob H wrote:

Lawrence Zarb wrote:

Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?


A good bit and low speed drill is certainly nice, but we dont all have
them lying around, and neither is actually necessary. If youre using
cheap bits and an ordinary not so low speed mains drill, it is
necessary to take the bit off the workpiece frequently and let it cool
off. Otherwise the end simply starts to soften, and your drill bit's
history. This simple workaround makes it possible to drill steel with
any old kit.

NT

Bob H wrote in message ...
Lawrence Zarb wrote:
Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?



You can use a decent quality HSS drill as well.
Start off with a small/pilot hole, then increase size of drill to full
diameter you require.
Oh, yes use plenty of cutting fluid as well.

White Spirit as cutting fluid,for SS


DO NOT use too much
pressure or you will quickly blunt the drills.

As I have only 35 years experience in engineering I don't know what I am
talking about! so you are free to ignore this.

"Bob H" wrote in message
...
Ian Stirling wrote:
Bob H wrote:

Lawrence Zarb wrote:

Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?



You can use a decent quality HSS drill as well.
Start off with a small/pilot hole, then increase size of drill to full
diameter you require.
Oh, yes use plenty of cutting fluid as well. DO NOT use too much pressure
or you will quickly blunt the drills.

As I have only 35 years experience in engineering I don't know what I am
talking about! so you are free to ignore this.


Plus, there is stainless and stainless, it varies from "what are people
going on about" to "I can't believe it's not diamond".
The first can in some cases also convert into the second, if you don't
press hard enough, and the drill gets to rotate without cutting.
Or if the drill is slightly blunt.
IMO, if you've only got a few holes to drill, too much pressure is better
than not enough.

Also, high speed on an electric drill should not be used for any but the
smallest drills.

Yes there is 'stainless' and 'stainless'. There is, if I remember
correctly 18.8.1 and 18.something else.1. I think the 'something else'
might be 13.

The numbers can have a very wide range, as they represent the percentages of
chromium and nickel in the steel. However, the most common are 18/8, a bog
standard stainless steel, and 18/10, used for food, chemical and marine
applications. If you were using 18/13, you were probably doing deep drawing
work. However, all those are only a small selection from the austentic range
of stainless steels. There are martensitic, ferritic and precipitation
hardening (a special type of austenitic) stainless steels as well. The ISO
standard runs to several pages of tables of different specifications.

Colin Bignell

nightjar nightjar@ wrote:
"Bob H" wrote in message
...

Ian Stirling wrote:

Bob H wrote:


Lawrence Zarb wrote:


Is there any special drill bit or procedure that needs to be followed
when drilling into stainless steel?



You can use a decent quality HSS drill as well.
Start off with a small/pilot hole, then increase size of drill to full
diameter you require.
Oh, yes use plenty of cutting fluid as well. DO NOT use too much pressure
or you will quickly blunt the drills.

As I have only 35 years experience in engineering I don't know what I am
talking about! so you are free to ignore this.


Plus, there is stainless and stainless, it varies from "what are people
going on about" to "I can't believe it's not diamond".
The first can in some cases also convert into the second, if you don't
press hard enough, and the drill gets to rotate without cutting.
Or if the drill is slightly blunt.
IMO, if you've only got a few holes to drill, too much pressure is better
than not enough.

Also, high speed on an electric drill should not be used for any but the
smallest drills.

Yes there is 'stainless' and 'stainless'. There is, if I remember
correctly 18.8.1 and 18.something else.1. I think the 'something else'
might be 13.


The numbers can have a very wide range, as they represent the percentages of
chromium and nickel in the steel. However, the most common are 18/8, a bog
standard stainless steel, and 18/10, used for food, chemical and marine
applications. If you were using 18/13, you were probably doing deep drawing
work. However, all those are only a small selection from the austentic range
of stainless steels. There are martensitic, ferritic and precipitation
hardening (a special type of austenitic) stainless steels as well. The ISO
standard runs to several pages of tables of different specifications.

Colin Bignell


Hi Colin, well like I said its about 5 years since I had anything to do
with stainless steel. The industry I was in was chemical, and they
needed 2/3 types of stainless to use in the pipes and tanks, but for
*general* use I used 18/8 I think. We also used 'sten something* for
some drilling jobs.
I have nothing to do with it now and don't really want to either if I
can help it.

--
Bob H
Leeds UK