Hand drilling in metal

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

Hi. A big shout to all the help and information you guys have given me. I can now drill good accurate holes in thick metal with no problems at all. Like these m10 holes in quarter inch thick steel....I can now chuck thick plate on the bench like it's a walk in the park View attachment 91832

A good show there.

 

[Ton-up]

Dewalt= rubbish, from my limited experience of them. A joiner was using my Makita and a battery was lasting a full day. He had to buy himself a third battery to do the same days work with the dewalt.

Sorry, but I find the opposite. My DeWalt has been used everyday for 5 years and is still going well. Battery life is still very good. The battery cases are split and broke where I have dropped them and the whole drill went into a pond a few weeks ago, but a wash and dry out and a blow with an airline and all good again! I believe you need to look after the batteries and I leave them in the chargers over the weekend to condition them. My workmates new Makita is good, but i still prefer my DeWalt!

 

[dan.taylor.1]

It's very hard to compare cordless stuff because on top of the different battery options there are usually several ranges from diy to trade quality, I use the Makita lxt range of 18v liion and they're faultless, I've had one battery go that was well over 5 years old and we'll used, and one set of brushes and I've got at least 8 tools. I've used bosch blue range and found the batteries didn't last long if been used a lot, but their little 10.8v stuff was great, dewalt I've only used one drill which is a 1.5ah battery and lasts well on it.

 

[balmerchris]

I find metabo stuff very good I've got a metabo sb 18 LTX, 18volt cordless about 2 years old and it's very good and has been seriously abused this last 3 months and is still going strong. For electric corded I've got a metabo BE1100 she's a beast of a drill.

 

[Windy Miller]

I have a Makita 14 volt combo drill that's been perfect for about 8 years. My little 12v DeWalt is now about 12 years old and it's been good, but now the motor smells a bit. It reminds me of a scalextric car!

 

[daleyd]

It reminds me of a scalextric car!

Does it fly off around corners if you hold the trigger in too much??

 

[dannyp]

daft thing ive found is a good cordless often drills metal better than a mains drill as the speeds are more sutable.

i'm one for a <5mm pilot hole then staight through.

big dia holes in thick plate with a big pillar drill, if acuracy dosent over matter sharpening the drill for direct drilling and straight in.

broaches in mag drills are just amazing

 

[WorkshopChris]

After 15 minutes I had a go and it just wouldn't go through so ended up having to drill it in 5 stages. The odd thing is, we went to the fan next to it as this also needed balancing, same manufacturer, installed at the same time, does the same job and is on the same system and it drilled perfectly fine.

Any chance the lad that was drilling the hole was drilling to fast and not pushing hard enough and had hardened the end of the hole, through the heat generated by excessive friction.

I have seen someone do this before, HSS drill bit red hot at the end. Changed to a new cobalt drill bit lots of pressure and nice and slow straight through. Normally when balanced up the top of a ladder when you cant push hard.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

A bit, ok a BIG bit of subject.

We were putting in Fire alarm cables into a new build, the contractor who laid the floor missed out our cable duct.

The concrete slab was 30" thick, so they got a contractor to drill and line our hole.

We wanted a 30mm I/D lined hole for our cable.

Some one ordered a 30cm hole.

Opps.

We missed the hole being drilled, but saw the kit, impressive.

I was in the meeting when the bill for the hole was being discussed.

Glad I was not paying.

 

[tflnemesis]

On one of the sites I work I had chipped my 10mm drill bit and needed a 10mm hole in a piece of 2mm SS plate. So off I went to see if the site maintenance engineers would do me a favour...

Cue one large hairy arsed eastern european 'engineer', clamped the S/steel in a vice grabbed a pistol drill and the bluntest 10mm bit I have ever seen and proceeded to get nowhere for about 10 mins. The drill was on full chat, he didn't pilot it either, he was at it that long the work was bluing from the friction. Gave me the dirtiest look ever when I stopped him, took the work out the vice and chucked it straight in the scrap bin. Fortunately another engineer had turned up by then and lent me a couple of drill bits. Should have seen the eastern european guys face when it took me 2 minutes to pilot it (new piece) and with drill on slowest setting, with lovely curls of swarf peeling off, drill straight through with the 10mm.

Bearing in mind these guys work in a food manufacturing factory so all they drill is Alu and SS, they had absolutely no idea about drill speed vs size and the amount of pressure needed to cut without work hardening the steel. Yet these guys are on 30-40k per year...

 

[WorkshopChris]

Some one ordered a 30cm hole.

CM are the work of the devil, taught in school's only used by argos, ikea and b&q.

 

[Pete.]

A bit, ok a BIG bit of subject.

We were putting in Fire alarm cables into a new build, the contractor who laid the floor missed out our cable duct.

The concrete slab was 30" thick, so they got a contractor to drill and line our hole.

We wanted a 30mm I/D lined hole for our cable.

Some one ordered a 30cm hole.

Opps.

We missed the hole being drilled, but saw the kit, impressive.

I was in the meeting when the bill for the hole was being discussed.

Glad I was not paying.

Minimum day charge plus bit wear, probably about £300. The core alone would be about 130kg.

 

[tomsutton529]

Any chance the lad that was drilling the hole was drilling to fast and not pushing hard enough and had hardened the end of the hole, through the heat generated by excessive friction.

I have seen someone do this before, HSS drill bit red hot at the end. Changed to a new cobalt drill bit lots of pressure and nice and slow straight through. Normally when balanced up the top of a ladder when you cant push hard.

Nope, he knows his stuff and was using cutting fluid. was and odd one.

 

[God mode restorations]

My Mrs got me an early birthday present today...