Stainless steel drilling technology at home. Choosing cobalt drills for stainless steel - types and cost Drilling holes in stainless steel technology

Landscaping and planning 15.06.2019

Landscaping and planning

How and with what to drill stainless steel? I think you have asked this question many times. Of course, such a need does not arise often, but when it comes to stainless steel drilling, most craftsmen are unprepared.

You can’t take stainless steel with ordinary drills, although, nevertheless, this primarily depends on skill and savvy in this matter. So let's deal with the problem))

Stainless steel is different ordinary metal the fact that it is very viscous and when drilling, the drill instantly heats up. That is why the key to successful drilling of stainless steel is drill cooling. To do this, you can either use a special coolant for drills, or get out yourself.

There are a lot of options, for example, you can use oil, which you can buy at the pharmacy without any problems, as an option - castor oil (ordinary castor oil), if you follow the instructions, then you need to drill stainless steel with oleic acid. And of course, you can use regular engine oil.

When drilling a horizontal surface, we take some kind of cork or rubber washer, pour oil into it and drill through it. If you need to drill vertically, for example, a stainless steel sheet is fixed vertically, then you can use paraffin, roll up the ball and stick it on the drilling site. We drill through it.

When drilling with a diameter greater than 6 mm, you need to use the "double" method - this means that you first drill with a drill of a small diameter, then use a drill of the required diameter. For example, if you need a hole with a diameter of 5 mm, then first we use a 2-3 mm drill, then 6 mm.

Well, the main, most important tool is drills. Drills are different, but in recent years their quality has deteriorated markedly. If you decide to try drilling stainless steel with conventional drills made of R6M5 steel, then you are unlikely to be able to make a hole. Although, if the stainless steel sheet is not thick and everything is in order with cooling, then the matter may burn out.

For problem-free drilling of stainless steel high strength drills are used. There are also plenty of options. From personal experience- I think that the best stainless steel drills are the old ones with a quality mark, with the addition of cobalt. The marking of such drills is R6M5K5. They are very strong, after all, in the USSR, the quality mark meant a lot.

Until now, it is Soviet drills that are asked in our store, of course, you will not find cobalt drills during the day with fire, but you can find standard P6M5 of some diameters.

Also, good results were demonstrated by the old Soviet drills made of the now rare P18 steel. Finding such drills, and even with a quality mark, is now simply unrealistic. However, it is still found in stocks. These drills sell like hot cakes even at a high price.

What to do if you can’t find Soviet drills, but you need to drill stainless steel? There is a way out, but get ready to spend more money. The stores sell special stainless steel drills from Ruko, they have proven themselves well, but their cost is very decent.

For example, a drill with a diameter of 3 mm costs about 100 rubles. Not weak, to say the least. And large diameters cost several hundred rubles. Cobalt drills, although the marking is already imported - HSS-Co DIN338 (Co - cobalt). In its composition, it is similar to R6M5K5 steel, that is, the percentage of cobalt in steel is also 5.

Well, the “coolest” version of drills is carbide for metal. They differ from one-sided sharpening, the angle is sharper. True, finding such drills is even more problematic than Soviet cobalt ones.

As an option - if you have emery at home, you can independently regrind an ordinary carbide drill for drilling stainless steel. It's a simple matter if you understand the sharpening of drills.

How to drill stainless steel. Anyone who has tried to drill stainless steel knows that it cannot be drilled without cunning. Usually, a special lubricant is used for this. It consists of engine oil and a small amount of sulfur. Usually, sulfur is taken from the one that is sold in Priroda stores. It has names there: "colloidal sulfur", "sulfur color" or "sulfur for fumigation".

The first two are used without preparation; finely ground sulfur for fumigation.

A more effective lubricant can be made by mixing sulfur with fatty acids. To obtain acids, they take the lowest grade laundry soap, which is crushed and dissolved into hot water. An excess of technical hydrochloric acid is poured into the soap solution. Fatty acids float. Pour in excess cold water - fatty acids harden and are easy to separate from the solution. They are washed 4-5 times as follows: they are placed in a saucepan, poured with hot water, stirred for 5-7 minutes, cold water is added, removed, placed in a saucepan again, etc.

Fatty acids are mixed with sulfur in a ratio of 6:1 (by weight). Another remarkable property of fatty acids should be noted. If they are mixed with rosin (heated over low heat) in a ratio of approximately 1: 1 (by weight), then an excellent pasty flux is obtained for soldering metals with lead-tin solders.

Most often, drilling holes in stainless steel materials carries a number of unpleasant moments. This is overheating of the drill, and overheating of the very place of drilling, and the loss of precious time. To avoid all this, you should follow a few rules. These rules will help you in the independent manufacture of stainless steel products, such as visors and awnings. So here are these simple tips:

1. Stainless steel has a very tough structure, and in order to avoid overheating of the drill, it is necessary to drill only at low speed and use sharp drills.

2. In the process of drilling, be sure to cool the drill every 10-15 seconds. This should be done to prevent calcination of the drilling site. Hardened stainless steel is extremely difficult to drill.

3. If you notice that the chips are getting darker and smaller, in this case, immediately replace or sharpen the drill. This means that the hole is overheating and the drill is dull.

4. For initial drilling, use the smallest diameter drills. Stainless steel is recommended to be drilled first with a four or five, and then drilled to the desired diameter. This will significantly reduce drilling time.

5. And finally, if the place of the hole is still calcined, try to remove this layer with a well-sharpened larger drill in diameter, and then drill again with the original one.

By following these not tricky rules, you will not only reduce drilling time, but also keep your nerves in order.

While doing repairs, many owners have to perform a wide variety of work, among which drilling is quite common. However, for the qualitative performance of this task, it is necessary to have a suitable drill available. There are no problems with the purchase of this device, given that the building materials market is represented a large number of their various types.

Therefore, each House master who has purchased a drill, should also worry about choosing good drills. Otherwise, they will quickly use up their operational resource, and you will have to spend money on new ones.

In stores you can find a large number of different drills, differing in length, diameter, material for which they are intended. And even before you start creating a hole on the surface of the structure, you should decide on the right size drill. In order to avoid errors, it is necessary to take into account the type of work performed.

Those owners who at least once had to drill, I think, tried to understand what material is used to make these devices, what is meant by labeling given on the instrument? What makes it possible to create holes on a surface made of the same material as the drill itself?

The efficiency of work with a drill is achieved due to the fact that high-quality and high-strength steel is used as a material for it. But cheap options that are made on the basis of raw materials are not able to cope with most of the tasks that many owners face.

What does drill mark mean?

Typically, the marking of a drill for metal contains specific set of letters and numbers. The letter of the main element is usually indicated first, followed by a number that corresponds to the percentage of this element in the material used to manufacture the drill.

Other elements are often specified after the first two characters.

P - corresponds to tungsten;
K - indicates cobalt;
F - means vanadium;
M means molybdenum.

Most often, the marking does not contain the designation of chromium, since this element in without fail is included in the source material, in which it accounts for about 4%. Among the elements that are missing in the labeling, carbon should be singled out. Let's say if the drill has R7M6K6 marking, then it can be understood from it that the manufacturer used high-speed steel as a material, which includes tungsten in the amount of 7%, molybdenum - 6%, cobalt - 6%.

If you pay attention to domestic products, then there is no similar information. However, this applies primarily to products with a diameter of less than 2 mm. Devices with a diameter of 2-3 mm contain information about the geometry and steel grade. Additional data has drills that represent other standard sizes: they also give the trademark, and sometimes the accuracy class of the drill product.

Each of the proposed drills can be decorated in one of the following colors:

bright gold;
black golden;
grey;
black.

By the golden color you can understand that the manufacturer used titanium nitride in the manufacture of the tool. Such an operation provides such a drill with increased strength characteristics. Working with such a device, less friction between surfaces will be ensured.

A black golden hue indicates that the raw material contains tempering, the purpose of which is to eliminate internal stress.

By gray it can be understood that the drill in question has not been subjected to finishing in order to increase the level of protection and strength of the material. From this we can conclude that this device has a low level of workmanship, and therefore it is quite will be out of order soon.

The black color suggests that during the manufacture of the drill, an operation was carried out, which consisted in exposing the product to superheated steam. The benefit of it is to increase its wear resistance.

Advantages of cobalt drills for metal

Prices for cobalt drills for metal are 4-5 times higher than for ordinary ones. What makes them so popular among home craftsmen right? What virtues have made them so highly rated?

The distinguishing feature of cobalt is high melting point. For this reason, metal drills based on high-quality cobalt-alloyed high-speed steel can withstand high temperatures and show improved mechanical properties. They are characterized by the ability to cope with significant thermal loads, for which it is not necessary to resort to additional cooling. Similar properties of these drills for metal are primarily manifested in situations when it is necessary to create holes in high-strength alloyed and high-viscosity steels.

Among other properties possessed by cobalt drills for metal, one should single out a sufficiently large tip sharpening angle, which is 135 degrees. Thanks to this design of the tip, it becomes possible to perform drilling on smooth round surfaces.

These drilling fixtures can also be used to create holes in pipes and welds where high precision is essential. An important advantage of such drills for metal is that when working with them, the master has to exert less physical pressure on them.

Drilling with a cobalt drill for metal

Even before you start drilling, you should decide on the cutting mode. To clarify, we will inform you that the main parameters that affect such a regime are the following:

Each of the above parameters affect each other, while choosing them should be considered:

The material in which to create the hole;
The material from which the drill for metal is made is cobalt;
Equipment used for work and type of cooling;
Other factors, which include the degree of surface roughness, contamination, etc.

Features of drilling stainless steels

When creating holes in the surface of stainless steel, one has to face problems that boil down to the fact that this material is characterized by sufficient ductility. Therefore, during operation, the drilling product sticks to the work surface, as a result of which the device heats up too much and subsequently fails.

This can be avoided if:

The problem with heat dissipation will be solved, for which cooling is used;
The work will be carried out with drills that best cope with heat and have the ability to better remove chips.

As a material for cobalt drilling products for metal, high-speed steel HSSCo (M35) or having a similar marking is used. A feature of these drills is that during their manufacture, manufacturers have incorporated special properties into them that allow them to effectively create holes in difficult-to-machine stainless steels.

Steel R6M5K5 contains 5% cobalt, due to which the drill acquires increased red hardness. We are talking about the property to remain as hard and resistant to wear as in its normal state, when heated to a red heat temperature. A similar effect is achieved through heat treatment.

The production process involves the use of more expensive grinding technology. In other words, this fixture resembles a spiral, where a grinder is used to create grooves. This eliminates the appearance of internal tension on the device, while the surfaces remain smooth. This creates more favorable conditions for chip removal.

The upper part of the working device is located on the at an angle of 135 degrees and is distinguished by the presence of a cross-shaped undercut. A similar angle is formed by the working faces of the fixture. It provides area reduction working area products. As a result, it is subjected to less stress. As for the cruciform undercut of the vertex, its presence ensures a decrease in the dead zone between the working faces.

How to drill stainless steel with a cobalt drill

In the event that you have at your disposal the equipment that allows you to high precision choose the optimal speed, feed and provide cooling, for working with stainless steel The following settings are recommended:

Cutting speed. The optimal value would be 10 m/min. The value given will be optimal for drilling most stainless steels. In addition, its use will provide an opportunity for choosing revolutions.

Turnover can be determined using the following formula:

n=3180/D, where

for a drill with a diameter of 1.0 - 3180 rpm;

for drill 5.0 already 636 rpm;

Innings. To calculate this parameter, you should also use a simple formula:

0.005-0.01d mm/n,

where d is the diameter of the drill.

More in simple words, in one minute a drill for metal with a diameter of 5 mm should create hole 3 mm deep. When working with a metal drill with a diameter of 10 mm, the hole created should have a size of 1.6 mm.

The problem with overheating is solved with the help of oleic acid, which will act as a coolant.

Features of drilling in the field

In the absence of a special coolant, you can use it instead olive oil. Also, vegetable is suitable here, in which the proportion of oleic acid content is only 2 times less - 40%. In the event that none of these substances is at hand, then ordinary lard or fat can come to the rescue: they contain a level of oleic acid can reach 44%.

During the creation of holes, it is necessary to set the minimum speed to no more than 200 rpm. Some models of drills do not have the ability to select speed. In this case, the problem is solved by using the "on-off" technique, in which a recess in the material is created due to inertia.

Make sure that the feed to the drill is at a minimum. At the same time, it is important that it be uniform.

Conclusion

Cobalt metal drills can help create holes in particularly hard materials, primarily stainless steels. However, for the successful implementation of this work, it is necessary to take into account a number of nuances. Drilling holes with a cobalt drill bit for metal will not cause you problems if you correctly determine the operating parameters: cutting speed, feed, and also solve the issue of cooling. In this case, it will be useful to know how to work with such drills correctly. Then they will be good helpers for you when carrying out repairs.

The question of how to drill any stainless steel at home usually does not arise if you use special drills for this purpose. Along with such drills, which allow you to quickly and accurately form a hole of the required diameter, it is necessary to use special cooling compounds, as well as strictly adhere to technological parameters.

In production, for drilling stainless steel, industrial machines with a coolant supply are used. In the home workshop, you have to learn some tricky tricks

Lubricants

Drilling holes in products from, performed by a conventional drill, may fail. This is explained by the fact that stainless steels are characterized by increased viscosity, therefore their drilling, especially performed at home, is accompanied by significant heating. cutting tool and, consequently, its failure.

In order to drill stainless steel efficiently and quickly, taking into account all of the above, it is necessary to use a cooling material, which, in addition, must have good lubricating properties.

If it is often necessary to drill stainless steel, it makes sense to equip the machine with a home-made liquid lubricant supply system (a car pump is suitable as a pump)

The most common compound used as a coolant and lubricant when drilling holes in stainless steel is a solution consisting of machine oil and sulfur. To prepare such a solution, both colloidal sulfur and fumigation sulfur, which is often called "sulfur color", can be used.

In the event that the sulfur at your disposal is a fine powder, it can be immediately mixed with engine oil without special preparation. If you have purchased lump sulfur, it must first be ground.

You can make drilling of stainless steel products more efficient if you use for this operation a lubricant-cooling mixture consisting of sulfur and fatty acids, which can be obtained independently at home. To do this, do the following:

grind a piece of laundry soap (you can use the cheapest one);
mix the crushed soap with hot water and stir the resulting mixture thoroughly;
add technical hydrochloric acid to the resulting solution;
wait until fatty acids begin to rise to the surface of the resulting solution;
then add a large amount of cold water;
remove the hardened trunk of fatty acids from the surface of the solution, which are later used to prepare a lubricating and cooling solution.

The fatty acids obtained during the preparation of the drilling fluid are mixed with sulfur in a ratio of 6:1. Using a solution made according to this recipe, you can easily drill a stainless steel product, which even differs in considerable thickness. Naturally, when performing such a procedure, certain technological recommendations should be followed.

Useful tips for drilling

There are several simple tricks that allow you to quickly and efficiently drill a hole in stainless steel. We list the most common of them.

Drilling horizontal stainless steel surfaces is best done by first passing the drill through a lubricant and coolant poured into a rubber washer or plastic stopper installed directly above the location of the future hole.
If it is necessary to drill a hole in a stainless steel surface located vertically, then a ball made of paraffin can be fixed at the drilling site, which will provide lubrication of the cutting tool.
Regardless of whether you will drill stainless steel with a household electric drill or industrial equipment, it is better to carry out such a technological operation at low speeds of the cutting tool (100–600 rpm). The use of even very high quality lubricating and cooling fluid will not be able to provide a high-quality drilling result in stainless steel, carried out at high speeds.

In order to get a more detailed idea of how to properly drill stainless steel parts, you can study this process on video.

There are no problems with drilling at low speeds if a machine or drill is used for this, which has the option to adjust this parameter. If there is no such option, then the stainless steel can be drilled as follows.

An electric drilling tool starts up literally for 1-2 seconds.
After a short start, the drill turns off immediately.

Such a simple technological technique allows for low rotational speed of the cutting tool, which, in fact, is required for high-quality drilling of stainless steel.

Drill selection

When you need to drill into stainless steel, the choice of drill, along with the selection of the appropriate lubricant and coolant, as well as the operation technology, is the most important procedure that determines the quality of the final result. Until recently, cobalt drills were used to drill stainless steels.

Cobalt drills, which were equipped with cylindrical shanks, were produced from R6M5K5 grade alloys, and in some cases from R18 steel, in which the amount of cobalt was limited to 5%. The advantages of drills made from an alloy containing cobalt in its chemical composition are that this chemical element gives the tool high hardness, which allows it to easily drill through any stainless steel product. Regulatory document, in accordance with which such tools were produced, was GOST 10902-77.

To date, these drills are no longer produced by the industry, and it is not easy to find them on the market. Meanwhile, modern manufacturers produce many analogues for working with stainless steel, the quality of which is at high level. If you choose from such tools, you can pay attention to foreign-made drills, which are marked HSS-Co. They are produced according to DIN 338 and are made of steel containing at least 5% cobalt. In fact, the material from which they are made is an analogue of alloys of the R18 and R6M5K5 grades.

The characteristic difference of the drill with the addition of cobalt is more obtuse angle sharpening to facilitate centering at the beginning of drilling

It is absolutely not necessary to use a cobalt tool in order to drill stainless steel at home. Drills made of hard alloys do a good job with this task. Such drills for stainless steel differ not only in the material of their manufacture, but also in the very sharp sharpening of the cutting part (sharpening is performed on one side). However, it should be borne in mind that they are quite expensive and it is not always realistic to purchase them in ordinary hardware stores.

If you need to drill a hole in stainless steel, there are a few guidelines that will allow you to complete this procedure without any problems.

If the thickness of the stainless steel product to be drilled exceeds 6 mm, then it is best to perform this procedure using the double method. The essence of this method lies in the fact that a hole of small diameter is first drilled in a stainless steel, and only after that it is drilled to the required size.
In the event that the thickness of the product is small (1-2 mm), you can drill a hole in it using conventional drill for metal, the cutting part of which is sharpened at an angle of 120 °. It is very important to perform the operation at low speeds (up to 100 rpm), then the tool will not overheat much and will not fail.
If a hole needs to be drilled in a stainless steel product that is less than 1 mm thick, then it is better to use structures for this. The use of such a tool, which can be purchased at many hardware stores, allows you to get high-quality holes even in very thin parts.

If you are about to drill a hole in stainless steel, but have never done it before, you should not be limited to theoretical information. It is also advisable to watch a video on this topic, which is easy to find on the Internet. In addition, taking on the solution of such difficult task, it is advisable to stock up on high-quality cutting tools and related equipment.

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Special drills for stainless steel and cooling compounds for them allow you to quickly and comfortably make a hole of the required size in the "stainless steel".

1

Many home craftsmen, who are used to doing everything in everyday life with their own hands, are very surprised when they fail to drill a hole in stainless steel using a conventional drill. Such steel differs from other metals in high viscosity, so the drill heats up almost immediately as soon as a person begins to process a stainless alloy product.

And this means that the operation can be successful only if you take care of the high-quality cooling of the drilling tool.

To cool the fixture used to drill holes in "stainless steel", a special lubricant composition is usually used, consisting of sulfur and machine oil. Sulfur can be used both colloidal and special for fumigation. In hardware stores, the latter is sold precisely under the name "for fumigation" (sometimes it can be called "sulfur color"). It is usually allowed to be used without any additional preparations. If you purchased coarse sulfur, it should first be thoroughly ground and only then mixed with engine oil.

Drilling holes in stainless steel structures will be many times more efficient when using a coolant based on fatty acids and the same sulfur. These acids do not need to be bought anywhere, make them yourself. To do this, take the cheapest laundry soap, grind it, and then pour the resulting mixture into hot water. Hydrochloric technical acid is added to this composition and they wait until the fatty acids we need begin to float to the surface.

As soon as the acids rise to the top, it is necessary to pour cold water into the container where the operation is performed (you don’t need to feel sorry for it, the more you pour, the better). As a result, fatty acids will begin to solidify and can be removed from the surface of the liquid without the slightest difficulty. The described process of isolating the required compounds (soap into hot water - cooling - acid removal) can be repeated several times (3-5).

Mixing fatty compounds with colloidal or "fumigating" sulfur is carried out in a six to one ratio. That is, six parts of acids must be added to one part of sulfur. Professionals assure that it will not be difficult to drill "stainless steel" of any thickness with such a cooling compound (unless, of course, you follow other recommendations, which we will discuss below).

2

In cases where drilling is performed in a horizontal plane, it is recommended to pour the prepared cooling liquid into a small rubber washer or into a cork and carry out the procedure through it. When processing vertical structures, it is possible to attach a paraffin ball to the drilling sites. This will greatly facilitate the process - you can easily drill a product that is in an uncomfortable spatial position.

Another feature of drilling holes in "stainless steel" is that either electric drill, which are used to carry out the procedure, must be set to minimum speed. Their number can vary from 100 to 600 per minute. If you ask large quantity revolutions, even a high-quality lubricant composition will not be able to effectively cool the working tool.

When using a drill equipped with a regulator electronic type, set the required speed is easy. More problems arise when there is no such control on the instrument. But even in such a situation there is a way out: start the electric drill for a short time (literally for 1-2 seconds); Press "Start" immediately. In such a short time, its collector motor will not be able to gain high speed.

3

You have prepared a cooling lubricant, studied all the recommendations for the correct drilling of "stainless steel", and now you can move on to the most important thing - the selection of a special drill. Without it, drilling stubborn metal will not work. AT Soviet times cobalt shank drills have always been used for stainless steel cylindrical shape R6M5K5. They were made according to State standard 10902–77. P18 drills with a cobalt content of five percent were also used.

Now it is almost impossible to find such devices for drilling holes. But that's not a problem, because construction market offers us a lot of their foreign counterparts. Imported drilling tools are produced according to DIN 338 and have the HSS-Co marking, from which it becomes clear that the drill material contains at least five percent cobalt (similar to P18 and P6M5K5). It is cobalt that gives the tool the required hardness and makes it relatively easy to drill "stainless steel".

Besides, good effect processing of stainless alloys demonstrates carbide drilling tools for metal. These drills are characterized acute angle sharpening (it is done on one side). But it is not easy to get them, not all hardware stores sell them. Yes, and the cost of such devices is objectively high.

A few tips for drilling "stainless steel":

If you are drilling thick steel (more than six millimeters), it is advisable to perform the process using a double method. Its essence is that first you need to make a small "hole" with a drill with a small diameter and only then apply a tool with the required section.
Drilling products with a thickness of 1-2 millimeters is allowed to be done normally at low speeds (up to 100 per minute), but on condition that the cutting edge of this tool is sharpened by about 120 degrees.
Machining stainless steel less than one millimeter thick should be done with step drills that provide perfectly round holes without burrs at their ends.

In order to drill through different kinds stainless steels at home, use special drills and liquid cooling. This allows you to improve the technological process and obtain high-quality metal hole without damaging the power tool and the underlying surface of the material. Such metal is drilled both on industrial machines and with familiar building electrical appliances according to a pre-drawn template.

Stainless steel features and drill selection

Stainless steel is widely used in household and industrial applications. It is a high-quality metal alloy that is resistant to corrosion and various aggressive environments. In everyday life, this material is often used for the manufacture of plumbing fixtures, countertops, pipes, etc. In the process of repair or construction, it sometimes becomes necessary to drill one or another part made of this metal.

An important nuance when drilling stainless steels, along with the right choice coolants and work technology is a quality drill. To this day, many professionals still prefer the time-honored and very strong cobalt (CO-5) options, which are also suitable for making holes in high temperature metals or cast iron without the need for pre-centering.

These models were previously made on the basis of steel alloys with 5% cobalt in their composition or from high-strength steels of the R-18 type with the addition of this chemical element. These days they are hard to find on the market. building materials those species that corresponded to Soviet standards GOST - 10902-77, since they are practically not produced on an industrial scale.

Most often, most domestic manufacturers simply cover the parts with a "golden" layer of cobalt, but at the same time, cobalt itself is minimally contained in the workpiece or not at all. This technology improves the sliding parameters, but does not add any strength to the rod.

There are analogues of "real" foreign-made cobalt options on the market, the characteristics of which comply with DIN - 338 or 336 standards, and the marking contains the abbreviation HSS-C or simply NHSS. These types of drills are also made from high-strength steels with a mandatory content of at least 5% cobalt in the alloy (among the manufacturers it is worth noting such companies as Bosch; Ruko; Gross; Hagwert; Hilti, etc.

Their advantage is the high hardness of the material from which they are made and a specially blunt tip sharpening angle, which makes them suitable for working with any kind of "heavy" metals. The only negative may be the price, which is noticeably higher than the usual options for standard drills.

Steel crowns and conical drills for stainless steel

In addition to cobalt options of various diameters and strengths for stainless steel, other drills made of metal alloys of high hardness are used with the sharpest sharpening for dense materials, which, as a rule, is made only one at a time. cutting side. The choice of drill and working tool depends on the grade of stainless steel, the thickness of the workpiece being processed and the selected technological process.

If it is necessary to make a large hole (from 14 mm in diameter and above.), Special annular drills or crowns are used. They have additional clamping equipment, a chuck and a drilling head. various sizes, which, according to the tables, correspond to inch and metric standards for pipe and other popular stainless steel products.

With small thicknesses (1-2 mm), stainless steel can be drilled with a simple steel drill, but only if its cutting part is sharpened at an angle of 120 degrees. At the same time, the power tool is set to the lowest possible speed (100 rpm) in order to prevent the cutter from breaking, as well as overheating and failure of the tool itself.

For drilling processing of sheet, food and especially thin stainless steel (less than 0.9 mm), special stepped or cone drills for metal are used. Their peculiarity lies in the fact that the working part of the part is made in the form of a spiral with annular transitions of various diameters.

This allows you to accurately determine during drilling what size hole was made at a certain stage of work. In such cases (with a very small thickness), these types can replace a whole range of stainless steel parts, including round crowns and conventional drills with different type sharpening.

Application of coolants and lubricants

Drilling holes in products that are made of stainless steel with a standard metal drill and using a simple technology is not recommended due to the special structure of the alloy, which is characterized by increased viscosity. The use of a conventional drill leads to the fact that in the process of work there is an excessively strong heating of all the elements that participate in it, which can adversely affect the working tool and the finishing quality.

To avoid difficulties with self-drilling and make the hole correctly and as evenly as possible, high-quality coolants are used, which also act as a lubricant.

AT industrial scale powerful drilling machines and equipment that is equipped with an automatic fluid supply system. Some craftsmen equip old or home-made mills with a similar device, building it on the basis of a pump from a car pump or other suitable option.

A common and gross mistake of novice craftsmen is dipping the drill into water while working. That is, first a hole is made dry, then the hot rod is lowered into a cold solution. It is absolutely impossible to do this, it reduces the properties of the part, and at a certain stage the workpiece will break, which also applies to the working tool itself.

The composition that is used when drilling stainless steel is most often made on the basis of a mixture of industrial oil or other types with high viscosity and colloidal sulfur, rubbed into powder (which is often used for the fumigation procedure in horticulture and viticulture.). These two elements are mixed together in equal proportions and get the necessary for quality work cooling material.

A more efficient cooling option is a solution based on sulfur and fatty acids. The latter are easy to obtain independently using the following technology:

small bar of laundry soap standard brand crushed to a powder;
add hot water (70-80 degrees) to the container and mix everything properly;
a few drops of technical acid (hydrochloric acid) are added to the slightly cooled solution;
after a few minutes, when characteristic greasy bubbles form on the surface, they are "extinguished" with a large amount of chilled or ice water.

The resulting hardened layer is the fatty acids necessary for work, which are subsequently mixed with sulfur powder in a ratio of 1 to 6 and used as a heat compensator during drilling. If it is impossible to do a similar procedure or for lack of suitable materials can be purchased ready-made options liquid cooling, which are sold in special stores (but their cost will be much higher than those that are obtained independently).

In order for the hole to turn out to be even and of high quality, a few simple rules are used that allow you to work on stainless steel with high quality, namely:

When drilling parts that are located in a horizontal plane, the drill is pushed through a rubber washer or other material of suitable size and properties (for example, a plastic cork), which, in turn, is filled with a cooling compound and installed directly above the place of the required cut. Or additionally spray the area universal means for metals in the form of aerosols.

For vertical surfaces, you can install a paraffin ball, which is a good lubricant. To facilitate work in any plane, experts recommend making preliminary markings (axial risks) or a special template with already marked contours.

Regardless of the type of part, thickness and other parameters, a household power tool or machine is adjusted to the minimum feed rate (100-450 rpm) using adjustments. This will give you a uniform and precise drilling. An indicator of a correctly selected speed is a long and uniform metal chip that occurs during operation.

With a steel product thickness of more than 7 millimeters, the procedure is performed in several technological steps. First, a small preliminary hole is made with a suitable drill for this (for example, 4-5 mm), and then it is carefully drilled to the required parameters. This allows you to get the most even and neat edges, which is especially important when working with food or plumbing stainless steel pipes.

Drilling stainless steel at home is not difficult if you have theoretical and practical ideas about it and choose reliable power tools and a set of high-quality drills. Do not forget about the constant cooling of the metal, safety precautions and technological breaks.

The question of how to drill any stainless steel at home usually does not arise if you use special drills for these purposes. Along with such drills, which allow you to quickly and accurately form a hole of the required diameter, it is necessary to use special cooling compounds, as well as strictly adhere to technological parameters.

In production, for drilling stainless steel, industrial machines with a coolant supply are used. In the home workshop, you have to learn some tricky tricks

Lubricants

In order to drill stainless steel efficiently and quickly, taking into account all of the above, it is necessary to use a cooling material, which, in addition, must have good lubricating properties.

If it is often necessary to drill stainless steel, it makes sense to equip the machine with a home-made liquid lubricant supply system (a car pump is suitable as a pump)

In the event that the sulfur at your disposal is a fine powder, it can be immediately mixed with engine oil without special preparation. If you have purchased lump sulfur, it must first be ground.

grind a piece of laundry soap (you can use the cheapest one);
mix the crushed soap with hot water and stir the resulting mixture thoroughly;
add technical hydrochloric acid to the resulting solution;
wait until fatty acids begin to rise to the surface of the resulting solution;
then add a large amount of cold water;
remove the hardened trunk of fatty acids from the surface of the solution, which are later used to prepare a lubricating and cooling solution.

Useful tips for drilling

There are several simple tricks that allow you to quickly and efficiently drill a hole in stainless steel. We list the most common of them.

Drilling horizontal stainless steel surfaces is best done by first passing the drill through a lubricant and coolant poured into a rubber washer or plastic plug installed directly above the location of the future hole.
If it is necessary to drill a hole in a stainless steel surface located vertically, then a ball made of paraffin can be fixed at the drilling site, which will provide lubrication of the cutting tool.
Regardless of whether you will drill stainless steel with a household electric drill or industrial equipment, it is better to carry out such a technological operation at low revolutions of the cutting tool (100–600 rpm). The use of even very high quality lubricating and cooling fluid will not be able to provide a high-quality drilling result in stainless steel, carried out at high speeds.

In order to get a more detailed idea of how to properly drill stainless steel parts, you can study this process on video.

An electric drilling tool starts up literally for 1-2 seconds.
After a short start, the drill turns off immediately.

Such a simple technological technique allows for low rotational speed of the cutting tool, which, in fact, is required for high-quality drilling of stainless steel.

Drill selection

Cobalt drills, which were equipped with cylindrical shanks, were produced from R6M5K5 grade alloys, and in some cases from R18 steel, in which the amount of cobalt was limited to 5%. The advantages of drills made from an alloy containing in its chemical composition cobalt, are that this chemical element gives the tool high hardness, which allows it to easily drill any stainless steel product. The regulatory document in accordance with which such tools were produced was GOST 10902-77.

To date, these drills are no longer produced by the industry, and it is not easy to find them on the market. Meanwhile, modern manufacturers produce many analogues for working with stainless steel, the quality of which is at a high level. If you choose from such tools, you can pay attention to foreign-made drills, which are marked HSS-Co. They are produced according to DIN 338 and are made of steel containing at least 5% cobalt. In fact, the material from which they are made is an analogue of alloys of the R18 and R6M5K5 grades.

A characteristic difference of the drill with the addition of cobalt is a more obtuse sharpening angle for easier centering at the beginning of drilling.

If you need to drill a hole in stainless steel, there are a few guidelines that will allow you to complete this procedure without any problems.

If the thickness of the stainless steel product to be drilled exceeds 6 mm, then it is best to perform this procedure using the double method. The essence of this method lies in the fact that a hole of small diameter is first drilled in a stainless steel, and only after that it is drilled to the required size.
In the event that the thickness of the product is small (1–2 mm), you can drill a hole in it using a conventional metal drill, the cutting part of which is sharpened at an angle of 120 °. It is very important to perform the operation at low speeds (up to 100 rpm), then the tool will not overheat much and will not fail.
If a hole needs to be drilled in a stainless steel product that is less than 1 mm thick, then it is better to use

Special drills for stainless steel and cooling compounds for them allow you to quickly and comfortably make a hole of the required size in the "stainless steel".

1

And this means that the operation can be successful only if you take care of the high-quality cooling of the drilling tool.

2

In cases where holes are drilled in a horizontal plane, it is recommended to pour the prepared cooling liquid into a small rubber washer or into a cork and carry out the procedure through it. When processing vertical structures, it is possible to attach a paraffin ball to the drilling sites. This will greatly facilitate the process - you can easily drill a product that is in an uncomfortable spatial position.

Another feature of drilling holes in "stainless steel" is that either the electric drill that is used to carry out the procedure must be set to minimum speed. Their number can vary from 100 to 600 per minute. If you set a higher number of revolutions, even a high-quality lubricant composition will not be able to effectively cool the working tool.

When using a drill equipped with an electronic type regulator, it is easy to set the required speed. More problems arise when there is no such control on the instrument. But even in such a situation there is a way out: start the electric drill for a short time (literally for 1-2 seconds); Press "Start" immediately. In such a short time, its collector motor will not be able to gain high speed.

3

You have prepared a cooling lubricant, studied all the recommendations for the correct drilling of "stainless steel", and now you can move on to the most important thing - the selection of a special drill. Without it, drilling stubborn metal will not work. In Soviet times, cobalt drills with a cylindrical shank R6M5K5 were always used to work with stainless steel. They were made according to the State Standard 10902-77. P18 drills with a cobalt content of five percent were also used.

Now it is almost impossible to find such devices for drilling holes. But this does not matter, since the construction market offers us a lot of their foreign counterparts. Imported drilling tools are produced according to DIN 338 and have the HSS-Co marking, from which it becomes clear that the drill material contains at least five percent cobalt (similar to P18 and P6M5K5). It is cobalt that gives the tool the required hardness and makes it relatively easy to drill "stainless steel".

In addition, the carbide metal drilling tool shows a good processing effect on stainless alloys. Such drills are characterized by an acute sharpening angle (it is done on one side). But it is not easy to get them, not all hardware stores sell them. Yes, and the cost of such devices is objectively high.

A few tips for drilling "stainless steel":

If you are drilling thick steel (more than six millimeters), it is advisable to perform the process using a double method. Its essence is that first you need to make a small "hole" with a drill with a small diameter and only then apply a tool with the required section.
Drilling products with a thickness of 1-2 millimeters is allowed to be done normally at low speeds (up to 100 per minute), but on condition that the cutting edge of this tool is sharpened by about 120 degrees.
Machining stainless steel less than one millimeter thick should be done with step drills that provide perfectly round holes without burrs at their ends.

It can definitely be said that any house keeps its mysteries. Their number in each house is different. To cope with them, as a rule, you need to use the advice and knowledge of other people who are familiar with similar problems. One of these challenging tasks considered than drilling stainless steel. Without certain knowledge and skills, you will probably try to make the hole you need in the stainless steel layer, but to no avail.

Instructions for this event:

1. First of all, in order to make a hole in the stainless steel layer, you need to use a special lubricant. Most often, to get this lubricant, you need to mix a certain type of sulfur with engine oil. The sulfur required for this blending is sold in specialized shops. When buying it, pay attention to the name of this sulfur. Its name may be as follows:

Sulfur for fumigation.
colloidal sulfur.
Gray color.

If you bought sulfur called "colloidal sulfur" or "sulfur color", it can be mixed with the oil as it is in the package. But if you have "sulfur for hilling", you must first knead it, then add oil and mix.

2. To create a lubricant with much more powerful properties than sulfur and machine oil, you need to mix sulfur with fatty acids. Where can you get these fatty acids? To do this, grind the lowest-grade laundry soap, and then add hot water. A significant amount of hydrochloric acid must be poured into the prepared soap solution; for this, take technical hydrochloric acid. After the reaction of the interaction of these substances, fatty acids will be on the surface of the container. Then add a lot of cold water to this vessel. This will cause the fatty acids to thicken and be skimmed off the surface. Perform 5 fatty acid washes. First add hot water, then cold, collect them from the surface, and so on.

3. Having collected a sufficient amount of fatty acids, mix them with sulfur. The proportions should be 6:1. Thus, the lubricant for making a hole in stainless steel is prepared, it remains to use it. Do not forget that when carrying out the drilling process, the drill should not overheat. Take breaks from time to time to allow the drill to cool down. Not following this instruction, lubrication may, instead of helping, make it difficult to carry out this operation.

Compliance with simple rules

In order not to face difficult situations, such as severe overheating of the drilling site, extreme heating of the drill and others, you need to follow some simple rules which will help you to make absolutely smooth holes without the associated time and money. It should also be borne in mind that due to the viscous structure of stainless steel, the stainless steel layer must be drilled at low speeds in order to prevent the drill from overheating. Drills should only be used very sharp. In addition, in order to prevent significant overheating of the drilling site, which will lead to great difficulties in drilling, it is necessary to minimize the temperature of the drill every 10 seconds.

Keep an eye on the chips during the drilling process, if it gets smaller and darker, this means that the drill has become dull and the hole in the stainless steel has overheated. Therefore, you must sharpen the drill or change it to another one in order to successfully complete the work you have begun. As a rule, you need to start drilling with a drill having a small diameter, the size of which is four or five, respectively. Then gradually switch to a drill that has the right size to get the desired hole. By carrying out the drilling process in this way, a smoother hole can be produced, while greatly reducing the time spent on it.

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