Drilling Through Stainless Steel

Drilling stainless steel is not as.

Drilling through stainless steel. What stainless tends to do is work harden fairly quickly when heated and drilling at high speed creates a lot of heat. Stainless is actually a relatively soft metal at least in its initial state. Joined jun 7 2010 messages 120 reaction score 1 location clarksvlle tn. Most drill bits are sold in a set with multiple sizes.

There are quite a few opinions out there on the best way to do this including using a center punch and drill press both options didn t suit my needs as i wanted to achieve this with the tools i. Here is the right way to drill stainless steel. There are also other steps to drilling this material that will make the process easier. When stainless steel work hardens it becomes very hard and extremely difficult to drill.

I know some people don t have any problems drilling through stainless steel but for those that are i hope this helps. Drilling stainless steel is not as difficult as you may thi. If you re drilling a lot of holes or through hardened steel then a cobalt steel bit or black oxide bit is a better choice. Certainly of all the metals out there stainless steel is the one that seems to cause most problems for people when it comes to drilling.

In this video i will show you how to drill stainless steel with regular drill bits and hole saws. Drilling through stainless steel is much like drilling through any other type of metal but with a few key differences. After burning through a couple of cheap drill bits i did what everyone else does and searched the internet for tips on drilling into stainless steel. Many people have drilled holes into plain old steel with satisfactory results.

Using high speed drill bits or better is mandatory.