best technique for drilling holes in 0.040 Titanium

[100hours]

Steve, Hi, first time posting on BladeForums. I have been making knife clips for the past month or so for both Spyderco and Benchmade models. I also anodized them and some are coming out pretty nice. I have followed your tips and videos, for which I want to thank you immensely for your insights and guidance. One thing that is driving me crazy is drilling the holes precisely where I want them. Too frequently the bit drifts just slightly and I have to ream the hole with a cutter bit to get it to properly fit. I am too much of a perfectionist to continue this way.

I am using a Dremel with a Carbide bit and the Dremel drill press. I actually love this thing but I just cannot stop the bit from walking. I center punch the holes though since the Ti is harder than the punch, I have to sharpen them often. I use a Carbide bit and 3in1 oil. I have tried drilling at different speeds, slowing way down to reduce wobble. I feel I know that I have to upgrade to a better drill press, but before I go out and spend money, I wanted to do it right the first time, so I thought I would ask your opinion on how best to go about this. If you, or any of the experts here on this forum have any equipment recommendations, that would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

 

[tiguy7]

Get a bigger press, a Starrett automatic center punch, a carbide spotting drill, and some sulfurated oil. Fixtures also help. A bigger press will hold the spotting drill. Spotting drills don't flex. The walking is caused by a small drill and a non-rigid press. Starrett punches are harder than Titanium. Specific coolants are made for specific materials. There are also speed and feed charts for different materials if you don't want to guess. Drill press vises can be clamped or bolted to the cast steel table of a larger press. Spotting drills are available in coated carbide. TiAlN is one of the hardest coatings at 92 HRC. The carbide bit is closer to 72 HRC. Those little cylindrical diamond coated Dremel bits are pretty good for hole moving/reshaping.

 

[STR]

Steve, Hi, first time posting on BladeForums. I have been making knife clips for the past month or so for both Spyderco and Benchmade models. I also anodized them and some are coming out pretty nice. I have followed your tips and videos, for which I want to thank you immensely for your insights and guidance. One thing that is driving me crazy is drilling the holes precisely where I want them. Too frequently the bit drifts just slightly and I have to ream the hole with a cutter bit to get it to properly fit. I am too much of a perfectionist to continue this way.

I am using a Dremel with a Carbide bit and the Dremel drill press. I actually love this thing but I just cannot stop the bit from walking. I center punch the holes though since the Ti is harder than the punch, I have to sharpen them often. I use a Carbide bit and 3in1 oil. I have tried drilling at different speeds, slowing way down to reduce wobble. I feel I know that I have to upgrade to a better drill press, but before I go out and spend money, I wanted to do it right the first time, so I thought I would ask your opinion on how best to go about this. If you, or any of the experts here on this forum have any equipment recommendations, that would be very much appreciated.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Ti guy covered a bit of it. I like two flute MSC Industrial carbides used in the correct sizes and while expensive if you take care of them they last and in sizes 1/8" diameter and up I've successfully resharpened them using the drill doctor on a couple occasions also. I also like and use these many times, or I should say I did at one time because I don't now per say, but anyway these drills mark precisely and mostly make short work of starting holes in G10 and other materials because they last and they do not pull up the piece when going in and in a good chuck my experience has been that the carbides don't drift so you are not fighting the thing or having to clamp so much that slows you down. Now with that said the twist carbides can drift if dull but for me a dull one of those was a rare thing. Usually the twist carbides were a waste of money. They'd break in one use and did on me in the early years. I shoulda got on a forum and asked myself. I avoid twist drills. Truth be known I prefer the spades and think they go in fast but apparently everyone else likes those too cause they are always out of them so I ended up with a collection of two flute type carbides I've used over a period of oh, ten years cepting for the smaller ones that shatter so bad easily. From 3/32 down they get iffy and still break and in that number 44 size which is what I used a lot, *43 works better, but again not often found as easy. I justified 44 as a tighter tolerance for less drift side to side of the clip but the holes have to be spot on the money with that size. Many of the factory clips are 3/32 or something close in mm size to accommodate the screws like those on the Delica 4 and Endura 4 FRN models while others have Jap screws much smaller in size like the stainless Delica 4. The same knife but different clip and different screw size for the clips so one thing you run into across the board with clips is you need a happy medium that works for all.

My idea was to just use the size for each knife cause being a nut I pretty much knew off the top of my head what the screw was on most I was being asked about. From a glance at a pic I could often tell but if you did drill say a 44 hole size and the screw from the other knife is smaller it is not as big an issue as too small. On Spyderco in particular as we all know they give very little room for thread so just banging up the very end of one and the entire screw is shot even if the threads all the way down from the very tip are great and unused! So thickness is dictated unfortunately by the screws in the industry. Use .050 and none of the factory screws fit to grab particularly with some brands giving just enough to grab due to build type and thickness of materials used.

With carbides I've learned to let the drill do the work just gently help it along. Push it and bind it to heat it and then on pop out when it perfs the thing shatters so its on the exit you have to really slow down and go slow with these. I use a backing of metal sheet always. I keep some scrap sheets and buy stuff like that at yard sales just for that purpose actually. You should too and you can also thread those real quick with screw sizes to have a piece to ID screws easy and or hold them so you can give gloved thumb over the head and zip off or grind down the end and flatten or shorten a screw.

On your drift issue it sounds like there is too much drill hanging down out of the chuck. If you put it up in the chuck a ways so it is shorter coming out of the tip its more precise for a lesser expensive set up. If it won't go in far enough I wouldn't be above shortening drills cutting off ends so they fit the tool you have. My drill press is one of those listed on most sites as the 'hobby press' and they are not expensive. It drills a perfectly straight hole and for anything serious I have my mill/drill after that. The cheap one does the major bulk of my work though.

Here is the one I have exactly only mine is red and many years older. When I got mine it was listed everywhere at the same price as here but I actually stumbled on it at Big Lots for 29 bucks and some change on a reconditioned deal. Best 29 bucks I've spent in years as its not a bad little bench top. The depth control gauge is cheesy but its like that on all of them like this so you end up doing your own on that but you need to spend more to get better. My better was about $650 all said and done and it doesn't drill any straighter hole for straight through holes. If you need precise depths doing scales and such this falls short IMO for what you'd need. Then you want the better piece of equipment with a 'precise' depth measure control and tilt, 360 swivel table and the side to side for all the fixings. For clips this works dandy and you can find these for less than this probably local near you is my guess. http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Speed-Jew...i-Drill-Press-Shop-760-3070-RPM-/151139355691

 

[100hours]

Tiguy7 and STR,
Thank you both very much. It is so nice of you to share your knowledge with nubies like me. I hope to repay the debt someday by helping another.

Happy Halloween!