Jailhouse door - Bit questions

ok, thanks. I'll order bit.

Snooky

Just out of curiosity..what happened to the original door?

Whenever a Liberal utters the term "Common Sense approach"....grab your wallet, your ass, and your guns because the sombitch is about to do something damned nasty to all three of them.

M42 grade - or maybe pure carbide. You don't mention what BHN it is at this time. Keep it cool - e.g. cut under water - it will work harden and get tough.

If this is hard material - then do at least a 1/4" in carbide to allow the central web to pass and follow. The center of the drill spins on a spot. It doesn't cut. It is more a wedge. It can get nasty if a central starter hole stepping up larger and larger to the final.

ATF will be good coolant - keep it under it or constantly flooding.

Mart> Cobalt drill would be good, you will want something better than a plain

Roy's advice is good. But you never said what kind of steel you are using. So if the steel is mild steel and you happen to have a large bit of any kind, have at it. Large drills can be sharpened freehand on a grinder. You may have to do that a few times depending on the quality of the drill.

On jobs as this, I have drilled the pilot hole almost all the way thru, and then filled the hole with lubricant. If your drill press is hefty enough, just drill the pilot hole and go directly to the full size hole. If your drill press is a bit light for the job, and does not slow down enough, you might find using an intermediate sized drill or two helps.

You will be an expert on drilling large holes before you are done.

Dan

I have had good results with carbide hole saws. I found them @ my local industrial supply house (about $35 for a 13/16), kind of like an annual cutter or precision hole saw but with carbide teeth. they work great in a drill press and well in a hand drill (easy to snap off the pilot bit) they are much faster then a reg bit and require less hp because you are cutting out a slug. ck out msc or mcmaster.

AV

For the number of holes involved I would find someone with an ironworker and punch them instead of drilling.

Carla "No greater wrong can ever be done than to put a good man at the mercy of a bad, while telling him not to defend himself or his fellows; in no way can the success of evil be made surer or quicker." --President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919)

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Dan

Steel is cold rolled flat stock. A hole saw would probably go thru it. There's some associated steel work going on above and to both sides of the door, so probably 60 holes all in all.

There was no original door. This door is to keep burglers away from my food, water, guns, ammo, gold & silver, and reloading supplies. It's for when I go out of town.

I live on the edge of a larger city where there's been some burgler problems very close to home. The house is basically swiss cheese. My goodies are in the basement. If they get the door open, past the motion sensors, my trip wires on the very dark basement stairs with lots of very sharp punji stick type burglar receivers at the lower landing. Through the jail door past the electric eye fired gunpowder inspired leg removers then they can have it all. There will be plenty of signs IN ENGLISH! as to what lies ahead. If I should come home one weekend and find a body in my basement I will be a little upset, but I'd feel a lot worse if all my shit were gone.

Thanks for the good info.

Drill bit is on order and wood fixturing in process.

regards, Snooky

Just so you know, you can buy bar pre-punched for this.

You can even get forged bars to make a medieval version.

Check your local laws.

IIRC, booby-trapping your house leaves you responsible for any damage done to the perp.

Your satisfaction at saving your stuff may be hard to enjoy if you're behind bars yourself. If you can't bring yourself to get one of those auto-call alarm systems then rigging up something that makes loud bells ring and bright lights flash comes in a close second.

And if you don't think that you can brief your neighbors to respond to the bells and lights, then you need to (a) move, and (b) don't alienate your new neighbors.

Burglars aside, booby-trapping your house _will_ leave you responsible for any damage done to cops or fire fighters who need to break into your house to save your ass. Going into a burning house, blind, to save the stupid b****** who let it catch on fire in the first place is irritating and dangerous enough; you can expect the cops to come down on the side of the firefighters should this happen.

(Come to think of it, if you're doing all this work, why make it a jail- style door? And why mild steel? Why not make it vault-style so they can't see in, with hardened locks, etc.?)

Why not mild steel? It certainly will discourage most all criminals who just have hand tools. And a higher grade of steel can be cut with a plasma torch just as easily as mild steel. Dan

One can go through mild steel with a hacksaw and some sweat. Harden it, and you'll need to find a plug in for that plasma torch -- or at least steal a better grade of hacksaw.

Nothing will stop everybody -- at some point you'll make the door so hard that it'll be easier to go through the basement wall -- so maximal discouragement is what you want to aim for anyway.

Frankly, putting stuff inside a cage like that is a more effective way of saying "Hey! This stuff is way valuable!" than putting up a blinking sign. It's kind of a declaration that it's worth the work.

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Dan

I chose the particular steel as it was reasonably priced, and easy enough to work with. I just want something to slow the crack heads down. It's just one component of the total security system. My neighbors are great and will call cops if the motion sensors set off audibal alarms. I'm even considering a pro alarm install. The door is going on the end of the basement where there are no windows. There was a window which was covered up by a concrete slab when addition added. Same with the coal chute. House was built in 1922 and basement walls are very very thick. Houdini couldn't get in.

thanks again, Snooky

=A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 =A0 Dan

P.S. Tim, I know you from Sci.electronic design and maybe radio groups too. We've run across each other a few times over the years. Do you do RC models too?

Regards, N9NEO

Well, if you'd contribute to the oh-so-slow rec.models.rc.air you'd know just what sort of models I build!

(Mostly RC, with enough control line action to keep me dizzy, but not enough that I get used to spinning in circles. If I ever learned how to build light and straight I'd move 100 miles east or south and fly free flight.)

I forgot to mention -- I'm KG7LI, ex N1FUW.