Drilling Grade 8 bolts

Yes, I am talking to someone about selling one of my domains, if all goes well, I would get either a small lathe or a vertical mill or some combo.

i

Just drilled two bolts, made two 1 3/4" or so holes of about 1/8" ID. It was quite easy. I had to resharpen the drill once and used cutting fluid. No big deal at all.

The homemade "fittings" seem to fit the adapters on the torch.

I then welded little 1/4" NPT pipe nipples to the bolts. That again reminded me why TIG is a good thing.

i

Nice job Iggy :) And without a lathe too.

Glenn

Thanks... It is not that nice, as the NPT pipe nipples were not attached to the bolts 100% straight. But it is "good enuf", strong and does not leak.

i

Good job, Ig!

Now that you're "getting there" with TIG and since you already have air, you might think about finding a gritblasting box for $9.95 or something. A couple of minutes in the box o' glass beads does wonders for appearance. Also good prep for painting or plating.

The import siphon guns that come with import boxes (ala HF) are utter junk, but the S-25 siphon gun from

works great as long as the air is reasonably dry -- as from your drier.

Wow Don, thank you. It is not as good as it looks (the NPT pipe is not exactly coaxial with bolt, not too bad but nothing to brag about), but thank you anyway for the compliment, coming from you etc. The consistent appearance of the TIG weld is not how I made it originally, it was not so good, but then I "re-melted" the weld and it all flowed around nicely.

Don, is that what people call "blast cabinets"? I am sorry, I looked at that website and there is a few things and I was not sure which one is right.

i

Whatever works! TIG is nice that way, allows fixing boo-boos.

Yes.

Here's a better link to the S-25 gun itself:

It would be easy enough to build a box out of plywood or sheetmetal with a plastic lid. TP Tools sells plans but I don't think you'd need any plans. Further, you can probably buy a box for less than the materials required to make one. They're just boxes with a transparent lid or door you can see thru, perhaps a shaped bottom that funnels the media a bit, a couple of arm holes with long rubber gloves and a filtered exhaust port. Northern Tool has the gloves. (They also have boxes, as does HF, with really crappy siphon guns) My exhaust port goes to a shop vac with a HEPA filter in it. A light inside is nice.

I had a dentist that made a box for his microblaster (like an airbrush, for working on crowns) out of a plastic wastebasket!

Definitely.

Don, my problem is that I do not visualize how a blast cabinet works. Do the beads stay in the cabinet somehow and recirculate?

I will read up some more, but I already tried finding some good description on how it works (and did not find much). I definitely do not have enough space for a blast cabinet in regular size. My previous thoughts (which are possibly wrong) centered around some tumbler type thing, for which I already have most components like DC gear motor etc.

i

They don't have to be very big. Mine is 22-1/2 x 18-1/2 x 18.

Yes, most of the media stays in the box. The siphon gun sucks it from the bottom of the box and blasts it, but it stays in the box. It eventually gets broken into finer bits which a small shopvac sucks out as dust, but that takes a while. I'm still working with a 50 lb bag of glass beads I bought probably 5 years ago, maybe more. I use it quite often but everything I do is pretty small and nothing takes very long.

Your parts that started this thread are excellent examples. About 20 seconds in the box (per part) would have them bright and clean all over. I guess you've seen photos of items I've welded and then blasted and plated. They look about the same before and after plating, the plating just keeps them from rusting. The plating gets done in a 2-gallon bucket -- very little floor space. The plating supplies are on the same cart as the little blast cabinet.

Don, that sounds good. I will try to look for some "blast cabinet special". Sounds very nice. I have some strange 5 gallon stainless steel open top "jugs" from a cookie factory, maybe somehow I could use that for blasting (like I said, I may be missing a lot). Thanks.

My adapters will not be particularly exposed and I could just clean them with whatever I have (steel brushes, cheap, not from Tom Gardner), and spray paint them with tractor paint.

i

Out of spec or date lineman glove liners work great for a blast cabinet. Might be able to get em free at the local power co. Glenn

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I believe that Grade 8 fasteners are in the RC 33 range. You should be able to drill them with normal high speed drills. It might be advisable to look up the proper cutting speed and not exceed it :-)

That's minimum, 39 is max.

I probably would proceed as if it were 4130 at 39 Rc

I looked at the subject and thought, what a naive, inexperienced question. Of course they can be drilled. And then I looked closer and it was me in 2007 asking this question .

I've drilled High grade HSS+Colbolt+MM. With a solid carbide drill. It was Mo-Max cutter. I was making a forming bit for my metal lathe.

The trick is to have a solid and firm hold. Drill press. Drive the drill in with firm pressure and when the drill gets red hot - and the spot on the metal does - the drill goes through it nicely. I left the drill in the chuck afterwards - I didn't want to shatter it nor melt something.

It was a 1/8" drill. Carbide comes in all sizes.

Mart>> >>>> Are grade 8 bolts drillable? I just realized that bolts that I bought