Drilling holes into HSS

You don't drill HSS. You can grind it, though. The procedure for drilling a hole in glass comes to mind if you don't have a ton to do .. chuck up a piece of copper tube of the correct OD, and build a dam around your hole. Fill it with kerosene and abrasive powder or diamond or something, and peck the hole with the end of the copper tube. Takes a long time, but it will cut.

Grant

L. Peter Stacey wrote:

hi speed steel can be annealed, drilled & rehardened

Hey Peter,

Sounds tailor-made for EDM.

Take care.

Brian Laws>I want to drill (1/4" - 3/16" ) holes into High Speed Steel up to 1/8"

I agree with Grant on this one - however, I did drill 1/4" HS steel cutter for my lathe.

I made a form tool. I used a solid Carbide drill and got both red hot. Once red, the tool steel drilled.

Martin

Not easily, however.

Harold

And probably not re-treated back to it's original uniform condition, at least in the average home shop.

Jim

================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================

Why not just use drill rod and then harden it? If you're only cutting wood, and the tip is easily replacable, what's the need for HSS? The main call for HSS is in situations where the tool will get hot. Do the ends of your wood turning chisels ever glow red?

Then what's the use of HSS taps? Dies? Hmm?

Tim

-- "That's for the courts to decide." - Homer Simpson Website @

HSS seems to hold an edge a bit longer in woodturning operations. Just like HSS knives in a jointer or thickness planer.

Considering that these tools are being sharpened by the users, though, and not by a professional sharpening shop as would handlethe jointer or planer knives, the real advantage may be that when you grind it on your dry wheel grinder and the edge turns purple, you haven't ruined it. It's pretty much idiot-proof.

John Martin

Not tapping by hand surely?

Why not silver solder? It won't hurt the HSS.

Ted

Contrary to other responses, I've had success using carbide end mills to "drill" holes in HSS. Use an endmill designed for center cutting. It's not a real fast process and works fine if you're only doing a few holes. I usually just use a 4 inch grinder with a cutoff blade to cut a slot. It works just as well as a hole for most tools

Doesn't need to glow red to ruin the edge; only needs to get hotter than the original tempering temperature, and this certainly can occur during normal turning operations.

Jim

We may have a communication problem based on terminology here, but high-speed steel, as John suggested, is tempered at roughly 1000 deg. F -- dull red. You can run high-speed-steel tools at a very dull red without hurting the temper. Just don't try it with any "high-speed steel" you get from China. That's usually something they call "M40 equivalent," and it ain't equivalent at all. Furthermore, even good M40 is pretty crappy high-speed steel.

However, high-speed steel is a lot more abrasion resistant than other grades of steel, and it will indeed last a lot longer cutting wood than oil-hardening or other common types of steel used for wood-cutting tools.

Ed Huntress

Thanks for all the good advice to this question. I have thought of grinding a slot and using a bolt to hold the cutting tip but the slot presents limits to any rotation of the bit. It seems that a clamp system even though it adds height may be the best option even though this adds height. My ultimate ambition was to create a countersunk mounting hole, with a countersunk screw holding the tip in place.

Unfortunately I only have LPG gas for silver Soldering and my equipment does not produce sufficient heat for a project this size. In the past for a rough and ready 'fix' I have arc welded some HSS to a tool. Some of the problems with this have been that the HSS becomes brittle and any long overhang breaks off. If I kept the 'toolbit' small, sharpening also removed the holder material. As you can see I am hard to please ;-)

I must look into Ed French's idea of : "I've had success using carbide end mills to "drill" holes in HSS. Using an endmill designed for centre cutting."

Thanks again for all the help. Peter S

OK, Brian what is EDM?

True. I believe John was arguing that HSS was overkill for woodturning tools and suggesting that ordinary tool steels should be adequate. I was pointing out why HSS is desirable for the application.

Jim