Working Aluminum Without Lube / Coolant (HSS)

Typically, I tell people who *need* to drill aluminum dry to run at about

70% of the RPm shown on my charts
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In other words, a 1/2" hole in aluminum run dry would be run at around 1000 RPM rather than 1500 or so...

We are relatively conservative with our numbers because when it comes to drilling, most people don't need CNC-type speed. ...So don't slam me for being so slow and out of touch! :)

I'm wondering if there is a rule of thumb any of you follow for such procedures?

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills:
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Reply to
Joe AutoDrill
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Great chart, thanks for posting the link.

Reply to
Ignoramus28169

My pleasure. It's conservative for the most part and based on HSS tooling and typical coolant-in-use situations for the most part.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills:
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Spindle Drills:
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Reply to
Joe AutoDrill

Thanks.

Does the point style affect the thrust much?

jsw

Reply to
Jim Wilkins

Good question. It does on larger holes - sorta... I challenge anyone to start a 3/4" diameter drill in a flat plate of steel without split point tooling and a smaller drill press.

I can't answer whether it changes the process as the drill moves through the material as we use more thrust and a HydroSpeed feed control on our units to keep teh feed rate stable. It's like drilling with a CNC that can generate

5,000 lbs. thrust... It can drill a 1/8" hole no problem, but there is something holding back all that potential.

Imagine this... My drill can create 1000 # of thrust but I set it so that it can not move forward more than 0.004" per rotation. Thus, I can drill a

1/4" hole in soft plastic with my drill running full tilt thrust... ...Or I can turn it down to around 100# of thrust and stop abusing the HydroSpeed. :)
Reply to
Joe AutoDrill

Does your drill resist being grabed and led into the hole?

i
Reply to
Ignoramus24760

Does it resist the pull of the tooling when the tooling starts to act like a screw instead of a drill? Yes. Quite well actually. It also resists the surge that happens at break through so as to minimize the burr as much as possible.

Does it resist finding the center of an existing hole? I don't think this is what you meant to ask, but hey... One never knows! This is essentially the same question as "will it hold center when drilling on the curved surface of a round tube?" To some degree, but that's what drill bushings are for in high volume job applications.

Regards, Joe Agro, Jr. (800) 871-5022

01.908.542.0244 Automatic / Pneumatic Drills:
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Spindle Drills:
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Tapping:
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Site:
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V8013-R
Reply to
Joe AutoDrill

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