D(ad) Day

[W3WN]

Happy Father’s Day to all the dads out there... whether they know they’re dad’s or not.

i now have a nice little collection of Home De$pot gift cards. Drill press or bandsaw?

[NQ6U]

Drill press or bandsaw?

Yes.

[W3WN]

Yes.
Not enough for both. I have to pick one.

[WZ7U]

Drill press.

[KG4CGC]

Do you already have the table saw?

[W3WN]

Do you already have the table saw?
Yes.

[KG4CGC]

Drill press it is then.
Unless of course you had something else in mind. Does the boss want her cabinets resurfaced?

[NQ6U]

Agreed — drill press.

[KG4CGC]

What kind of drill bits would I need to drill through spot welds on stainless steel? 5/64th.

[NQ6U]

What kind of drill bits would I need to drill through spot welds on stainless steel? 5/64th.

Unobtainium coated kyptonite.

Seriously, the hardest ones you can find, and use a cutting fluid. Stainless just eats up drill bits.

[ad4mg]

Agreed. Cobalt bits are an affordable choice. Most are not aware of this, but carbon steel is harder than stainless steel, but it is easier to machine. SS tend to 'gauld' with the tool (drill bits, etc), and the excess friction creates lots of heat, which destroys the tool.

The key to drilling SS is to prevent the tool from overheating. I use water (lots of water) as a coolant when drilling SS. A pricey option is Tapfree 2, which works well, but is expensive. The trick is to use enough pressure (at a low RPM) to actually cut the SS. Too little pressure will result in overheating and little progress. Too much pressure results in gaulding, and will likely chip the drill bit. Apply your coolant as soon as the tool touches the work, and don't be stingy!

SS is best drilled on a drill press, which gives far better control of the RPM and pressure applied to the work.


Unobtainium coated kyptonite.

Seriously, the hardest ones you can find, and use a cutting fluid. Stainless just eats up drill bits.

[KG4CGC]

Thank you, Luke. That was extremely helpful.

[K4PIH]

I also recommend Drill Press. Normally I go for the cheap Harbor Freight stuff, but a good quality drill press from a major manufacturer is the best option. Luke: Thanks for the mentoring. I now know what to expect and how to properly handle SS. I don't have any experience with SS, mostly with the cheap soft stuff like bed frame iron.

[ad4mg]

I've drilled hundreds of holes in stainless piping during my 44 year career. Frequently, the size of the holes required were fairly large... 2" & up, for pipe branches. This required a hole saw. We stuffed rags or paper towels inside the hole saw, and soaked them with water to facilitate cooling. Copious amounts of water was still used, but the rags provided additional cooling for the saw.

Bi-metallic hole saws are frequently preferred for SS. A regular hole saw just won't do. Similarly, if you are cutting SS with a band saw (porta-band, etc), a bi-metallic blade, preferably fine toothed (18-24 TPI) is usually used.

[NQ6U]

Luke, were you doing sanitary tig welding on that stainless pipe?

[ad4mg]

Luke, were you doing sanitary tig welding on that stainless pipe?

Most of my work was performed in industrial facilities (power plants, paper mills, chemical plants), but I did a fair amount of high purity work for breweries and pharmaceutical applications. I would guess that specific applications such as de-ionized water piping could be considered 'sanitary' TIG welding. Dominion Power has de-ionized water at most of their fossil fuel plants, and I've been on a couple of new de-ionized water piping systems installations. That usually just involved lots of cleaning to remove primarily oils introduced during the manufacturing of pipe & fittings, and intense flushing of the system afterwards to remove any debris)

Typical TIG welding (on non-critical systems) usually uses Nitrogen as a purge gas for the piping. On systems like the de-ionized piping, Argon was the purge gas, and the Oxygen content of the purge had to be very low. The filler wire had to cleaned with alcohol before using, and any tools used had to be brand new to prevent any possibility of carbon contamination.

For high purity applications, orbital welding (automatic welding) is the norm. The welder becomes a button pusher, although there is a great deal more to it... surface prep, fitting-pipe alignment, etc.

[PA5COR]

I worked as pipefitter /TIG welder in beer and food factories many of my welds still in use i think...
15 years till i retired, leaving a good job done behind was always my pride.
Do i miss it? nope retirement is much more fun.