HELP!!! trying to drill 0.6mm holes in Stainless steel (and it ain't fun)

[allen]

Folks,

I bought a new atty recently. It's a dual wick genny affair - but only has air holes on one side.
I like my vape to be nice and airy; this thing nearly ripped my throat out.

I'd like to drill 2 0.6mm holes on the other side to match the existing holes - so far I've gone through 5 0.6 drill bits in my dremel and all I've really done is polish one dent in it (and sworn a lot)
once I've got the holes there it's easy enough to widen them with watchmakers broaches (worth their weight in gold!)

As far I can estimate, I'm trying to drill through about 2mm of stainless steel
Has anyone got any tips for this?
Or is there anyone out there I can pay to do it for me?

Thanks

Allen

 

[KulrMeStoopid]

Hi Allen,
Please be careful and check out this thread http://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/f...e-Careful-when-Drilling-Warning-Graphic-Image (warning graphic image if you cant handle it!)

 

[Dopey]

I recently drilled out my igo t top cap, what I did was get a big heavy G clamp and place it on the floor with the top cap clamped in that way it frees both hands up and stops it rolling around. I then carefully just drilled a 1.5mm airhole.
make sure you have good quality drill bits as you don't want them snapping off inside the top cap

 

[Tutterz]

Good quality drill bits, I've had a few snap on me when drilling out my caps before, found some good ones (albeit ancient) in the garage which have been holding up fine. Our big industrial drill is out of action at the moment though so it takes a good 5-10 minutes with a normal power tool.

 

[Mawsley]

Failing industrial jobbies, a Dremel or clone of with some diamond engraving bits will do the job for you too.

The advantage I find with the engraving bits is that you can make a small hole and then slowly increase it in size using the tapered ones meaning you aren't fixed to 0.5mm steps.

 

[allen]

@KurlMeStoopid - thanks for the heads up

My other hobby is archery; I use the follwing picture as a similar kind of safety warning
- 'make sure the arrows you're using are long enough for you...... if they're not, this is likely to happen to you.'

http://hunting.outdoorzy.com/arrow-shot-through-hand/ (warning equally graphic image - can you guess what it is?)

It just goes to show, there's a lot of daft people out there!

Hi Allen,
Please be careful and check out this thread http://www.planetofthevapes.co.uk/f...e-Careful-when-Drilling-Warning-Graphic-Image (warning graphic image if you cant handle it!)

 

[yodadude]

VERY VERY SLOWLY.... The big rule of stainless (I'm an engineer in steelwork) is ..... The hotter SS gets, the harder it gets, so drilling it with a dremel is pointless. You need a cobolt drill bit (£1.49 ebay), and a very slow drill. You must "cut" as apposed to "drill" SS. your rpm speed should ideally be around 200rpm, I'm not sure but dremels are around 5000rpm?? or more.

Also, don't press too hard, if it's cutting right, pushing will snag an snap the bit.
Hope that helps.

 

[allen]

VERY VERY SLOWLY.... The big rule of stainless (I'm an engineer in steelwork) is ..... The hotter SS gets, the harder it gets, so drilling it with a dremel is pointless. You need a cobolt drill bit (£1.49 ebay), and a very slow drill. You must "cut" as apposed to "drill" SS. your rpm speed should ideally be around 200rpm, I'm not sure but dremels are around 5000rpm?? or more.

Also, don't press too hard, if it's cutting right, pushing will snag an snap the bit.
Hope that helps.

thanks for that - those are the kind of things I needed to know
So far as I can see, the smallest cobalt drill bits around seem to be 1mm - does that sound about right? (if you saw any smaller than that on ebay, could you send me a link please?)

with the tools I've got here my oprions are dremel or pin vice - I'm guessing it's going to have to be a pin vice then. that's going to take a while!!!

Many thanks

 

[yodadude]

Afraid so. 1mm is the smallest. I forgot, as my 2 holes are 3mm each lol, lubbly lubbly cloud heaven lung hits, so I didn't realise the smallest size.

 

[allen]

Afraid so. 1mm is the smallest. I forgot, as my 2 holes are 3mm each lol, lubbly lubbly cloud heaven lung hits, so I didn't realise the smallest size.

your air holes are 3mm each!?! jeez. I've got attys with wicks smaller than that!!!
as they say.......... whatever floats your boat!

My biggest air hole is 1.5mm - and I wouldn't want to go bigger than that.
Hmmmmm I wonder what other people are using? would it be wrong to start a thread on here called "How's big your hole?"