Hole Drilling Tips

[tempus]

I just got done drilling 14  15/32" holes in stainless steel. My advice to anyone drilling holes is to use aluminum. I used stainless steel because I salvaged a bunch that I was able to cut into a box. Here's my experience:

I had the most success with cobalt bits. However they are fairly expensive (but worth it if you have a lot of drilling to do - they never seem to dull). Because of their cost I only had 2 sizes, and one of them was not 15/32.

So I tried titanium. I drilled one hole fairly quickly (a couple minutes or so) and cleanly. By hole #2 the bit was too dull to cut. Bummer.

Then I read this thread and tried a steel Unibit. Now, although they're more expensive, for smaller holes (up to 1/4" maybe) this bit rocked.  I already had a pilot hole drilled, and with that, it drilled 5 steps in about 10 seconds. When it got to the bigger sizes though the going got really slow and ugly - it took 15 - 20 minutes per hole with lots of slag to clean up after. Still, it did cut the hole, it just took time. There's a cobalt version of the bit I have and I bet it would rip through anything in no time.

I finished off the last 4 or 5 holes by just drilling each hole in increments - I went form about 1/4" to 15/32 with 4 different size bits, and it took about 5 minutes per hole, which is much faster than with the Unibit, with less or no slag.

Bottom line: if you're going to be drilling a lot of holes or make a lot of pedals, go with a set of cobalt bits, or get a cobalt unibit. Either will save a lot of time and, in the end, money as well, since you won't have to keep replacing dull bits.