[TheForge] drill bit stock

[David E. Smucker]

Good chance if they are high quality tool steel that they are M2.  About 5 
percent chrome, 5 percent Moly and 2 percent Vanadium and 6 plus percent 
Tungsten.  Need to anneal by very very very very slow cooling.  Possible but 
not easy.
Lower quality (you say hardware store) still likely to be rather high alloy 
and require very very very slow cooling, one less very.  I have sometimes 
had luck annealing difficult tool steels by heating another large block of 
steel (or 2) and wrapping the whole mass together and placing in 
vermiculite.  Doesn't always work.

MSC sells some special carbide drills for broken removing taps and they 
might work for you.  They are not cheap, the 3/16 size for example goes for 
more than $ 30 each.  They are made by Omega Drill and called "Carbide Tap 
Removing Drills.

Do you have a shop near with EDM, it might be worth it.  I sometimes thought 
that EDM was used more for removing broken taps they working on the dies 
themselves.

Dave Smucker
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger Olsen" <erik at methow.com>
To: "theforge" <theforge at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 31, 2005 11:50 AM
Subject: [TheForge] drill bit stock


> Does anyone out there know the type of stock used in the common hardware
> store high speed drill bits for steel.  Do you per chance know the steps
> for annealing them.
>
> Yes,  I ask because I broke a drill bit in a piece of stock where
> welding, reforging, and repositioning was not an option.  I tried all
> the tricks as well as attemting to anneal as I would a common high
> carbon steel and drill it out but it seemed to have little or no affect.
>
> Thank you,
>
> Roger Olsen
>
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