[TheForge] Drilling hard metal

[Jerry Smith]

I checked the hardness of the metal and then decide
what method to use for drilling. I like to indent the
metal one way or another to avoid skating, then decide
if a regular drill bit at low speed with lots of
coolant will work or a carbide drill is needed. In
some cases, I use the milling machine to drill holes
in tough metal, including descaled "iron" fro the
forge.

Jerry

--- Demon Buddha <osan at netlabs.net> wrote:

> 
> 
> Grant Marcoux wrote:
> > Andy:  The L-6 likely does not want to be drilled
> because of the Molybdenum
> > found in that grade.  The Mo makes it slightly air
> hardening. It would be
> > more so if the volume of Mo were higher. I use a
> fair amount of L-6 for
> > blades myself and the slowest possible cooling
> rate is helpful.  Also, drill
> > bits will not always bite into the layer of scale
> formed on the piece.  I
> > slow cool, pickle to remove scale, punch mark my
> hole location, start with a
> > pilot hole and then use my desired final size bit.
> 
> 
> 	The scale on some of these steels is incredibly
> tough.  D-2 is just 
> about the worst I've encountered.  It is miserable.
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