What's new
What's new

opinions .125" hole 5" deep into nylon plastic

3t3d

Diamond
Joined
Nov 1, 2004
Location
WI
Any words of wisdom drilling a .125" hole 5" deep into " a type of nylon "
Will this be possible with a gun drill?
Possible, I have the Cincinnati with TSC, and the Robodrill with TSC.
Don't know yet if the Robodrill has the Z travel

Any suggestions?
 
Getting the material to "chip" might be an issue, it would help to find out the exact type of nylon, and whether it's filled or not. TSC will be very helpful, higher pressure especially. Try to get material pinned down so you can plan and get the right drills.

Also, how many holes? Just a few and you can live with bird nesting and cleaning the drills manually. Lots of holes and you'll want to make chips, even if it takes a special point grind.

Swelling and clamping onto the flute OD can happen if you let things get too hot. Lower RPM and fast feed to minimize time in the hole could help, along with the TSC.
 
Thanks!

Waiting for more information from customer yet.

Will filled nylon present more trouble? Or just faster tool wear?
 
Any words of wisdom drilling a .125" hole 5" deep into " a type of nylon "
Will this be possible with a gun drill?
Possible, I have the Cincinnati with TSC, and the Robodrill with TSC.
Don't know yet if the Robodrill has the Z travel

Any suggestions?

I would put a piece of nylon in the vise, put a long parabolic .125 drill in a collet chuck, amd drill the hole, best way to find out if it's possible. It is, as long as you don't get the drill hot to the point of melting the plastic.
 
I would put a piece of nylon in the vise, put a long parabolic .125 drill in a collet chuck, amd drill the hole, best way to find out if it's possible. It is, as long as you don't get the drill hot to the point of melting the plastic.

I think the OP is looking for advice BEFORE he tries it.
 
I think the OP is looking for advice BEFORE he tries it.

I know,

I'm saying just do it and see what happens, whats the worst that could happen?

It wouldn't take long answer that question

Find some nylon (3 minutes)
Angle plate onto machine (5 minutes)
clamp nylon to angle plate (1 minute)
program hole 1 minute
load program 30 seconds
put drill in collet and into machine (3-4 minutes)
drill hole
answer question
 
Thanks!

Waiting for more information from customer yet.

Will filled nylon present more trouble? Or just faster tool wear?

Oil filled nylon machines much better than regular nylon. better finish, easier to deburr. Only downside is some dark discoloration if you get it to hot
 
Been awhile since I machined nylon, what I do remember is 6-6 which is the cheapest also is a pain in the butt with burrs and meltdowns.
 
Thanks!

Waiting for more information from customer yet.

Will filled nylon present more trouble? Or just faster tool wear?

In some cases you'll get more wear, like when using a glass fill. If a lubrication additive, then wear shouldn't be an issue, and the plastic may chip a little more readily.

How many holes are you making?
 
Any words of wisdom drilling a .125" hole 5" deep into " a type of nylon "
Will this be possible with a gun drill?
Possible, I have the Cincinnati with TSC, and the Robodrill with TSC.
Don't know yet if the Robodrill has the Z travel

Any suggestions?

I don't know how effective TSC would be flushing nylon chips, but if I had TSC (and could source a 1/8" drill that long with coolant holes) my first try would be a chip break or short-retract peck cycle, and maybe combine that with a full retract every 1/2" or so. I don't think it is possible to break a nylon chip with a 1/8" drill bit just with the tool geometry, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong :cheers:

Regards.

Mike
 
I would put a piece of nylon in the vise, put a long parabolic .125 drill in a collet chuck, amd drill the hole, best way to find out if it's possible. It is, as long as you don't get the drill hot to the point of melting the plastic.

That's about all any shop can do, nylons vary each with their own set of tricks.

Golden rules when deep drilling nylon

Razor sharp tools with more cutting edge clearance than for metal and highly polished flutes for drills

Speed down - the deeper you go the slower, - on a 1/8 hole that deep I'd be looking at 150ft/min max

Feed up - as in the top end of the drill parameters plus a bit - and a bit more etc etc

Coolant

Regular pecking to avoid chip packing the flutes - if that happens you're up shit creek as it generates heat and will weld the ships to the walls of the holes.

FWIW These are my go to drills for deep holes in plastic TiAlN HSS 5% Cobalt Worm Pattern Drill DT6 | Cutwel Ltd - Drill Suppliers
 
Last edited:
I did a job about 2 weeks ago in delrin. 2mm hole 6 inches deep. No tsc. I was concerned about melting at the bottom but I had no problems. I drilled with a stubby carbide, then went in with a parabolic to about 3 inches. Then I had to shorten a 12 in aircraft drill to about 8 inches. I set retract of aircraft drill about .375 in side pilot. I ran it about 1200 rpm, about 5 inches per minute. I was doing full retracts to -.375 depth with .04 pecks. Holes were fairly straight and size was good. Now granted this was delrin with has a little bit different properties.
 
I would do a chip break every .125 to match the drill diameter. Feed hold for 1 rev and keep the rpms high enough to fling the stringies away. At 40XD a full retract every inch or maybe 1.5 will take any heat off the drill body. Cool with air blast or spray, coolant is only for the tool temp.
 
OK,

They made a sketch of what they want...
Basically a blind hole D.125" 5.3" deep.
In some kind of plastic......

Now this could maybe be done with a:
parabolic drill.
Carbide parabolic drill
TSC Carbide drill $$
Gun Drill

I suggested that depending on the location tolerance a parabolic drill might be acceptable.

Now this is the response :
"What positional tolerance can we expect?"

Any ideas on that question?
Sure it depends on how many pecks, ho you start the hole... ETC....

Any ball park rule of thumb SWAG ideas?

This is why I Love my job... !!

Thanks everyone.
 
If you can afford Gun drilling, I would say with .005" Position from end to end. I would quote it as such and worser with worser Tools. But Gun drill is going to be the straightest of the 4 listed.

R
 
An important question is how big the job is...

The technique for drilling <100 holes like this is very different from how one would go about drilling >10,000.
 
One trick is to completely dry the nylon. When nylon is bone dry its brittle and it takes water to toughen it to be useful. Nylon 6/6 will take up to 2.5% water from dead dry to wet. Of course the hole will close up a tad.

Tom
 








 
Back
Top