0.9mm drilling in Titanium

[BlueBird]

Hi ! I need to drill 0.9mm holes in titanium (grade5-6AI4V).
0.05" deep
I already have some 0.9mm HSS drills so I would like to use them if possible.
I have a cheap drill press and a Tormach pcnc440 (10kRMP)
I'm wondering if somebody here have the good drilling technique for that, I never drill hole that small.. Speed, cycle type, etc. Thank you !

 

[apoet]

Is this a .05" thick piece of material or just shallow holes? How many holes do you need to drill?

 

[Lotaxi]

If you've got manufacturer's data on the drills, follow that as a starting point. If your spindle isn't fast enough to keep up with the proper SFM, just scale your feed down to match. Remember that Ti sucks at taking heat out of the cut with the chip, so coolant is going to be important because your drill will take up a lot of heat. You'll have a better time running with HSS-Co drills if you have them since they've got better hot hardness.

I don't know how much pecking will help you because Ti will work harden if you don't keep pressure up. Another point toward keeping the drill hard by using HSS-Co.

 

[Terry Keeley]

I've done a fair bit of 1/16", 3/32", 1/32" and #40 holes in 6Al4V and followed the info from Timet on the lower side of feeds and speeds:

https://www.timet.com/assets/local/documents/technicalmanuals/DesignandFabrication.pdf

I found PTD's cobalt jobber drills worked well (135*, split point), I used Rustlick Ultracut Pro CF with lots of pecking.

Don't dwell in the hole and if the drill complains at all replace or sharpen immediately!