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Deep Drilling Aluminum Bronze

implmex

Diamond
Joined
Jun 23, 2002
Location
Vancouver BC Canada
Hi again nissan300ztt:
All excellent advice here.

A thing you may wish to consider though:
As some have alluded to, the failure usually happens very quickly from the first premonitory "Squeek" of the drill to total catastrophic failure.
Since that is so, there is something to be said for doing this on a manual machine where you have tactile feedback as well as aural feedback and can interrupt the job as needed to re-group and re-sharpen and whatever.

I had to drill deep holes in Inconel 718 once upon a time on the manual lathe, and I found I had best results using a pilot drill no bigger than the web of the final drill (as garychipmaker recommends in post #20) and piloting in an inch, then opening out the hole in one shot to final size, piloting in another inch, and opening out etc etc until I got to the bottom of my hole.

Breaking up the hole this way meant I could always get lube down the hole and I never had flute packing to deal with.
I drilled undersized for the first increment and bored right to size, so my final drill would just slip in the hole and the stock acted as a drill bushing.
I could sharpen the drill as often as I needed to, and those who commented on the importance of watching the corners of the drill and the lands are spot on.
I got in the habit of re-pointing both drills after every inch whether they needed it or not, and the whole job went uneventfully (5/16" final diameter, 10" deep, 8 pieces).
As I recall my peck increments for both drills were something like 0.050"
My drills (after 80 sharpenings) were a lot shorter after the job than they were before the job!

So it IS possible, but the ability to feel what the drills were doing was important to my success.

If I was doing this in production however, I wouldn't even try it without all of the goodies...carbide TTC gundrills, HPC for the machine of at least 1000 PSI, a gundrilling capable machine, the ability to grind a drill to new specs, a torque sensor on the drill, maybe an auditory alarm to catch that first "Squeek".

This is all pricey stuff and takes a long time to tune so the process is stable.
For one hole, once in your life, you can never hope to do it this way.

So there is much to be said for abandoning the CNC for this job and running it the old fashioned way, with alert senses and a clenched sphincter on a manual machine that's in good enough shape you can feel what you're doing.

Demand your bonus when you pull it off!

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com
 
Last edited:

dandrummerman21

Stainless
Joined
Feb 5, 2008
Location
MI, USA
I don't think I would drill a "pilot" drill for 2 reasons:

1: it's "only bronze", not terribly "hard" but it is tough. I don't think a small diameter pilot drill is going to help much. I don't think that it will require a ton of thrust to drill.

2: then you have to drill 2 different drills 21" deep! to hell with that!

Any "pilot drill" should be the same size of the drill using a short tool to start it straight.




I would agree in principal to keep any small diameter pilot drill to the size of the web, to prevent grabbing. but this job doesn't say pilot to me.

If all you had was a morse taper drill that you already had, I'd grind the morse taper off and make it straight shank you can put in a collet. I have had drills pull out of morse tapers.

I love morse tapers and use them often, but i would not trust this bronze; it will grab and you will lose the drill on a retract.
 

eKretz

Diamond; Mod Squad
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Location
Northwest Indiana, USA
Pilot drilling will make things very grabby. I'd avoid it on a manual machine. With a CNC you have much tighter control of the drill position in 'Z' with no backlash and sometimes you can get away with things like that. I still wouldn't recommend it though.

Ampco is nasty to drill not because of its hardness but because of its propensity to dull and grab drills. It's abrasive stuff. And it actually does require quite a bit of thrust to drill. But I still wouldn't use a pilot. Carbide tipped gun drill, yes. Use through coolant also, it will help you avoid some of the heat related problems.
 

Mtndew

Diamond
Joined
Jun 7, 2012
Location
Michigan
You may want to increase the angle of the drill point, maybe go to a 135-140 deg instead of the standard 118 deg, and gash out the web if you can to decrease the drilling pressure.
Ampco 18 can be a mofo, but it can also cut like a dream if your speeds and feeds are dialed in. The key is to not let it get hot and don't use dull tooling. like others have said.
 

nissan300ztt

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Location
Pennsylvania, United States
well, don't know if you can hand sharpen, but even if it cuts on one edge, you are WAY better off than pushing in a dull tool.
start it with shorter drills as others have said, and pilot if you can. with care, regularly inspecting under magnification, and sharpening as needed, seems to me an hour and a half- two tops would get that done on a manual machine.
good luck!
Got her done. Still need to do the finish depth tomorrow. We had tons of issues today. Drill was freshly sharpened, first time I got past the pilot depth, snap the corner off the drill had to resharpen. Then I wasnt getting good coolant flow to the tip of the drill. It was a mess.
 

cyanidekid

Titanium
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Location
Brooklyn NYC
eK says it doesn't help in AlBr, and I don't have enough experience with it to argue either way, but I DO for sure know low to zero rake angle makes a world of difference in SiBr and brass... but never mind now!, glad you got it done...! :cheers:
 

eKretz

Diamond; Mod Squad
Joined
Mar 27, 2005
Location
Northwest Indiana, USA
eK says it doesn't help in AlBr, and I don't have enough experience with it to argue either way, but I DO for sure know low to zero rake angle makes a world of difference in SiBr and brass... but never mind now!, glad you got it done...! :cheers:

It actually might help with grabbing in a piloted hole. I think what I mentioned before is that it isn't really necessary in aluminum bronze without a pilot.
 

cyanidekid

Titanium
Joined
Jun 4, 2016
Location
Brooklyn NYC
It actually might help with grabbing in a piloted hole. I think what I mentioned before is that it isn't really necessary in aluminum bronze without a pilot.
ahh, ok! I misunderstood. I think in the bigger picture, what im trying to say is, if it grabs, reduce rake. its so easy to do. a couple of strokes with a diamond hone can save you from all kinds of drama.
the job goes from high stress, grabbing, breaking cutting edge, snapping off and jamming busted remainder in the hole, to steady, predictable, reliable progress. :)
 

nissan300ztt

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Location
Pennsylvania, United States
So I made my custom depth drill today and scribed a mark on it so I knew proper depth. And nailed it. Took my 8 hours with all the problems we had with it, but its done and now in the CNC for the remainder of the work, which I might add is going very smoothly. The material cuts great and op1 was complete in about 2 hours and ill finish op2 tomorrow. My boss thanked me for having the patience and headstrength to get it done. And asked me about my raise. LOL. HE said if this job ever comes to us again "HE WILL BE BUYING A THRU COOLANT SPADE DRILL". I will post a photo when its done in the CNC.
 

implmex

Diamond
Joined
Jun 23, 2002
Location
Vancouver BC Canada
Hi nissan300ztt:
You should be justifiably proud of yourself!
Those jobs are exhausting because you're always waiting for the Big Kablooie, and eight hours of that can make you old before your time.

Kick back, hoist a beer with your buddies and tell them how you just pulled a bunny out of the hat.
They won't have a clue what you just pulled off unless they're machinists too, but never neglect the opportunity for a good chest thumping brag anyway...nobody else is gonna sing your praises so you might as well do it yourself.

Seriously though...fine job well done.
You have my respect for sticking with it and pulling it off.

Cheers

Marcus
www.implant-mechanix.com
www.vancouverwireedm.com
 

nissan300ztt

Hot Rolled
Joined
Jul 26, 2011
Location
Pennsylvania, United States
It cuts very nicely with carbide. Just not so much with HSS. Make sure gets you that spade drill in carbide. Then it will be a minutes long job.
Absolutely. Already called Allied Engineer for a quote on a price for the custom drill for the job. Needs to be able to hit 21-3/4" carbide spade through coolant. They will have me a quote in 24 hours.
 








 
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