DethloffMfg
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Sep 22, 2018
- Location
- Portland, OR
I have a family of parts that I am moving from hand drilling into the CNC now that I have one. This is saving me a ton of time but I need to figure out reliable tooling to drill the holes all the way through both sides of the tubing in one setup. I have about 500 holes at a time to put through DOM tubing.
Hole diameter is 7/16", tubing is 1.5"x.095" and 1.25"x.120".
Right now I am using one of the Maritool reduced neck endmills because I had it on hand. It works but it really sucks, I'm at 6 minutes for 4 holes doing a helical interpolation, any faster and it starts getting unhappy quick. I am going to get new tooling to do this and want to get the right choice. I am thinking of using a regular drill around 3/8" diameter to punch all the way through, then using the long end mill to open the bores up. That should speed things way up and take care of the drill burr inside.
I've also looked at flat-bottom drills as those seem ideal for the top hole on the tube, but I'm concerned with process reliability once it gets to that bottom hole. Is the thin 'plug' that drops through the drilled hole going to be an issue when the drill gets down to the second hole?
I want process reliability more than anything.
Flat bottom drills?
Annular cutters?
Plunge with end mill?
Keep the helical interpolation with endmill?
Drill with normal drill and then clean up with an end mill?
Hole diameter is 7/16", tubing is 1.5"x.095" and 1.25"x.120".
Right now I am using one of the Maritool reduced neck endmills because I had it on hand. It works but it really sucks, I'm at 6 minutes for 4 holes doing a helical interpolation, any faster and it starts getting unhappy quick. I am going to get new tooling to do this and want to get the right choice. I am thinking of using a regular drill around 3/8" diameter to punch all the way through, then using the long end mill to open the bores up. That should speed things way up and take care of the drill burr inside.
I've also looked at flat-bottom drills as those seem ideal for the top hole on the tube, but I'm concerned with process reliability once it gets to that bottom hole. Is the thin 'plug' that drops through the drilled hole going to be an issue when the drill gets down to the second hole?
I want process reliability more than anything.
Flat bottom drills?
Annular cutters?
Plunge with end mill?
Keep the helical interpolation with endmill?
Drill with normal drill and then clean up with an end mill?