Can anyone recommend an efficient method for drilling angled holes in tough material?
We are an architectural fab shop with manual machining capability, which generally is limited to fairly simple operations.
Lately we have been taking more cable railing jobs, and we had one recently that involved drilling 30 degree angles thru both walls of 1-1/2" stainless square tube (1/8" wall). The depth of cut required to do that is essentially 1-3/4", and the angle is too steep for a drill bit to handle without walking. We tried drilling with standard end mills and annular cutters but neither excelled and both made me very nervous about the brittle edge of the cutter as it engaged the material. We ultimately got through this job by drilling undersized thru holes at right angles on the tube and then finishing with them mill head tilted and using an annular cutter. It was extremely time consuming to do it this way.
I'm sure there is a better way to approach this but I don't know what it would be. Would a ball end mill or similar lead to better results? Are there any other approaches that might be worth exploring?
Thanks.
We are an architectural fab shop with manual machining capability, which generally is limited to fairly simple operations.
Lately we have been taking more cable railing jobs, and we had one recently that involved drilling 30 degree angles thru both walls of 1-1/2" stainless square tube (1/8" wall). The depth of cut required to do that is essentially 1-3/4", and the angle is too steep for a drill bit to handle without walking. We tried drilling with standard end mills and annular cutters but neither excelled and both made me very nervous about the brittle edge of the cutter as it engaged the material. We ultimately got through this job by drilling undersized thru holes at right angles on the tube and then finishing with them mill head tilted and using an annular cutter. It was extremely time consuming to do it this way.
I'm sure there is a better way to approach this but I don't know what it would be. Would a ball end mill or similar lead to better results? Are there any other approaches that might be worth exploring?
Thanks.