Best Drill For Titanium

allloutmx · May 13, 2021

Who makes the best drills for titanium?

material is 6al4v

I need a .5mm dia. x 7mm flute and a 1mm dia x 10mm flute.

Would be interested in suggestions for my current setup....I have a few carbide Altin coated carbide drills that fit the bill but not having a ton of luck at the moment. running the specs shown here...https://harveyperformance.widen.net/content/ss7jrgaq3k/pdf/SF_20000.pdf?u=r5tz5r getting about 10 holes per 1mm drill. using a 140dg spot drill. Tried without spotting. meh

thanks in advance

TeachMePlease · May 13, 2021

For the .5mm: CrazyDrill Flex Titanium 30xd

For the 1mm: CrazyDrill Cool 10 x d, coated

Hands down. Not cheap, but they'll work, and they'll last.

Bobw · May 13, 2021

Ti is one of those work hardening things. Are you pecking?

If you are, feed it back out a little before you pull out..

Also, if you are going all the way through, it can get ugly
and overheated on the break out. Sometimes I'll go almost thru,
then go drill another hole, and then come back after its all cool,
and really baby it through the break out.

allloutmx · May 13, 2021

TeachMePlease said:
For the .5mm: CrazyDrill Flex Titanium 30xd

For the 1mm: CrazyDrill Cool 10 x d, coated

Hands down. Not cheap, but they'll work, and they'll last.

Thanks teach

Would you recommend using the flex pilot as well? Or would the regular pilot suffice?
What is the difference between L1 and L2? L2 would be where the flute ends and L1 is where the last helix starts?

allloutmx · May 13, 2021

Bobw said:
Ti is one of those work hardening things. Are you pecking?

If you are, feed it back out a little before you pull out..

Also, if you are going all the way through, it can get ugly
and overheated on the break out. Sometimes I'll go almost thru,
then go drill another hole, and then come back after its all cool,
and really baby it through the break out.

I am pecking- at 2x dia.Sounds kind of like your talking about writing a custom drill cycle unless I am missing something...feed out(z+) before rapid out of the hole?

Not going all the way through though.

I appreciate the intel

Bobw · May 13, 2021

allloutmx said:
I am pecking- at 2x dia.Sounds kind of like your talking about writing a custom drill cycle unless I am missing something...feed out(z+) before rapid out of the hole?

Not going all the way through though.

I appreciate the intel

Zactly. And then come back in a few thou above where you left off, just in case.

Another thing I do when drilling nasty work hardening stuff (I'm looking at you 13-8),
is that I'll take my sweet ass time in my peck, and even come up higher than my
reference plane, just to let everything get good and cool... I'm usually not doing
high quantity, so 30 seconds here or there isn't going to make or break me.

Stupid story. Years ago when I ran somebody else's shop, we were drilling 1-3/16 about
10" deep on the lathe. And the damn thing rapided <-- (that can't be a word) so fast
that the drill wasn't cooling, but we could make the hole good without a melt down at
50% rapid..

So of course one of the other guys walks by and sees the machine at 50% rapid, and he
knows that drives me nuts.. So he turned it up.. And melt down ensued.. Though I give
him props for noticing it at only 50% and would have thanked him any other time.

Cole2534 · May 13, 2021

Bobw said:
Stupid story. Years ago when I ran somebody else's shop, we were drilling 1-3/16 about
10" deep on the lathe. And the damn thing rapided <-- (that can't be a word) so fast
that the drill wasn't cooling, but we could make the hole good without a melt down at
50% rapid..

So of course one of the other guys walks by and sees the machine at 50% rapid, and he
knows that drives me nuts.. So he turned it up.. And melt down ensued.. Though I give
him props for noticing it at only 50% and would have thanked him any other time.

I do some holes like that in the mill. The extra cooling time is the difference between long life or basically sudden death for the HSS drill.

Sent via CNC 88HS

TeachMePlease · May 13, 2021

allloutmx said:
Thanks teach

Would you recommend using the flex pilot as well? Or would the regular pilot suffice?
What is the difference between L1 and L2? L2 would be where the flute ends and L1 is where the last helix starts?

L2 is where your flutes end, and your maximum peck depth. L1 is the max usable depth of the drill.

When I use Crazy drills for long holes, I tend to also use the appropriate pilot, to ensure a nice 140° start for the drill. Most people don't have 140° or greater spot drills lying around. If your machine is good, and your part face is actually flat, you could try without a spot at all.

TeachMePlease · May 13, 2021

Edit: Put in the right video of the tool flexing. The second video is just a cool demo of the crazydrill flex.

Just a neat video. CrazyDrill Flex actually flexing: MIKRON TOOL - CrazyDrill Flex (2011) - YouTube

MIKRON TOOL - CrazyDrill Flex - 2013_Flexibility_Deep hole drilling - YouTube

Cole2534 · May 13, 2021

That's a pretty cool video. It's like they saw a neck'd head stud and went ta-da!

But, how straight were the holes it drilled with that bad offset?

Kingbob · May 13, 2021

Do you have thru coolant? I will preface by saying I've done very little Ti but we do have a family of parts in all forms of stainless and nickel superalloys that have have thousands of holes and what I have found is pecking kills drills. Constantly reforming that chip is rough on drills also as mentioned above the spot you leave off on gets hard. I don't know Ti but if I had to make one of these I'd run it straight thru with thru coolant.

allloutmx · May 13, 2021

Kingbob said:
Do you have thru coolant? I will preface by saying I've done very little Ti but we do have a family of parts in all forms of stainless and nickel superalloys that have have thousands of holes and what I have found is pecking kills drills. Constantly reforming that chip is rough on drills also as mentioned above the spot you leave off on gets hard. I don't know Ti but if I had to make one of these I'd run it straight thru with thru coolant. View attachment 321032

I dont have coolant thru on this machine but I do have the opportunity to switch to a different machine if need be. I did a few holes without pecking and the were much more aesthetically pleasing so I am not opposed to the idea of not pecking. Good to hear from ya chief...been a hot minute.

Kingbob · May 14, 2021

allloutmx said:
I dont have coolant thru on this machine but I do have the opportunity to switch to a different machine if need be. I did a few holes without pecking and the were much more aesthetically pleasing so I am not opposed to the idea of not pecking. Good to hear from ya chief...been a hot minute.

Yeah man good to talk to you too, I think we both fell off instagram around the same time. I'm still here still having fun with fixturing.

Mike1974 · May 14, 2021

I can vouch for the crazy flex drills. We used one .010-.012 (don't remember exactly) at 50x diameter. Worked great

dian · May 14, 2021

TeachMePlease said:
For the .5mm: CrazyDrill Flex Titanium 30xd

For the 1mm: CrazyDrill Cool 10 x d, coated

Hands down. Not cheap, but they'll work, and they'll last.

thank you for supporting our economy.

Trueturning · May 14, 2021

TeachMePlease said:
L2 is where your flutes end, and your maximum peck depth. L1 is the max usable depth of the drill.

When I use Crazy drills for long holes, I tend to also use the appropriate pilot, to ensure a nice 140° start for the drill. Most people don't have 140° or greater spot drills lying around. If your machine is good, and your part face is actually flat, you could try without a spot at all.

Smart using the right spot for the right drill. Simple.

Trueturning · May 14, 2021

dian said:
thank you for supporting our economy.

So he suggests shopping it as it is likely a knockoff with a fancy name of a competitive alternative.

wheelieking71 · May 14, 2021

I don't have a drill recommendation (my go to for stuff like this is Walter. But that is because they have never let me down, so that is all I know).
But, I will say: only way I have ever successfully pecked in Ti was feeding out, no rapid. I don't know exactly what happens when the drill leaves the hole? But, it ain't good. And I think this goes beyond just the temperature thing as mentioned. Because I have tried dwells and stuff during the peck which didn't make a ton of difference. I try not to even leave the hole during the peck if possible.
And to be honest, I have had much better luck with cobalt vs. carbide when drilling Ti. This is pretty small though? May be a different game?
I haven't worked with it in a long time. And haven't done a ton of it. But I did have one of the best tool guys on my side when I did.

dian · May 14, 2021

Trueturning said:
So he suggests shopping it as it is likely a knockoff with a fancy name of a competitive alternative.

i didnt really get what you said. anyway, "mikron sa" is swiss. (once, in a former life, we almost bought it out.)

allloutmx · May 17, 2021

wheelieking71 said:
I don't have a drill recommendation (my go to for stuff like this is Walter. But that is because they have never let me down, so that is all I know).
But, I will say: only way I have ever successfully pecked in Ti was feeding out, no rapid. I don't know exactly what happens when the drill leaves the hole? But, it ain't good. And I think this goes beyond just the temperature thing as mentioned. Because I have tried dwells and stuff during the peck which didn't make a ton of difference. I try not to even leave the hole during the peck if possible.
And to be honest, I have had much better luck with cobalt vs. carbide when drilling Ti. This is pretty small though? May be a different game?
I haven't worked with it in a long time. And haven't done a ton of it. But I did have one of the best tool guys on my side when I did.

I havent ordered a drill yet- but my initial test indicate that using ultrasonic power while drilling TI has huge benefits. Made it through 270 holes before I ran our of space on the test piece. Will have to do some more testing to validate the results but it looks very promising.

Best Drill For Titanium

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