What's new
What's new

What does "HSS" mean to the Chinese?

Yan Wo

Stainless
Joined
Jan 22, 2014
Location
Highland, Utah, USA
Here's a 1/2 inch drill my brother-in-law was using to put a deep hole in the edge of a solid wood door.

Drill0.jpg

Then this happened:

Drill1.jpg

This made me wonder what "HSS" means to the Chinese.

Drill2.jpg

Drill3.jpg
 
Last edited:
I would imagine that HSS is a reality to the Chinese as they have been doing these things before we were out of diapers, but that looks like a heat treatment issue, which happens occasionally, even in our neck of the woods. As they say, shit happens!

Stuart
 
Here's a 1/2 inch drill my brother-in-law was using to put a deep hole in the edge of a solid wood door.

View attachment 289575

Then this happened:

View attachment 289576

This made me wonder what "HSS" means to the Chinese.

View attachment 289577

.
I have seen many drills break on tool change and even putting tool holder in pocket by hand have broken drills and drills were made in many counties even USA. yes annoying especially if drill over $200. and it breaks before its even used.
.
as for Chinese HSS this is a world wide cross reference chart, unless you have GB metal type number you cannot assume you have any particular USA metal type. obviously when buying metal in Chinese store they use Chinese names of course. by the way China is the largest steel producing country in the world, no other country comes even close to its production levels
.
its like asking for rice in a Chinese restaurant in China, they dont call it rice so rarely would anybody know what you talking about. metal has Chinese names in China
 

Attachments

  • ChineseHSS.jpg
    ChineseHSS.jpg
    57.1 KB · Views: 200
HSS is brittle. Not exactly breaking news.(pun intented)
Soft or un-twisting HSS drills are obviously faulty but this one has behaved pretty much expected. OK, possibly failed at lot lower stress than supposed.

HSS can also mean "hollow structural section" or "high strength steel" but those are bit far fetch for even chinese drills.
 
its like asking for rice in a Chinese restaurant in China, they dont call it rice so rarely would anybody know what you talking about. metal has Chinese names in China

The "people" are much like anybody else. It's their government I'm cross with.

But there you have it. Even in a "hardware store" no larger than my US kitchen?

If I explained across the language barrier what it was I was trying to DO (drill tough Stainless) by means of crudely drawn sketches and a sample of metal?

A middle-aged Chinese Shop Proprietor would dig back into his further shelves and hand me three of the nicest Swiss, US, or Japanese-made HSS-Cobalt drills I could have found in a SWISS toolmongery.

Or now and then with beaming pride? CHINESE-made drills of superb quality. Dalian Top Eastern bought US, Japanese, and German drill MAKING machinery, even BEFORE they bought the entire US and European old-line names and entire drill FACTORIES, after all.

The Chinese craftsmen are neither cheap nor fools.

They've simply been made to believe that WE are!

On the evidence of our own bottomless greed for "something for nothing" and OUR OWN cheapskate "buyers" catering to our foolish consumer SELVES, of course!

Yah can't blame Walmart nor Harbor Freight when it is OUR damned fault for abandoning better goods in a greedy instant-gratification "something for nothing" stampede TO them carried on OUR OWN feet and spend.

We did this s**t to OURSELVES. The hungry Chinese just filled OUR purchase orders.

Hopefully we'll get off to a new and better-balanced cooperatiom ... after the current economic - if not also "bio" - war plays-out?
 
in my experience in China you get what you asked for...... If you got a China government stamped receipt with metal analysis nobody going to risk a Chinese jail selling you anything else.
.
99.999% of time, problems are a translation error. if translator is not a metal expert you better have a metal cross reference chart when going to the Chinese metal store. I usually had a Shiyong Wujin Shouce book with me (Standard hardware handbook or similar books)
 
you aint going to see USA names in Chinese metal store normally

Surely will in Hong Kong. Swiss - and LOTS of German and Japanese - as well.

Hong Kongers have a VERY low regard for "mainland" goods, won't buy a "locally made" Benz. They want the GERMAN made ones, or Maybachs, Bentleys, Ferrari's, Maserati's, Lambo's.. etc. Honda and Toyota barely match Benz for "common".

But you might not KNOW this unless you LIVED there - or up in Zhongshan - about 30-odd years "formally" whether that much in-residence or not.

And know WHERE to look!

:D
 
China Shipyard where they used 10x to 10000x more metal than a typical small USA shop
.
they would show shipyard to over proud Americans to burst their bubble and make them more humble. they make a ship every 4 months
 

Attachments

  • ChineseShipyard2.jpg
    ChineseShipyard2.jpg
    76.4 KB · Views: 210
Surely will in Hong Kong. But only if you LIVE there about 30-odd years "officially" whether that much in-residence or not.

And know WHERE to look!

:D

.
you want a Chinese government stamped receipt showing chinese metal type you better look at the Chinese metal type and make sure its what you want on the metal cross reference chart. I wouldnt trust anything else typed in English on a Chinese rceipt
 
.
you want a Chinese government stamped receipt showing chinese metal type you better look at the Chinese metal type and make sure its what you want on the metal cross reference chart. I wouldnt trust anything else typed in English on a Chinese rceipt

Age-old problem. I have long had the exact same problem with institutionalized lies coming out of "government-shaped-agencies" in places called "Washington, DC, "New York City", or - may God have mercy on your Corporate soul - "Lost Angels" or "Chicago".
 
in my experience in China you get what you asked for...... If you got a China government stamped receipt with metal analysis nobody going to risk a Chinese jail selling you anything else.
.
99.999% of time, problems are a translation error. if translator is not a metal expert you better have a metal cross reference chart when going to the Chinese metal store. I usually had a Shiyong Wujin Shouce book with me (Standard hardware handbook or similar books)

LOL! I used to "score points" the other direction.

Conducive Group (Asia) Ltd's standard gift to CHINESE up-and-comers we held in regard was not a bribe, nor a fancy desk pen set.

Longmanns Chinese-English-GERMAN three-way technical terms dictionary, rather!

Even "Director level" executives who were MILES from any shop floor or design desk loved it! Gave them the ability to impress their fellows in the boardroom with their command of useful practical terms that are ever-so rarely used outside of any narrowly technical field.

It's the way China has always been. "Compartmentalized", so to speak.

Imperial OR Communist, only the specialists even know the terms exist in their own language!

It wasn't the English or German terms those up and coming Chinese middle-managers and excutives were looking up. The reverse, rather.

They HAD the "western" terms. We spill our very guts flooding the whole world with our technical work.

The "edge" they gained was in back-translating so as to command the CHINESE terms that previously only a few specialists had known! And held CLOSE as part of the "mystery"... and job security. Of Course.

You'd have to know competitive humans?

:D
 
It couldn't be the drill broke through misuse or the operator being clumsy could it? ...………..I've broken several 1/2 '' (and larger) drills using them freehand, …….and IME deep holes in wood can be a minefield for the unwary.

Just saying.
 
It couldn't be the drill broke through misuse or the operator being clumsy could it? ...………..I've broken several 1/2 '' (and larger) drills using them freehand, …….and IME deep holes in wood can be a minefield for the unwary.

Just saying.

Ummh .. welll.

Some among would not WANT to use a helical twist drill meant for steel - not even tip-ground for shiney-wood - on REAL WOOD to begin with, would we?

Irwin Speedbores, standard, long, and extra-long.. plus extensions, longish "bellhanger" drills dear to a "telephone man's" heart, coupla kinds of augers, even Forstners and hole-saws in the box for REAL woods.

Horses for courses...
 
It couldn't be the drill broke through misuse or the operator being clumsy could it? ...………..I've broken several 1/2 '' (and larger) drills using them freehand, …….and IME deep holes in wood can be a minefield for the unwary.

Just saying.

Absolutely! It was my brother-in-law, after all. But I've NEVER broken a drill larger than 1/16" inch, let along a 1/2" drill. I am amazed that others have.
 
Ummh .. welll.

Some among would not WANT to use a helical twist drill meant for steel - not even tip-ground for shiney-wood - on REAL WOOD to begin with, would we?

Irwin Speedbores, standard, long, and extra-long.. plus extensions, longish "bellhanger" drills dear to a "telephone man's" heart, coupla kinds of augers, even Forstners and hole-saws in the box for REAL woods.

Horses for courses...

I shall relay this advice should he ever again need to drill a deep hole in a door. Thanks!
 
Absolutely! It was my brother-in-law, after all. But I've NEVER broken a drill larger than 1/16" inch, let along a 1/2" drill. I am amazed that others have.

Not fussed. Buy minimum three at a go when not already to-hand for good reason. Have to seek the "sweet spot" the hard way sometimes. Don't break nor melt one now and then, yer wasting precious time.

How much TIME can yah just order-up, or pick outta the drills drawers at a mill supply house?

Biggest I ever bustid was a 3" helical. Good-old US maker, too. Just a bitch-kitty of a tasking and glad it was Galis/FMC money, not mine or my USWA Local!

:)
 








 
Back
Top