Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Does anyone know how to heat treat old drill bits.

I have used Butterfield, good drills. I got a deal years ago on sets of drills in a bronze bench stand from Cleavland Twist Drill Co. I bought fraction, number and letter sets. They lasted a long time.

When doing close tolerance work on a Bridgeport I would lock the knee and never touch it after tramming the head. Used a lot of screw machine length drill in collet holders. Grew to like screw machine lengths for their rigidity and found they seldom wandered. Still prefer to sue them whenever I can.

YAH !

There's some REALLY good drill bits and taps in SMALLER sizes coming out of Macedonia / Bosnia.

The Czech and Polish product is nothing to sneeze at, either.

Amazing Planet, this.

GTC

I have enormous admiration for skilled metal craftsmen. Although I have a good mechanical aptitude, I never developed it into a trade and made a living at it. My own limited repertoire came from an adult ed. class in lathe and mill, i.e., just enough to be dangerous. I have a cheap mini-lathe, which has proven to be indispensable, despite its and my limitations.

My own life and career have taken several twists and turns. I met and married my present wife when I was in my mid-30s. Her late father was a master machinist who ran a precision grinding business, and over the years added to my meager store of knowledge. I've wondered if my wife and I had met earlier, if I might have gone into the trade and business with him. I believe I could have been happy and successful doing that.

Keep on making swarf!

Paul

But could your liver handle it?

That's a question every toolmaker has to ask himself before embarking on the career.

All jobs have their down sides and stressors, and I'm sure yours is no exception. Truth is, most jobs suck, some more than others and some more often than others.

A lot of worker bees think managers have it easy - until they get promoted. It can be quite a shock, and I've seen it happen a bunch of times. Seen guys beg to go back to their old job. I didn't go to college until I'd worked for about 10 years, and didn't become a manager until my late 30s. Manys the time I wished I were still wearing denim and punching a clock.

Paul

It ain't about stress or job's suckin'.

It's tradition!

If ya gonna throw in with the toolmakin' crowd there's an etiquette that must be observed.

If you try to buck it they'll fug with ya *bad*.

Toolmakin' is a peculiar form of mental illness unrecognized by the medical profession,..and machine shops are asylums equipped with lathes and milling machines.

If you decide to enter one, you need to be prepared to medicate your*self*. The doctors won't do it.

They don't understand.

Interesting world, that.

I once had a boss who said that his job required a cast iron liver.

Paul

I have found that often just a quick touch on the back cut or relief will make all the difference in the world. guys should experiment to try to split the point accurately, effects of different angles and how they affect different materials.

you guys will appreciate this....I scored a hougen mag motor AND a set of annular cutters for it up to 1 1/8" with none of it showing much wear for a paltry $250 and it was from a tool liquidator!

210/.dia=rpm 2 flute HSS is what I teach apprentices as a good rule up to an inch for drills

I make no pretense of being a machinist, or toolmaker, but occasionally it's fallen to me to figure out how to fix something.

We had some fixtures needed for pressing large coil springs, which were basically just shafts turned to about �1.8" � .005", and I asked for them to be 32 finish or better. I ordered some S7 tool steel rounds, and gave them to the shop asking them to turn them to size and thread one end, prior to heat treating.

The "machinist" (he was really a mechanic) came to me the next day, with a shaft that looked like a tree that had been knawed by a beaver. He said, "how do you cut this stuff?". I took the shaft and asked, "what kind of cutting oil did you use?" His reply was, "Oil?".

After I suggested sulphurized cutting oil, he grabbed the shaft and stormed out. The next day they turned out, more or less okay.

Sounds like you have two problems, one is damaging the bits, and possibly using the wrong type for the job, and the other is the process of spinning a bit in an incomplete hole work hardens the holy heck out of the material you are trying to cut.

So my advice is to take a small dia abrasive bit aka dremel bit and grind out the face of the area you've work hardened before trying to complete the hole, or you'll just manage to re-damaget the bit. That and get carbide bits in qty, when drilling tough materials, drills are consumables.

If you are running without a constant coolant flow, I recommend running at 25 to 35 SFM with HSS, even with oil. When I ran a mill I ran HSS at 50 SFM with constant coolant on most steels. For dry engine machine work I run HSS dry at much slower speeds on steel and cast iron. Make sure you are feeding hard enough to make a chip which also cools the tool and reduces work hardening; a dull tool will not make a good chip.

I don't think he is running a CNC Mill

D2 in it's soft state just is not all that hard to machine. 50 SFPM and a coolant like oil with a decent feed rate should do the job without any problems. Firm pressure with a good drill press and I don't see a problem. My guess is he is using too much speed and no oil.

I know so little about the finer points of machine work or the trade, and have no reason to doubt your take on it as stated above. Maybe the exception has a way of proving the rule.

Dad worked through from apprentice, to journeyman, to shop foreman and on to some really responsible roles. All along the way he was a knockout machinist - first order tool and die and anything else maker long before anything "controlled" was invented. The guy had a level built into his left eye, a dial guage in his right and a micrometer for a brain. He could look at the darn most complicated item, make a few notes in his little spiral-bound book and then go off and produce it from raw.

I know that others can do this stuff just as well and better - he was no superman - but he was really good and he was one I knew and witnessed again and again. Add to that the fact that his colleague machinists/etc. and those he supervised thought the world of the man - turned out in droves for his memorial service.

But, he did not fit in. Harry did not drink - never touched a drop.

agreed

That's a fair price and exactly what my local gunsmith quoted me on my Gew98 Mauser that needs scope bases. The rifle only cost me $50 so, THAT project will be on the back burner for a while.

Wish I had Scott & Greg's skills.

I have the skills but not one tool left to do the job. Greg has the skill and the tools along with a whole bunch of other skilled here at the Fire.

one thing to keep in mind, if you keep getting the same results you are never going to solve it by repeating the equasion. I have had luck getting through a hard spot by altering the point split to get less bite all at once and add some back cut.....alow down and add oil. you may chip a bit trying to get through, but once making a pull again, it will machine well. I have done a lot with little by trying several ways out of the mess I am in.