Drill Stainless Steel
Many times I’ve heard people say you can’t drill stainless steel without special drill bits. Well, that statement is wrong. You can drill stainless steel with a high speed drill bit. The secret to drill stainless steel is in the speed of the drill bit. You need to drill the hole at slower speeds. Start drilling the hole at a slow speed. You will start to see chips of metal. Gradually raise the speed. You should see the chips turn into ribbons. If you start drilling to fast, you will stop seeing the chips or ribbons of metal and over heating will occur. Once this happens it will be very difficult if not impossible to drill. You will either have to sharpen your drill bit or replace it. This is also true with more expensive drill bits. You may also want to use cutting oil. Some people don’t like to use cutting oil, so they will periodically dip the drill bit in cold water.
You can also drill stainless steel with a hole saw.
The same principle applies to the hole saw as with the drill bit. Slow speeds. When drilling with a hole saw keep the speed slow. You will be able to see and feel the bit cutting. If you drill with the hole saw at to high of a speed it will almost immediately dull the bit. You will either have to sharpen the hole saw or replace it. When I need to drill with a hole saw I first like to drill the centering hole or pilot hole with a regular bit first. If you don’t drill a pilot hole first and you start off with the hole saw, you will need to ease up on the pressure just before the pilot bit pops through. If you don’t the hole saw will catch the stainless steel and bend the pilot bit. That’s why I like to pre-drill the pilot hole.
Hole Saw Kit To Drill Stainless Steel
This is one of the hole saw kits I use to drill stainless steel. You can buy a kit or if you all ready own an arbor with pilot bits you can purchase just the blades.
I also like to use Irwin drill bits for drilling smaller holes or pilot holes.
Click on the video below to see how I drill stainless steel.
