Thread: What are you working on?

Oil???????

Originally Posted by sharptonn

Yah....Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead! Drop of oil and a split tip. Whoops!

Originally Posted by RezDog

It is a pretty kickin XY vice on that drill press. I'm probably as haywire as you Tom, just free handing the scale with the drill press running.

I got tired of running outside to use the drill press, and have been using a cordless screwdriver.
Faster than by hand, slower than a drill press. 300 RPM, forward and reverse.

Originally Posted by RezDog

Oil???????

Drop of 3 in 1 oil on the bit. Makes it go easier!

I was drilling them freehand but there were very few times when the drill bit or the razor would move & it would go to the side. I use split tip drill bits, they're so much better than the ordinary drill bit. I would have tape over the pin with a small hole punched through it but I'm loving this drill press more & more every time I use it. Nothing moves, my angle is just right. If it is off a hair, I just turn the knob on the table a hair one way or the other. I haven't even used a center punch yet! The top of the pin can be domed & I barely touch it with the drill bit for a minute or two until it makes it's initial mark which does what a center punch does, then I can drill. When I drilled by hand, it always worked, every time but then when I wanted to save some collars, it would go south on me. Sometimes I would drill a little ways, then slightly angle it just a hair & the collar would pop right off. Everyone has their own ways of doing it.
Shaun, oil always works better when drilling something out. It helps keep the drill bit sharp at the point & I will put a tiny dab of it on the drill bit. Now when I was working on broken bolts or exhaust studs, I put oil all around the threads where the broken bolt went into whatever it was threaded in because I had my left handed drill bits & many times, the drill bit would grab & unscrew the broken bolt out of the hole. Tom knows this & I'm sure Outback does, working on boats if he works on the boat motors too. Left handed drill bits are life savers! Every good mechanic I know, has at least a set of left handed drill bits in their tool box. Funny thing I remember when I was working on cars & such. A kid I knew was always breaking off exhaust studs about halfway because he never used penetrating oil on the exhaust stud nut, always dry. He would use air tools & when the nut would come loose, some rusty dust would accumulate, get in between the nut & stud after a couple seconds I'd hear snap! I told him to use oil & after that he thanked me because he hardly ever broke an exhaust stud again because he would always come to me to get it out. He learned something. I've said it here & probably will again but lube is your friend, in more ways than one!

Edit: I was typing this when you posted your last post Tom but I went to another page because I had gotten an email & had to answer it but you're so right. We both know how important lube is when drilling, whatever it may be!

I bet you have some left handed drill bits as well.

Originally Posted by engine46

I bet you have some left handed drill bits as well.

Nope, don't work well for me.
We deal with serious corrosion, in the marine environment, so most things are pretty much one piece by the time I get to it.

Originally Posted by outback

Nope, don't work well for me.
We deal with serious corrosion, in the marine environment, so most things are pretty much one piece by the time I get to it.

I meant Tom Mike but I do understand the marine industry. My dad had a shop & we rebuilt starters, generators, alternators & so on from automotive & industrial use also along with marine. Most of the time when bolts broke off on a marine part, it had to be replaced. Very rarely I was able to drill a broken bolt out (because of the corrosion, usually salt water) but they were using alternators & they had aluminum housings. I could drill steel out of an automotive mnay times but a marine application...........hah, good luck! We had to order a new part about 99% of the time but it was usually unavailable because they wanted to sell the complete unit.

As the saying goes..
Break
Out
Another
Thousand

Originally Posted by outback

I got tired of running outside to use the drill press, and have been using a cordless screwdriver.
Faster than by hand, slower than a drill press. 300 RPM, forward and reverse.

Here's my solution to a full sized drill press:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Works Great! Easy to pick up and put on a shelf.

I have a bench top drill press in the hoarders corner and a floor model in the workshop. It is the vice on Steves drill press that I am completely enamoured with. XY with different hold downs. It's pretty slick.