Drilling Through Stainless Steel Sheet

Drilling stainless steel is not as difficult as you may thi.

Drilling through stainless steel sheet.

Stainless is actually a relatively soft metal at least in its initial state. If you ll be drilling a lot of holes or need to drill through hard abrasive metals like stainless steel or cast iron spend a couple bucks more for black oxide or a cobalt steel drill bit for metal. Drilling through stainless steel is much like drilling through any other type of metal but with a few key differences. What stainless tends to do is work harden fairly quickly when heated and drilling at high speed creates a lot of heat.

Stainless steel also known as inox steel is an alloy of steel with a minimum of around 10 5 chromium based on its mass it is known for its corrosion resistance high heat resistance and high ductility. In this first quick tips video i show you how easy it is to drill and cut stainless steel when you have the right magic potion. Certainly of all the metals out there stainless steel is the one that seems to cause most problems for people when it comes to drilling. Many people have drilled holes into plain old steel with satisfactory results.

Using high speed drill bits or better is mandatory. When stainless steel work hardens it becomes very hard and extremely difficult to drill. The least expensive twist bits are made of high speed steel hss and these basic bits are just fine for most metal drilling tasks. After starting out with a bi metal bit and not having much success steve l.

These characteristics of stainless steel make it quite difficult to cut or drill. There are also other steps to drilling this material that will make the process easier. Drilling through 22 guage stainless steel sheet btrueblood mechanical 28 aug 08 12 47 i really like our local hardware store they have a bit sharpener and charge a nominal fee to resharpen a sackful for you. Because so many people ask how to drill through stainless steel we decided to dedicate a page to this topic.

In this video i will show you how to drill stainless steel with regular drill bits and hole saws. Steve parente shows how to easily drill large holes in stainless with a step bit.