After all, I was only drilling a 1/8-inch diameter hole.
I thought for sure if all else failed, the Makita hammer drill would burn through the steel piece. You’d think that would be a piece of cake! (Image/Wayne Scraba) I have four different drills in my tool collection and I used three of them on the little project. I removed and sliced off several pieces of the shift linkage (with the column out of the car) and what remained of this three-on-the-tree steering column setup is what I was attempting to drill through. For a closer look at the drill bit selection I went through in the process, check out the accompanying photos. I highly recommend you try one if you have to drill through hardened steel. I tried it with the 3/8-inch drive variableĭrill bit went through hardened steel like butter. Going through hardened steel, but I didn’t have anything to lose. That is designed to drill through granite tile. Various drill bits at Home Depot, I spied a goofy-looking one with no flutes Obviously, brute force wasn’t going to work either. I boughtĪnd tried the fancy hammer drill bit. After all, a hammer drill provides plenty of grunt. Where someone suggested I use a drill bit designed to work on a hammer drill.įigured I had nothing to lose. I found a bulletin board post where someone said a masonry drill bit would work The guy at the tool supply shop said it would absolutely, positively,ġ00-percent drill through hardened steel. The second bit I tried was titanium-coated. Machining) to accurately arc-machine the hole for $200, or to buy differentġ/8-inch drill bits and try again myself (using each of the three drills usedĭidn’t have much to lose by trying different drill bits. Package the part and send it to a specialty shop for EDM (Electrical Discharge Shops and after hearing the story, no one wanted to touch it. That ‘dent’ measured approximately 0.010-inch deep. The end result (following severalĪttempts-all with more annealing) was a small dent in the hardened shift lever Next, he annealed it with a TIG welder.Ĭlamped into the vise of a Bridgeport mill. NothingĪnd quickly came to the conclusion that the steel was actually hardened (and
CARBIDE TIPPED DRILL BITS FOR HARDENED STEEL MAC
I tried to drill the hole with three different drills-aĬonventional 3/8-inch Makita variable-speed electric, a Mac Tools air-powered In the process, I tried pretty much everything
Seem to be too big of a problem because I could anneal it after trimming it toĭrill a 1/8-inch hole in the linkage with a conventional high-speed drill bit. Remnants off and then drill a hole in what was left so that it could be safety-wiredĪ cut-off wheel) and grinding the linkage it would work harden. Three-on-the-tree assembly converted to a floor shift application with a newīowl, but parts of the shifter linkage remained. Hardened steel-in this case, the piece of steel was what was left of the lower What may seem on the surface like a simple dilemma:
Talk about something that is seemingly simple-a specialty drill bit. Tools revolve around some more complicated, some might say exotic, items.
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