Drilling Stainless Steel Speed

Cranking a 2 indexable drill through 300 series stainless steel takes 8hp for example.

Drilling stainless steel speed.

300 600 rpm. 500 800 rpm. 200 450 rpm. 2 1 16 to 2 3 8 in.

Start with a sharp drill and have it turning as slowly as your drill or drill press will allow. For through holes the best bet may be an annular cutter. 200 500 rpm. Here is the right way to drill stainless steel.

Drilling machines with continuous speed change control are better than stepped or discrete speed change gear boxes for drilling stainless steel. 11 16 to 13 16 in. 1 1 4 to 1 9 16 in. Drill bit cutting speed.

When you machine stainless steel you are generating high temperatures explained scott turner marketing manager holemaking seco tools. Drilling through stainless steel is much like drilling through any other type of metal but with a few key differences. 7 8 to 1 3 16 in. Using high speed drill bits or better is mandatory.

When drilling stainless steel you need to slowly drill to permit the drill bit to find its own working speed. There are two good alternatives depending on whether you need a through hole or a blind hole. 120 225 rpm. Too much friction may cause your drill to overheat and if this happens you may ruin your drill and the stainless steel.

700 1000 rpm. 200 400 rpm. There are also other steps to drilling this material that will make the process easier. What stainless tends to do is work harden fairly quickly when heated and drilling at high speed creates a lot of heat.

Drill bit cutting speeds are very important in the drilling of metals. 95 195 rpm. 2 7 16 to 3 in. 175 315 rpm.

Excessive speed however is a major cause of drill breakages. 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. Drill speed becomes increasingly important when drilling harder metals.

In high speed steel hss drills this heat will cause the tool to lose its hardness. There are basically two factors that you must carefully balance when drilling stainless steel namely. When stainless steel work hardens it becomes very hard and extremely difficult to drill. 150 300 rpm.

In solid carbide drills microcracks can form on the cutting edges which will eventually cause the drill to fail. You should carefully balance the pressure that you apply. I set my drill press to its slowest speed or run my portable drill as slow as the trigger will allow. We have produced speed and feed charts for both metric and imperial drill bit sizes.

When drilling deep holes reduce the speed and feed as the drill moves into the metal. 300 700 rpm. 1 5 8 to 2 in.