Drilling Through Stainless Steel

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

Drilling through stainless steel.

Most drill bits are sold in a set with multiple sizes. 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. In this video i will show you how to drill stainless steel with regular drill bits and hole saws. There are quite a few opinions out there on the best way to do this including using a center punch and drill press both options didn t suit my needs as i wanted to achieve this with the tools i.

If you re only drilling a few holes through steel you can use a regular high speed steel bit. Many people have drilled holes into plain old steel with satisfactory results. Drilling stainless steel is not as. Stainless is actually a relatively soft metal at least in its initial state.

Using high speed drill bits or better is mandatory. I m going to have a home brew now and relax and admire my mounted burners. 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.

After burning through a couple of cheap drill bits i did what everyone else does and searched the internet for tips on drilling into stainless steel. I know some people don t have any problems drilling through stainless steel but for those that are i hope this helps. Here is the right way to drill stainless steel. Drilling through stainless steel is much like drilling through any other type of metal but with a few key differences.

When stainless steel work hardens it becomes very hard and extremely difficult to drill.