Drilling & Boring

Articles • February 1, 2001

Farewell to BUE

A new drill point geometry developed by a tool and cutter grinder. The through-coolant drill is ground in such a way that a hollowed out chamber on the face of the tip retains coolant in the cutting zone while hydraulic forces that are created push fluid to the cutting edge.

Articles • December 1, 2000 • Aaron Habeck

Steadying the Bar

Cutting forces cause the boring bar to deflect, which can lead to vibration and damaged workpieces. The author gives an overview of available boring bars and offers guidelines for selecting one for a specific application.

Articles • June 1, 2000 • Jack Burley

Double Header

The author discusses the advantages and proper application of twin-cutter boring tools. They're recommended for rough-boring applications on castings, forgings and other jobs requiring a tool that can bore a cored hole. Details are provided on the three basic types of methods for rough boring with a twin cutter: balanced, stepped and full profile.

Articles • May 1, 2000 • Doug Holley

Back to Basics

Gundrilling: going deep

Articles • April 1, 2000 • Derek Phillips

Company Saves Big with Custom Indexable Tool

Switching from a brazed-tip trepanning tool to an indexable-insert tool nreduced downtime for a manufacturer of cast iron cylinder heads by 45 nminutes. And, incredibly, the price-per-piece dropped so much that the ncompany could save $690,000 annually.

Articles • February 1, 2000 • Derek Phillips

Extreme Drilling

A detailed description of a combination drill that machines six different nhole diameters. Used on a dedicated drilling machine that drills cast iron ncylinder heads, it was developed over a number of years. The six-in-one tool nis made of HSS and has carbide inserts.n

Articles • February 1, 2000 • Derek Phillips

Dry Run

Dry milling and turning grow in popularity day by day, but dry drilling is nanother matter. Because of the nature of drilling, it's more difficult to nperform this operation without coolant. Still, progress is being made, nthanks to research and more sophisticated coatings.n

Articles • February 1, 2000 • Kip Hanson

Pecking Order

The CNCs on many lathes don't have drill-pecking cycles. The author ndescribes several ways to program CNCs to peck, including shortcuts such as nsubprogramming and parametric programming.n

Articles • October 1, 1999 • Dennis Esford

Tough Bores

This article relates how three shops used creative ideas to solve difficult boring problems. One shop built a custom tool to bore deep holes. Another used a combination of standard tools to bore an interrupted cut. And a third achieved tight tolerances with an assortment of plastic sleeves and plugs.

Articles • September 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Small Wonders

Small-diameter drills designed for drilling circuit boards can be used as a low-cost alternative for producing holes in other materials as well. Their fragility is the only drawback. This article describes these tools and the special handling they require. n

Articles • August 1, 1999 • Kip Hanson

Get it Straight

Spot drilling is a time-consuming process, but sometimes it is necessary to prevent drill walk. This article describes the reasons for spot drilling and the economic impact of adding the operation to a job. It also explains why a spot drill is a better choice for the operation than a center drill.

Articles • March 1, 1999 • Jerry Arpaio

Through-Coolant Tools Raise Throughput

Routing coolant out through the tip of the tool can provide greater control of temperatures and chips. This article describes the benefits of through-coolant tools and describes the methods of retrofitting machines to accept through-coolant tools.