Drilling Through Stainless Steel Sheet

Stainless steel is not the hardest of metals in its natural form however as pointed out by chip lawson in his piece know how.

Drilling through stainless steel sheet.

Start with a sharp drill and have it turning as slowly as your drill or drill press will allow. For drilling it s common knowledge that treating it like any other metal and applying sustained pressure until the hole is complete causes problems such as overheating and occasional breaking of the bit. There are also other steps to drilling this material that will make the process easier. Drilling through stainless steel is much like drilling through any other type of metal but with a few key differences.

Here is the right way to drill stainless steel. 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. When drilling stainless steel you may freely let the drilling chips get away from the hole that you are drilling. Step drill bits are designed to drill holes in sheet metal and other thin materials.

Please help support my effort. When stainless steel work hardens it becomes very hard and extremely difficult to drill. The reason for this is that any buildup of chips within the hole can cause roughness along the wall of the hole. It may also cause clogging of the hole that may eventually lead to drill breakage.

Using high speed drill bits or better is mandatory. But working with stainless steel can present challenges during fabrication keeping it clean and free of fingerprints and drilling through it efficiently. Drilling stainless steel is not as difficult as you may thi. Drilling stainless steel is not as.

I set my drill press to its slowest speed or run my portable drill as slow as the trigger will allow. They re just the thing when you need a perfectly sized clean hole in a steel junction box electrical service panel or even a stainless steel sink. Many people have drilled holes into plain old steel with satisfactory results.