air drill question

what rpm range best for aluminum sheet metal? 2600? 3600? less? more?
thanks KM

In article ,
(Ded Dog) wrote:

what rpm range best for aluminum sheet metal? 2600? 3600? less? more?
thanks KM

It is all a function of drill size -- available in metalworking books.

Wow. I'm glad I just started reading this group. What a helpful bunch here!
I'll the the original poster would never have thought about looking it up.

Steve Robertson
N4732J 1967 Beechcraft A23-24

Orval Fairbairn wrote:

In article ,
(Ded Dog) wrote:

what rpm range best for aluminum sheet metal? 2600? 3600? less? more?
thanks KM

It is all a function of drill size -- available in metalworking books.

Wow. I'm glad I just started reading this group. What a helpful bunch here!
I'll the the original poster would never have thought about looking it up.

Not everything that you and I might take for granted is common knowledge among
some of the new builders - or even somewhat experienced ones. And sometimes
those of us that have been doing "it" for a score+ years forget that not
everybody knows the basics.

To answer the original post - the smaller the drill bit the faster you
can/should turn it.

In my experience:

for sheet metal work (drilling #30 holes) the fastest air drill you can buy is
none too fast.

A sharp split point bit and an accurate center-punch help too.

"Ded Dog" wrote in message
om...
what rpm range best for aluminum sheet metal? 2600? 3600? less? more?
thanks KM

Read Veeduber's article on the subject. It's a great article chockfull of
good info. It's at Ron Wanntaja's website. What I recall is that it's
somewhere around 30,000.

Here you go, for the air drill speed. Scroll down about 1/4 to Veeduber's
(R. S. Hoover's) Riveting 101, etc. Course, natcherly giving a nod of
approval to Ron Wanttaja's marvelous website:

http://home1.gte.net/ikvamar/avlinks/index.htm


"Lpmcatee356" wrote in message
...

Wow. I'm glad I just started reading this group. What a helpful bunch
here!
I'll the the original poster would never have thought about looking it
up.

Not everything that you and I might take for granted is common knowledge
among
some of the new builders - or even somewhat experienced ones. And
sometimes
those of us that have been doing "it" for a score+ years forget that not
everybody knows the basics.

To answer the original post - the smaller the drill bit the faster you
can/should turn it.

In my experience:

for sheet metal work (drilling #30 holes) the fastest air drill you can
buy is
none too fast.

A sharp split point bit and an accurate center-punch help too.

What I recall is that it's
somewhere around 30,000.

------------------------------------------

Really? I sure hope not! :-)

(Mebbe I meant 3,000 ...piloting for AD3's)

-R.S.Hoover

"Veeduber" wrote in message
...
What I recall is that it's
somewhere around 30,000.

------------------------------------------

Really? I sure hope not! :-)

(Mebbe I meant 3,000 ...piloting for AD3's)

-R.S.Hoover

Did I say that? Pheweeeeee. Here it is, corrected. May I quote you?:

There's a handy little formula that sez how fast a drill bit of a given
diameter has to be rotating to cut a clean hole in materials of various
types.
Drilling aruminum, using a #41 bit, your drill motor has to be capable of
spinning about 3000 rpm. At that speed a sheet of forty thou is virtually
transparent to the bit. Just touch the trigger and there's the hole, nice
and
neat and round and with the smallest possible lip.

On 20 Nov 2003 11:47 AM, Lpmcatee356 posted the following:

Wow. I'm glad I just started reading this group. What a helpful bunch
here! I'll the the original poster would never have thought about
looking it up.

Not everything that you and I might take for granted is common
knowledge among some of the new builders - or even somewhat
experienced ones. And sometimes those of us that have been doing "it"
for a score+ years forget that not everybody knows the basics.

To answer the original post - the smaller the drill bit the faster you
can/should turn it.

In my experience:

for sheet metal work (drilling #30 holes) the fastest air drill you
can buy is none too fast.

A sharp split point bit and an accurate center-punch help too.

A quick and dirty back of the envelope calculation shows that a 1/8" bit
can be spun in excess of 9000 RPM in aluminum. Higher grade bits can,
of course, be spun faster, but the bottom line is that for drilling
rivet holes in sheet aluminum, no generally available drill is going to
be too fast.

I recently purchased a 6000 rpm Sioux air drill and find it to be
ideally suited for sheet aluminum work. I've worked with standard air
drills at around 2800rpm and I didn't like them as much, although they
work far better than the garden variety of electric drills, which always
seem to be too slow for aluminum, but too fast for steel. My drill
motors are the aforementioned Sioux, and a 1200RPM Porter-Cable electric
which is great for steel but will twist your arm off if you let it dig
in.

----------------------------------------------------
Del Rawlins-
Remove _kills_spammers_ to reply via email.
Unofficial Bearhawk FAQ website:
http://www.rawlinsbrothers.org/bhfaq/

On 20 Nov 2003 08:52 AM, Steve Robertson posted the following:
Wow. I'm glad I just started reading this group. What a helpful bunch
here! I'll the the original poster would never have thought about
looking it up.

If the original poster is new to aircraft sheetmetal work he needs to
get a book even if he does find the answer to his question here. There
are just too many things that need to be looked up like bend radii and
figuring setback/bend allowance et cetera.

A drill speed chart is handy, but if you know what the allowable cutting
speed is for your bit material in the work material, you can easily
calculate the maximum RPM based on the diameter of the drill bit using
pi times the diameter. The short answer is that he isn't going to find
a drill that is too fast for drilling rivet holes in aluminum, and the
faster the drill he buys, the better it will work.

----------------------------------------------------
Del Rawlins-
Remove _kills_spammers_ to reply via email.
Unofficial Bearhawk FAQ website:
http://www.rawlinsbrothers.org/bhfaq/