Working Stainless Steel

Hi guys, Just a tip, If you want to drill holes in really hard ****
(stainless included) go buy the cheapest tungsten tip masonary drill and
grind the negative rake off with a bench grinder ,(make take a while) and
push hard with a drill press.
I've drilled holes in saw blades, gears, case hardened axles and of course
stainless steel. and people pay me to do it!!!

The above is also true, once you stop cutting you start work hardening (SS)

Cheers Cam

(don't tell anyone..... I may have to kill ya)

PS. you can also grind the sides off to get an exact hole size.

When I cut up the 5 mm thick stainless plate to make a 15" x 10" x 2"
1replacement water tank for my combustion stove (this is rec.aviation.steam
isn't it? ;) I used my trusty angle grinder and a cut-off wheel in the back
yard so I could just cool it with the hose. It takes a while, but is much
faster to use a cheap and nasty 4 1/2 inch grinder than any other home
handyman tool.

The tank was then welded by a mate. The steel came from my friendly scrap
metal yard and was bent into a half cylinder in the pile. The scrap yard
pushed it flat with the boom of the forklift and then ran over it a couple
of time from both sides. Although not totally flat it was good enough to
make a very good and very cheap tank:
steel plate $20.00 (with half left over); cut-off wheel $2.00 (with half
left over); welding rods from mates work free; two 3/4 inch BSP stainless
water fittings welded in place $10.00; sixpack for mate and another for me
$20.00(with none left over).


Once the pipe fittings were welded in place, I drilled them out into the
tank wall with an electric hand drill and cheap drill bits. Maybe the heat
from the welding was enough to soften the steel for the 1/2 inch drill which
might have been a sharpened masonary bit, (they are good!) and I can't
remember whether I stopped or not, probably kept going at the time. Must
remember not to stop next time......

Hope this helps,
Peter

Cutting stainless was always a lot easier using a cutting fluid
containing 1,1,1,trichloroethane until they outlawed it. Not
ozone-friendly. I still have half a can of the old Rapid-Tap that they
stopped making about 14 years ago, and don't know what I'll do when
it's gone. The new stuff works, but not nearly as well.
The good fluids don't just lubricate. They form a hard oxide on
the tool as it heats, and the oxide eliminates almost all rubbing
friction, leaving the power to cut the metal without generating so
much heat. Using too much of such a fluid prevents the tool from
heating enough to form the oxide and is counterproductive.

Dan