Deep Hole Drilling In Aluminum

[Wreck™Wreck]

Yes, I'd centerdrill both end on a mill, after locating true center. Then drill through on a drill press. Neither my lathe or mill has two inch stroke.

Jewelers lathe? That is a very small Z axis even for a screw machine or turret lathe, the few small turret lathes that I have used in the past have 4-5 inches of Z travel, excellent machines for making a LOT of small simple parts manually, as mentioned before I prefer drilling and tapping round parts in a turret rather then a CNC lathe that doesn't support rigid tapping, much faster and less of a chance of leaving 1/2 of a tap in the part, if you know what I mean.

 

[T Bredehoft]

The quill in the tail stock of my Clausing/Atlas MK2 has just over an inch of travel. Yes, I can advance it, but once advanced I can't pull the drill out comfortably without using the entire tail stock as a hand drill. The quill in my PM 25 mill has 1.78 inches of travel. The quill and the table on my drill press are square, after quite a bit of fussing.

 

[Wreck™Wreck]

The quill in the tail stock of my Clausing/Atlas MK2 has just over an inch of travel. Yes, I can advance it, but once advanced I can't pull the drill out comfortably without using the entire tail stock as a hand drill. The quill in my PM 25 mill has 1.78 inches of travel. The quill and the table on my drill press are square, after quite a bit of fussing.

Have you tried drilling from the tool post on the lathe? It works well but can be a bit fussy setting up a chuck in a V holder or MT quick change tool post block, if you have to rotate the post then you need to dial it in again every time. I only move the QCTP's on the lathes where I work by accident (read Crashes) as every tool has an offset relative to a base tool so rotating the post requires resetting the offsets for dozens of tools, this is not fun at all .

Drilling from the toolpost beats the hell out of cranking the handle all day. Also you set the drill feed at an optimum rate rather than the hurried feed that one might resort to after several hours of boredom cranking the handle by hand, do not ask how I know this (-:

 

[prasad]

Thank you all. Great ideas. I will try that and will report back on how it went.

Any ideas on how to make the hole into an oval?

Thanks
Prasad
AB3EH

Thought about it again. I think I will try it using the mini-mill. My lathe (G4000 9x19) does not have travel sufficient for this depth. The mill has. I know mini-mill has flexure problem but I will try and see how it goes. I generally got the idea but will understand it better when I do it.

Thanks everyone,
Prasad
AB3EH

 

[T Bredehoft]

Have you tried drilling from the tool post on the lathe?

While I have done that, in the dim past, I didn't think of it in this application. My little lathe will only swallow a 7/16 rod, so I dont' have many opportunities for deep drilling, but I will keep it in mind.

 

[stupoty]

Jewelers lathe? That is a very small Z axis even for a screw machine or turret lathe, the few small turret lathes that I have used in the past have 4-5 inches of Z travel, excellent machines for making a LOT of small simple parts manually, as mentioned before I prefer drilling and tapping round parts in a turret rather then a CNC lathe that doesn't support rigid tapping, much faster and less of a chance of leaving 1/2 of a tap in the part, if you know what I mean.

You just have access to to many big lathes

My leblond 13 inch was my first lathe with over 2 inch tail stock stroke, its got about 31/4" wow

Seriously though, it's very handy.

Stuart

 

[jbolt]

Get yourself a parabolic flute drill, this will work a charm in high D/L ratio holes in aluminum, use a spotting drill rather then a center drill to start. this should give you a fairly straight hole then ream or bore as needed.

+1 on parabolic drills.

 

[Paul in OKC]

You can drill the depth of the hole regardless of the travel of the quill in the tail stock. It is a bit of a pain, but drill what the stroke is, then you will have to slide the tail stock up a bit and lock it with the drill in the part. The one thing you will need to do is advance the drill a bit, then unlock the tail stock and slide it back to clear the chips, then slide it back up, lock it down and drill. Repeating as needed to get the hole through.

 

[T Bredehoft]

Repeating as needed to get the hole through.

Yeah, I know. not my choice. But I do it. I'll look into drilling with the saddle, too.

 

[Dave Smith]

to make your hole oval use a shaper---Dave