Is There A Faster Way To Bore A Hole On A Lathe?

I findthat hole saws gum up so much in soft material that they are not effective. I am glad I read the whole thread because I needed to know about trepanning as an amateur myself. Thanks.
 
I know the original poster said the job is done, but people reading this thread may still find this useful: I have successfully used a bimetal hole saw to cut holes in aluminum sheet, using WD40 as a cutting fluid and lots of backing out to clear chips. I have only done this with 1/4" plate, but I don't see why it wouldn't work on thicker material with care and patience. I remove the center drill when I do this, so I end up with a usable slug, and of course you are going to want to clamp the workpiece firmly to the table with some sort of backing material (I use an old scrap of MDF).

I have also used the trepanning tool method, but found it takes longer on my small 7x12 lathe. For links to tool grinding (and trepanning tool in particular) go the link below and scroll down to "cutting tool grinding":

https://sites.google.com/site/lagadoacademy/machining---lathes-mills-etc/tools---mill-lights
 
JeepsAndGuns said:
I have a custom little project I am working on. I have a 5-1/4 dia, 1 inch thick aluminum disc I am needing to bore a hole in. I have chucked it up, faced it and drilled a small center hole and started going up till I got to my largest drill bit (3/4). Now I have switched to a boring bar. I went at it for a bit and have gotten it up to about a inch right now. However I need the hole to be 2.75 inches. At the rate I am going with this boring bar, it will take all week to enlarge this hole.
So I was wondering if there is a faster way to bore a large hole on a solid piece of work, on a lathe?
I thought about trying to mark roughly where the hole would be with a marker, leaving my self some wiggle room, then take a regular carbide tipped tool bit, then start at the current center hole and basically make face cuts stopping at the mark I made and then keep doing that over and over till I reach the other side, then finish the the hole with the boring bar. Could that work? I figure I can take slightly larger cuts with a standard tool bit than I can with a boring bar, since the boring bar flexes some if you take too heavy of a cut. Would this be recommended/safe? Or is there a better way?
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Hi, have you considered trepaning? That is, effectively parting off along the z axis. I used to do alot of this with tool steel billets. It was fast and gave you a usable ceter slug of material for another job. Blades are available to fit standard insert parting blade holders, just make sure to get the correct radius for what you are cutting ( they have a radius range on the blade to ensure relief ) and make sure your set up is rigid and blade is indicated square.
 
Cadillac STS said:
If it were just one part I would just keep boring as you are doing, shouldn't take that long. If it is several parts I would look at ordering aluminum tube with 5.25 OD and 2.5 ID and finish off the inside with boring a little.
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Nice to see something I added those years ago!
 
Penelopepossum said:
Hi, have you considered trepaning? That is, effectively parting off along the z axis. I used to do alot of this with tool steel billets. It was fast and gave you a usable ceter slug of material for another job. Blades are available to fit standard insert parting blade holders, just make sure to get the correct radius for what you are cutting ( they have a radius range on the blade to ensure relief ) and make sure your set up is rigid and blade is indicated square.
Click to expand...

Do you use HSS tools or insert type for this ?

Stu
 
I think old timers should warn new guys not to cut all the way thru part.
the tool can break and somebody can get hurt.

I used to stop about ten or fifteen thousands before breaking thru part. Then separate parts by using a hammer. I ran thousands of trepanned parts in production.
 
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Jimsehr said:
I think old timers should warn new guys not to cut all the way thru part.
the tool can break and somebody can get hurt.
Click to expand...

Do you finish it off by flipping the part around ? (Treepaning)

Stu
 
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