Drilling Through Stainless Steel Plate

Many people have drilled holes into plain old steel with satisfactory results.

Drilling through stainless steel plate.

For some jobs you may need to make holes in the metal to achieve the effect you want. There are also other steps to drilling this material that will make the process easier. A tool steel that is too soft would immediately overheat. Here is the right way to drill stainless steel.

When stainless steel work hardens it becomes very hard and extremely difficult to drill. Hymnorq metric m35 cobalt steel extremely heat resistant twist drill bits with straight shank set of 13pcs to cut through hard metals such as stainless steel and cast iron 4 4 out of 5 stars 880 14 99 14. Because so many people ask how to drill through stainless steel we decided to dedicate a page to this topic. What stainless tends to do is work harden fairly quickly when heated and drilling at high speed creates a lot of heat.

By using the right tools prepping the metal and drilling the hole you can easily work a drill through any piece of steel you need. Stainless steel is a very hard material and therefore difficult to cut therefore the tool steel of the twist drill should be made of hsse co 5 5 cobalt content hsse co 8 8 cobalt content or solid carbide. These characteristics of stainless steel make it quite difficult to cut or drill. If you ll be drilling a lot of holes or need to drill through hard abrasive metals like stainless steel or cast iron spend a couple bucks more for black oxide or a cobalt steel drill bit for metal.

Drilling through stainless steel is much like drilling through any other type of metal but with a few key differences. Using high speed drill bits or better is mandatory. The least expensive twist bits are made of high speed steel hss and these basic bits are just fine for most metal drilling tasks. Stainless steel also known as inox steel is an alloy of steel with a minimum of around 10 5 chromium based on its mass it is known for its corrosion resistance high heat resistance and high ductility.