Can I Drill Out the Center of Tubing?

[blueoval557]

Hey everyone-
I am looking for a special size tubing that nobody makes. I found some that is ALMOST there, but the inside diameter is not big enough. The tubing I am looking at has an inside diameter of .385, but I need it to be .394(10mm). Do you think I could do this? If I can, would it be better to leave the tubing long and use a hand drill on it, or would it be better to cut smaller pieces off and using a drill press?
THANKS A BUNCH!
Kyle

[blueoval557]

also, should I be able to find a 10 or 11mm bit at home depot?
thanks!
kyle

[Terry Lingle]

I would cut the tubing to required length then drill it.
you can drill deep holes but you need long drills or an extension . Long drills are expensive .
Extensions require a reduced shank bit that may come loose leaving a recovery problem. Once the bit enters the hole past the flutes chip clogging in the flutes means the power needed goes way up. You must back out and clear the chips often. also you will want to lubricate the drill regulairly to prevent gauling in the hole.

10 10.5 or 11 mm drills will be available at industrial supply places if not at home despot Terry

[Sandy]

You want to drill out the centers of tubing to the tune of 9 thousanths??

Sounds like a good chance of bind up to me.

I hope it's fairly thick wall. I don't know how you're going to hold it without egging it.

Be darn carefull. That bit is going to bind and get hot as the ****ens and at some point will want to grab and screw itself through, and fast. Don't slice your hand up.

I'm at a loss as to gloves too. You get a glove caught on a drill bit in a press and you're in deep. No gloves and you're asking for it.

Possibly you could get by, by wasting some metal. Cut the tubing longer than the bit then trim to size.

I dunno. Just be thoughtfull and carefull. Think this one through good.

[AV8OR]

How long is this 10mm ID tube going to be?

[blueoval557]

The tubing is fairly thick...it is used for tapping 7/16 threads. has a .120 wall. the piece i need is only going to be 1/4 inch long, but i am thinking about drilling a 1 inch piece, then making 3 1/4 pieces out of it(figuring the saw blade width wont give me 4, 14 pieces). ill defenitely do it on my drill press.
THANKS!
kyle

[James D. Clark]

I would chuck the tube in a lathe and bore the I.D. with a boring bar. Then tap the tube and then cut the tube into 1/4 inch rings with a thin cutoff tool. I don't know how you are going to hold the tube in a drill press without squashing the tube unless you have a collet or pipe vise.

You might try cutting a longer piece so that you can hold the tube below where you are drilling and tapping. You could try tapping the tube as it is by working the tap in and out until you get 1/4 inch of thread and then cut off your part.

A tapped hole can vary in diameter depending on the fit or percentage of thread and more thread depth may work. Tapping a ring of tubing 1/4 long, I don't think that is going to work. Tap a longer piece of tubing and then cut off each 1/4 section.

[Dan]

Kyle,

You need to get yourself one of these.


http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=G8688

[blueoval557]

James, it wont be tapped. I was just saying this tubing I am using is for tapping. Sorry for the confusion.
Dan- Send me the money and I be sure to buy one ;) LOL. Yeah that would defenitely be nice, and I would consider it more than I have already, but I am very limited on space in my dads garage. I bet if I didnt tell him or ask him about it, and just brought it to his house(parents are divorced) one day, hed let me keep it ;) LOL Ill see what I can do. How much do those weigh? Is it something that wouldnt have to be mounted to a table all the time?
THANKS!
Kyle

[Dan]

Dan- Send me the money and I be sure to buy one LOL. Yeah that would defenitely be nice, and I would consider it more than I have already, but I am very limited on space in my dads garage. I bet if I didnt tell him or ask him about it, and just brought it to his house(parents are divorced) one day, hed let me keep it LOL Ill see what I can do. How much do those weigh? Is it something that wouldnt have to be mounted to a table all the time?
THANKS!
Kyle

Kyle,

Sorry, i don t think my wife will let me send you the money.:D If you lived closer to me, I d let you come over and use my machine, but that obviously isn t possible.

A lathe that size only weighs around 80 lbs. They are a small compact unit that you could store on a shelf underneath a work bench.

[blueoval557]

Hey Dan-
THANKS A BUNCH MAN! I may look into one then. In your opinion, is it even possible to drill the tubing out like I want to? I have drilled the threads out of nuts before, to slide them over a piece of tubing. If I cut the piece long enough, and flatten 2 sides of the tubing on the bench grinder real quick, then clamp the flat sides in the drill press vise. Once I drill it out, I can cut the end of the tubing off where the flat sides are. This gunna work?? BTW, I dont know if you knew, but I duplicated your solid round bar bender last week! THAT THING IS AWESOME! I dont have a piece of roundbar left that is still straight! LOL
THANKS!
Kyle

[Dan]

THANKS A BUNCH MAN! I may look into one then. In your opinion, is it even possible to drill the tubing out like I want to? I have drilled the threads out of nuts before, to slide them over a piece of tubing. If I cut the piece long enough, and flatten 2 sides of the tubing on the bench grinder real quick, then clamp the flat sides in the drill press vise. Once I drill it out, I can cut the end of the tubing off where the flat sides are. This gunna work?? BTW, I dont know if you knew, but I duplicated your solid round bar bender last week! THAT THING IS AWESOME! I dont have a piece of roundbar left that is still straight! LOL

Kyle,

You're only looking at having to remove about .0045 " of wall thickness, and since you are willing to do this with a drill bit, this bore must not need to be exact. So, instead for safety purposes, i would slit the end of a short length of 1/4" solid rd stock. Then wrap some emery cloth around this rod . then use this in a hand held drill to hone (ream) the hole out. Sorry, I don t know how to exactly explain this. I will try to get you some pictures by Wednsday morning to help you understand what I m trying to explain. Sorry, this is the quickest i can do this because I work evenings, and what I am trying to explain is in my tool box at work.


Glad to see that someone else found that bender project useful. Thats why I took the time to post it. You built the second version right? It was a much better unit then first version that i had to throw together in a hurry. Yeah, the night I built the 2nd version, there wasn t much in the area of short lengths of round stock left in the shop after all the guys on my shift and then the graveyard shift got done playing with it.:D

[Thomas Harris]

Originally posted by Dan
Kyle,

You need to get yourself one of these.


http://www.grizzly.com/products/item.cfm?itemnumber=G8688

For such a one time job- can you find a hand reamer to do this. It'll be slow but safe. I use tapered pin reamers by hand often and they'll enlarge a tapered hole just fine, with less chance of "surprises" from a difficult to clamp piece. I would expect them to cost a lot less than the cheapest lathe!

[JohnV]

blueoval557...I sure hope you have a rare car you are doing all this part hunting for? Sometimes for cost reasons it ends up being cheaper just to buy from a company that mass produces some of these items you are trying to fab up.

John

[Terry Lingle]

For the amount you want to remove get the bit. weld a nut on the end of the tube grab the nut in the vise support the tube near the end to be drilled drill the tube to flute depth cut off drilled sections and repeat until done. Terry

[AV8OR]

Five hundred bucks for a lathe is just the tip of the iceberg! A lathe is a Barbie doll on steroids when it comes to setting up a machine shop. A great big sucking sound of dollars flying out of you wallet! A local machine shop could knock these out for you for much less. That being said it's the next step after you fill all the squares setting up your welding shop.

As a friend of mine once said, "It really isn't a project unless you have to buy a new tool."

[James D. Clark]

blueoval557; It wouldn't be any fun if you could buy something instead of making it with your own hands, even it it would be cheaper to buy it and you won't need to have all the tools that are needed to make it. When you make it you learn about new tools and how to use them. Knowledge is power.;)

[vtecrx]

what I would use, especially if I had to make more than one.



http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/productdetail.jsp?xi=xi&ItemId=1611661667&ccitem=

If you were willing to use a drill bit, then I assume that you do not need to keep a .001-.003 tolerance that A reamer will give you if used properly.

[Tucsonshooter]

I agree with vtecrx, an adjustable reamer is a good way to go. ENCO would be a godd place.

[vtecrx]

that is not an adjustable reamer. It is just a solid reamer. If you search you might be able to find one in the .394 flavor. A core drill or a double margin drill will provide the same results. I think you will be less than satisfied with just a plain drill bit. They produce what is known as an unfinished hole(jagged and just plain ugly). I can tell the difference to the naked eye when I just drill a hole and ream it to proper diameter(perfectly smooth edges from entry to exit).

[enlpck]

For this small bit of material, a standaard drill will likely grab and make a mess.

I would recommend welding the tube end to something solid (like the nut already suggested) and using a reamer. If you have one or can justify buying one, that is. An adjustable (NOT expansion: expansion reamers are adjustable only about 1 or 2 thou, principally for make up after dressing and for precision fitting) reamer with a range of about 20 or 30 thou is in the range of $50 to $100 used, but well worth it (****, a set covering a real nice range is only about a grand :) ) IF the size range is likely to be useful to you. Max removal is maybe 30 thou on diameter at a shot, accuracy about 0.5 thou or better.

IF this is out of your range, get a bit the right size, dress the end such that the cutting face angle (normally the helix angle of about 15 degrees or more) is reduced. You want a degree or two at most (the face becomes a plane nearly paralell to the bit axis)- this reduced the tendancy of the bit to grab pull in. Also reduce egging and distortion. Go slow, lots of coolant.

[Eric Carroll]

You could just drill out some soild stock and not mess with the tube if you are doing short pieces.

[blueoval557]

just wanted to let everyone know it worked perfectly! :) didnt even have to flat side the tubing, weld a nut on it or anything! which really surprised me too! just clamped it in the little vise on my little drill press and drilled right through it. didnt catch at all or anything! :) i was amazed at how close the tolerances were when i slid the 10mm bolt through it. my dad has a really nice set of matco drill bits that he paid like $160 for about 15 years ago. i put my caliper on the shank of the bolt and then found a drill bit to match it...it ended up being like 25/64 i think or something like that which my dad had! :) jus wanted to let everyone know! THANKS GUYS!
kyle

[JakeD]

can you post the link to the bender?

I just finished a ring roller, only I made it too small, so I have to extend the rollers a bitso I can roll bigger stuff, and I have the old crummy HF bender, I am going to fabricate a picket twister, and then I will have the collection of stuff . I am interested in seeing your bender.

[blueoval557]

Hey Jake-
Heres the link. The thing is very simple and works absolutely awesome! ENJOY!
http://www.hobartwelders.com/mboard/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5281&highlight=poor+mans+bender
Kyle