# Problem machining Drill Rod



## cfellows (Jan 30, 2010)

Black85vette's post about problems machining drill rod is reminiscent of a problem I had yesterday. In my lathe, I had drilled a 7/64" hole axially though the center of a piece of 3/16 drill rod for the valve tube on my opposed 4 cylinder air engine. When I pulled it out of the collet, it was blackened in the middle, obviously from overheating in the boring process.

Then I put the tube inside the valve body and clamped it all up in the drill press so I could drill the radial holes that would let the air pass out to cylinders as the tube rotated. When the 3/32" drill bit hit the tube, it stopped cold. There was no cutting action at all. Hmmm, I must have tempered it when it got hot during the boring process. I took the tube out, sat it on the vice and heated the whole thing cherry red and let it cool slowly to remove the temper.

I clamped the assembly back into vise and lashed it all down on the drillpress table. Fired up the drillpress, brought the bit down into the work and.... same thing, wouldn't cut! I backed off and scratched my head a bit, then I noticed that I had the depth stop set on the drill press.  :-[ That was what was stopping the bit. Loosened up the depth stop, and all went well from there, well, except I drilled the holes in the wrong place and had to remake the piece from scratch!

Chuck


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## bearcar1 (Jan 30, 2010)

* snicker * *hmmfph* * snicker* ;D Been there and done that a few times Chuck. After finally figuring the whole mess out, I felt like a true idiot. :big: :big: :big:


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## Maryak (Jan 30, 2010)

cfellows  said:
			
		

> then I noticed that I had the depth stop set on the drill press.



Of course such things never happen to me. ??? ??? ???

Best Regards
Bob


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## mklotz (Jan 30, 2010)

Yeah, who would be dumb enough to do something that stupid?

Well... me, for one.

Kind of like wondering why a 1/4" cobalt drill won't penetrate a block of brass in the lathe, only to discover that the keyless drill chuck needs to be tightened to work well. Now, who would be dumb enough to do that? 

Chuck, be confident in the fact that, no matter what goofy stunt you pull in the shop, many of us have gone before. You are not alone. I take a lot of comfort in that thought and I need to.


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## zeeprogrammer (Jan 30, 2010)

bearcar1  said:
			
		

> * snicker * *hmmfph* * snicker*



I don't know why but...

 Rof} Rof} Rof}

This is a great forum. I truly believe we learn just as much from other people's boo-boos as their successes.



			
				mklotz  said:
			
		

> no matter what goofy stunt you pull in the shop, many of us have gone before. You are not alone. I take a lot of comfort in that thought and I need to.



Exactly what us newbies need.

Thanks.


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## bearcar1 (Jan 30, 2010)

Or how about when I was drilling a series of holes of various sizes, you know, changing bits rather frequently. I turned around to go get another bit that I had used in the lathe and when I came back over to the drill, I could not find the chuck key. NOWHERE, ZIPPO, not on the floor, under the worktable on the lathe.... NOWHERE to be found! "Hey STUPID!! did it ever occur to you to look in your pocket?" Well........ I think you all know the rest of the story. DOH!!!

BC1
Jim


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## rake60 (Jan 30, 2010)

I have done that on an industrial scale.
A 1-1/4" twist bit in a Carlton 8 foot X 19 inch drill press that looked 
very much like this one. (Ours was painted grey, if that matters.)






The stuff I was trying to drill was HARD! With both hands and all of my 160 pounds
pulling on the manual spindle feed the bit would go no further than 1/4" into the steel.
Then it would burn up and I had to resharpen the bit. After I resharpened that bit for
the third time I finally received some helpful advice from a coworker.
It started out with, "Hey Dumb F....." I can't remember the rest of it. LOL

Same thing bigger scale. :-[

Rick


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## seagar (Jan 30, 2010)

WOW!! I thought only I did things like that. :redface2:

Ian (seagar)
Coffs Harbour 
Australia.


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## Deanofid (Jan 31, 2010)

This is pretty typical of the biological malfunctions that happen in my little shop. 
At least it's not my fault.  I blame it on "You Stupid...". That guy is a real dingbat. 

Dean


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