How To Make Hole In Sheet Metal With Step Drill

Simply sandwich the sheet metal between two pieces of wood and clamp everything down on a table or workbench.

How to make hole in sheet metal with step drill.

This is better than using twist drills. It consists in simply putting a cloth between the drill bit and the piece to drill. You set the drill bit in place push the button and press the bit into the material you re drilling. Some step drill bits need pilot holes.

The wooden bread layers of the sandwich keep the sheet metal flat and prevent the drill bit from wandering as it bores through the sheet metal. In essence drilling metal is no different than drilling wood. How to drill metal. You can easily create large holes in thin sheets by using this drill.

Use a sacrificial board a sacrificial board is a flat piece of scrap wood that you place under or on top or both of something you re drilling. Advance the drill through the thin sheet metal it may be difficult to get the drill to start cutting but a gentle force should be used until the cloth has been pierced taking care not to distort the sheet metal the drill will then advance normally through the metal but the resulting hole will be both round and assuming drill geometry is not miles out the size will be spot on. Step drill bits can drill holes of several sizes in one operation. A very simple technique to drill large holes in sheet metal has been presented.

There are several special techniques that will help you make clean accurate holes in metal without excessive wear on your drill bit. But this drill has some drawbacks. As shown in the picture belo the result is not perfect but is so much better that it s definitely worth considering since it s simple and doesn t require any extra tools or particular skills. You drill through it or into it when making the hole that s the sacrifice.

The first drawback is that this useable in only thin metal sheets. For clean precise holes in thin sheet metal make a wood sandwich. But there are two main differences.