[rescue] Re: geek vehicles

[James Lockwood]

On Sat, 25 Aug 2001 ed at the7thbeer.com wrote:

> Cobalt drill bits suck a$$ for drilling automotive frames and other like
> materials.  I'm about 1/2 cm away from 8000 lbs of "move it or lose it"
> glory and these bits....just....STINK.

Is your main issue hardness or channel clogging?  How big of a hole?

I'm partial to industrial diamond tipped bits in high speed air drills.
The speed and torque of a good air drill really does help.  Failing that,
if you only have 5mm to go through, drag out a 30k RPM disc cutter and
some really small discs.

One other trick I've used in extreme circumstances: get a spot welder and
clamp it on either side of the frame where you want the hole to go.  Zap
it 5 or 10 times as often as you can without exceeding the duty cycle of
your welder.  This anneals and softens the immediate area enough to make
drilling easier without hurting the rest of the frame.

If you really need help, I've got a 20KJ capacitor bank in northern
California just waiting for a use.  :)

-James

--
James Lockwood
Guy on Summer Vacation (dot-com bombed)
http://www.foonly.com/resume/