How to Drill a Hole in Metal (1/4" Steel)

In this video, I want to show you the basics of drilling big holes through thick steel

I'm right in the middle of a metal fabrication project right now

I'm making these parts. This is for a stair railing project. I may show you that later

This is the material that I'm using to make these lugs that are welded to this threaded end cap

This is 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1- 1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1-1

of these kind of bits I'd probably have to go through I don't know three four

five different drill bits that's putting them in the drill press using them taking

them out putting another one in it's pretty slow and but there is an

excellent alternative and that's what you see here this is called a step bit

and essentially it's a whole month a whole bunch of incrementally larger

drill bits one after the other so they get bigger that's why it's called a step

bit because it it forms these steps now this is this tool is excellent for

drilling sheet metal in fact it's the only way to drill big holes in sheet metal because no matter how you use a regular twist bit in sheet metal it's

going to grab and cause a problem and a big mess usually a step bit works much

more smoothly because it's one little bit bigger bit after another one right

after the other no grabbing no tearing just a nice hole now this particular bit

is exactly the same as the one I have chucked into the drill press and its

maximum size is half an inch so because I'm drilling half inch diameter holes I

don't have to remember to stop the bit because you know the further down it

goes the bigger the hole it creates I just have to run this bit all the way

through because the biggest it gets is half an inch so it works really well now

I'm going to show this to you in a minute but of course before you drill

any holes you've got to mark holes and this is some quarter-inch mild steel

stock that I'm using to make these lugs now I really don't want to work with

little pieces like this at least not for the drilling because it's just it's just

harder to hold you know in this case to the vice would get in the way I mean the bits got to be able to go all the way through I would have to grip this little

piece of metal in the middle of the vice it just it's it's a hassle to work with

pieces this small so what I've done is I've chamfered the corners on my metal

cutting saw then I'm going to mark where I want the hole to be I'm going to

drill the hole when the piece is long and then I'm going to cut it to length that's the procedure so I've got a little pencil line here don't know if

you can see that but a little pencil line that shows me how far from the end

I want the hole to be this is the center of the hole this far from the end now I

also need to center it from side to side and for that I'm going to use

something called a center finding ruler and I'm also going to use this

automatic center punch too but let me grab the center finding ruler and I'll

come back and show you how it's used so this is the center finding ruler and on

one side it's just a regular ruler from 1 inch to 12 inches but in the middle

it's got the center marked and then 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 3 4 5 6 so the center of

anything is marked by equalizing the dimension measurements on each side of

the workpiece so let's come and take a look here you can see there's the center

now this is 2 inch wide stock so look at I have the 1 inch mark here and the 1

inch mark there and that's the center right here so I put my spring-loaded

center punch on it and then I just pump it up and down a few times that shows me

exactly where I need to start drilling but it also helps to guide the bit and

stop it from wandering around the earliest stage of the whole drilling

process so you've got to put this workpiece in the vise so that when the

drill bit goes down it clears the bottom of the vise because it's pretty long here

by the time we get all the way through it so just give it a good squeeze clear off this stuff now these pretty little

curly cues here these are from previous holes that I've drilled and this is what

should be generated by a bit working properly they're fairly they're fairly thick they're not springy at all but they are stiff and this is this is

what the shavings should look like nothing finer than this safety glasses

are a must you never know when these things are going to be flying out all over the place this is just a kind of a semi-ordinary drill press it's not an

industrial strength model or anything like that so you can drill these sorts

of holes with just about any drill press you have as long as you have the right bit and some cutting oil not just regular oil but cutting oil actually has

some sulfur built into it so it's specially meant for cutting threads now

you also don't want the bit to be spinning too quickly that's about the speed you can set drill presses to go fast or slow this is what

the right speed looks like it's not crucial that speed be right on but if

it's too fast you're going to get too much heat if it's too slow you're also

going to get too much heat because you can't make progress through the steel

properly so I'm moving this down and my job now is to find that center point so

there we are it's engaged now I'm applying some pressure a fair amount of

pressure I need a drill press for this operation because I can't press hard

enough with a hand held drill and then the first part of getting through

that's the hardest now I've put oil on before but I want to put on some more

oil now because I want to make sure everything is nice and oily this bit has

drilled dozens and dozens of holes like this and it's still just as sharp and

effective as when it was made so now that I'm through you'll see how much

faster it works because it goes from one step right to the other step and finally all the way through there that's it nice hole effective bit and now I'm going to trim it to

length and I will have the lug I need to continue with this project but same

technique that I use drilling holes in all kinds of metal working projects and

it can work just as well for you too