LK&T
Member
Drilled out my first acrylic blanks yesterday and quickly found out you can generate enough heat to melt those suckers. I noticed it when the "feel" of the drill changed and the odor picked up a notch. BTW, the smell is atrocious. When I pulled the drill the chips were noticeably..... limp. No permanent damage done, and that blank is still perfectly useable.
When I drill on the lathe I pull the drill and clear chips often as a matter of practice. You know, like you're supposed to. Heat buildup when drilling wood has never been an issue for me. After the learning curve with the first blank I started pulling the drill often(er) and cooling it with the shop vac until it was about cool to the touch. This seemed to work fine. I even did a couple with a 6.5mm drill then went back and reamed with 7mm for the tube size, being careful all the time about heat buildup. Really couldn't tell a difference in fit, though. If I could I'd run the lathe slower, but 500 rpm is the minimum on my lathe.
So, questions! What are the tried and true tips and techniques for drilling resin/acrylic/plastic/whatever else blanks. Stopping and taking thirty seconds to cool the drill every time I pull it is a pain in the keister. I mean, that's an extra four or five minutes per blank. Ain't nobody got that kinda' time!
When I drill on the lathe I pull the drill and clear chips often as a matter of practice. You know, like you're supposed to. Heat buildup when drilling wood has never been an issue for me. After the learning curve with the first blank I started pulling the drill often(er) and cooling it with the shop vac until it was about cool to the touch. This seemed to work fine. I even did a couple with a 6.5mm drill then went back and reamed with 7mm for the tube size, being careful all the time about heat buildup. Really couldn't tell a difference in fit, though. If I could I'd run the lathe slower, but 500 rpm is the minimum on my lathe.
So, questions! What are the tried and true tips and techniques for drilling resin/acrylic/plastic/whatever else blanks. Stopping and taking thirty seconds to cool the drill every time I pull it is a pain in the keister. I mean, that's an extra four or five minutes per blank. Ain't nobody got that kinda' time!