drill bits

[Omega]

any one have any ideas on the best kind of drill bits to go through 440ss mine arent touching it. thx bill

[Bill Vining]

Try a solid carbide bit. They should be run at a much higher speed when drilling hardened steel with lots o cutting fluid.

[Ray Rogers]

Like CigarMan said, a carbide bit is what you need. There are several types of carbide drills. Spade drills are cheaper but they aren't going to work well if you are trying to drill a small hole through a relatively thick piece of steel. The best drills I have found are the Hi-Roc drills from MSC. They'll drill most anything and the leave accurate sized holes with a clean finish.

Omega, we could give you much better answers if you would provide a little more information with your questions. We are having to assume that you are talking about hardened 440C for instance. The size of the hole and the thickness of the steel would have helped to narrow down the possibilities. Things that don't seem like they should matter can often affect an answer. For instance, in this case, knowing what size hole you want to drill might be important because spade drills come in Imperial and Metric sizes (I think that's right) but are not easy to find in numbered and lettered sizes. In short, you can't have too much information .....