I have used Walter's alumacut on hole saws and bandsaws when working with aluminum. If I remember correctly others have said they use beeswax for similar results.

I am sure a larger drill bit would work fine if your mill has the torque and speed reduction to power it. Couldn't you just use a morse taper drill bit on the mill with a suitable adaptor? I don't have a mill (yet ) but a silver & deming bit with it's straight 1/2" shank would be more likely to slip in your drill chuck.

 

I would use a annular cutters

 

+1 on the anular cutters. That'll make short work of it

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

Thanks. If I shift to an anular cutter is that the correct RPM's?

 

I'll go against the conventional wisdom and say get yourself a boring head. It may not be as quick and easy, but you won't be spending the cash for the various sized cutter you'll need otherwise. Bore with a regular twist bit undersize and use the boring head to give yourself an accurate final bore size.

 

Are you using lube with your hole saw? Also, you should be running about 400 rpm according to my chart.

 

Also, and a little out of my pay grade, but I wonder if a reamer might work better for you?

 

a jig borer?

 

Wax the hole saw and use a coarse tooth.

 

I use annular cutters all the time in my bridgeport copy milling machine. Since they are solid carbide, they need the work to be clamped REALLY WELL. If it moves, you can shatter and eighty dollar bit. No fun.
I run em a bit slower than recommended, usually in the 200- 400 rpm range- my machine is variable speed. I use a lot of lube- I like Cool Tool II, cause it doesnt stink, but there are lots of cutting oils that will work on aluminum- some people use WD40, even. With aluminum, you could run em a bit faster.
I get mine at the welding supply store, or online, so I have 4 or 5 different brands- they all seem to work.

 

What are you building out of curiosity?

 

Scuba diving:laugh:

Jeff

 

When you need to drill deeper than the depth of the gullets on a hole saw you need to drill chip clearance holes. Drill a couple of 1/4 diameter holes so that the outside of the 1/4" hole is the same place as the outside of the hole saw. This gives the chips a place to get away from the hole saw and the rest of the 1/4 hole drops out with the slug. Withdraw often to clean the stuck chips from the blade.

An annular cutter would be good if you have lots to do. The boring head will be almost as fast, and you should have one anyway.

 

When you need to drill deeper than the depth of the gullets on a hole saw you need to drill chip clearance holes. Drill a couple of 1/4 diameter holes so that the outside of the 1/4" hole is the same place as the outside of the hole saw. .

I did not think of this until it was too late. Between not having the clearance holes and not using lubricant I pretty much messed up the first hole.

Clamping was also an issue since I only have the typical 50 piece clamp kit. I inserted a piece of 1-1/2" square tube all the way through and clamped it to the table. While that worked on the these two holes, I am going to try a different route for the rest.

I am going to try to make a few large/long V blocks using angle. I will weld the 2" angle to a plate with ears that stick out past the sides of the cylinder. The thought is to bolt one V block to the table, place the cylinder in the V block and then use another V block on top. I was going to use all thread between the two V blocks.

I also want to tilt the head a few degrees so the wine bottle is horizontal when it is in the tube.

I do not have a boring head yet. While I got the Bridgeport at an excellent price, it came with no tooling at all and that is nickel and dime'ing me to death

 

Today my boy was telling me he had to drill some holes in 304 stainless. 6 inches deep, and 32-44 mm diameter or thereabouts. Yikes! Used an Iscar sorta mill-drill insert thing and it did fine as long as he reversed and peck-drilled on the CNC machine. Otherwise the long chip would spin around and smack the cabinet with all kind of noise. I think it took about 6 horsepower on the load meter.

 

Those look great. I especially like the octopus and dive helmet. I bet a buddy of mine would love to have something like that for sale in his dive shop. They'd be a great appeal to divers.

 

Thanks. Divers are obviously my primary market with these items. I do all the engraving by hand and do custom work all the time. I was very fortunate and had my work featured on the 2013 www.scubadiving.com holiday gift guide.

The ashtrays are for a dive shop down in Texas. I have made quite a few items for him and am in the process of making another bell for a friend of his. The shop owner does not know it but his girlfriend has asked me to make a humidor out of a tank.

If you want to pass along any of my info, please feel free.

Here is another set of items I think turned out pretty well.

 

I ended up buying a couple of large drill bits and using them to make the holes. Between having a hard time clamping it down and the price for an annular cutter and then adapter to an R8 spindle, I decided not to go that route.
I think it turned out pretty good.

 

Wow you do some truly awesome work!

Dunno about the wine racks they seem to look a bit sparse, maybe more holes for more bottles?

 

Thanks. One reason I did not want to put too many bottles in this is I was concerned with the necks of them hitting each other inside the cylinder. I wanted to avoid a situation where the necks touched each other and locked each one into place. While that may work as a deterrent to drinking, it kind of defeats the purpose.

This was a test piece anyway so we will see what kind of interest and prices it generates online and at arts and craft shows.

 

Very nice work! Thanks for sharing the pics!

 

@ psacustomcreations - beautiful work! That MKV engraving is totally trick.

 

Thanks man. If I read one of your posts correctly you were a Navy Diver. I went to Navy Dive School back in 1989 and was an Army Master Diver when I retired

You might also like these lamps

 

I think for what you are doing with the holes it would be a toss up between a twist bit and an annular cutter. One downside of the annular cutters that wasn't mentioned was the big birds nest chips that they make. You can also run them in a 3/4" collet if need be. You can also keep a look out for a cheap 3/4" r8 endmill holder but you need to grind the end back some so the locking screw is in the right spot.