Tool Tip of the day

Tool Tip of the day

BrockGrimes

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ON THE HUNT AGAIN
Got cheapy wood drill bits or just cheapy drill bits in general.
Need a hole in that piece of steel.
Fear not.
Take your torch and heat up the drill bit till it's glowing red, then
quinch it in that used motor oil you have sitting around.

WARNING:
Do this outside as the red hot drill bit will sometimes ignite the oil!

What this will do is add carbon to the bit making it harder and you can drill that steel.
I took a dollar store wood bit and did the above process and drilled a hole in a leaf spring.
You can heat and repeat to make it harder, but with hardness comes a price it will become brittle
at some point. But knowing what I know now, I'll only buy cheap bits.

Reading old popular mechanics really pays off. :chug:
The original article:
http://countryplans.com/vintage_farm//machineshop/hardeningsteelMIJun51.pdf
They use a slightly different method, but hey what ever works right.
 
Last edited:
This will only harden the surfice so you will have to reharden it every time you resharpen the bit.
 
Umm yea I did that in High school with a chisel I made in shop class. It tempers the end to make it hard. Its called oil-quenching. I don't really have an opinion about using the process on drill bits, I guess.
 

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