Drilling aluminium

[Nightjar]

Walking on water looks much more impressive :-)

[Bill]

In message , Bill Wright writes

I am the OP. Son has a decent Bosch battery drill, so that's good.

But..... I had it all wrong, I'm afraid.

I saw the job yesterday. The problem is not with drilling sheet ali, it's with adding reinforcing struts to the ali frames he has already made out of 1" square ali tube. The struts are also 1" square tube, one being 5metres long, another 3metres.

There are 3 big triangular frames, and the struts are needed because they don't seem rigid enough. The frame joints are some sort of plastic inserts into the ends of the tubes. The struts will be bolted to the top of the frame using studding, which I assume will also hold the mesh to cover each big triangle.

So the problem is getting 10mm holes through two inch square ali tubes.

My smallest step drill goes up to 12mm, so we don't want to plough through the lot in one go, but it has to be fairly precise.

I'm suggesting pilot holes, then the step drill from each sides of the tube. He is worried that this will make the job long and tedious working, as he has to, alone.

[T i m]

Understood.

Yeahbut that wasn't the question Bill. The question was have *you* found that *your* battery drill has sufficient torque for everything

*you* have ever used it for?

Ok.

Ok, thanks for defining it to such (smaller) drills. That's why I was saying I always try to go for something with a 1/2" capacity chuck and so far, every drill I've bought has been to use that capacity and more (like with step drills).

Agreed.

Check. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[Thomas Prufer]

Sounds good...

Remedy his worries by "helping", i.e. drinking beer and watching, and possibly by repeatedly telling him what he's doing wrong.

Thomas Prufer

[T i m]

Hehe.

It's funny, many people (inc daughter and I and as you say) quite like working with someone, sometimes for the company and sometimes just for the extra pair of hands / Gopher.

OTOH, there are jobs that I can easily do single handed and where I prefer to concentrate, like when measuring out smaller stuff (where you don't need extra hands on the ends of a tape) or metal-turning etc.

Yesterday I 'helped' my mate change all 4 brake cylinders and shoes on the old Landrover he's going to sell and most of my help was just keeping him supplied with the right tools at the right time and protecting the tools that were out when he went to get others. I also provided the odd tool and penetrating fluid to help make the job easier and keep it going forward.

In return I was given lunch and plenty of hot / cold drinks ... had some chat / laughs and hopefully got the job done quicker / better ('two heads' ... etc).

Some jobs really do need two pairs of hands, like when the Mrs and I were bolting the body onto the kitcar chassis. It was raining ... so I was inside dropping the bolts though the holes and she was outside / underneath, putting the nuts and washers on and doing them up. ;-)

It's really nice when you are working with someone who can think ahead ... or works out quickly there is 'a plan' or procedure that seems to make to job quicker / easier and without you having to ask / prompt all the time.

"Can you get me a 10mm open ender" is only any good if they know what a '10mm open ender is' and where they are likely to find it (or can work out where they are likely to be by themselves (out, in / on the vehicle, under you / their foot or in the workshop)). By the time you have explained either it's often quicker to get it yourself ... and if you are working with the Mrs, risk a row ... (because it wasn't 'obvious' the 'red toolbox on the left' half open draw contained loads of spanners). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[tabbypurr]

I've seen plenty of things worse than an underpowered tool fwliw

Drilling lots of 12mm holes isn't going to be quick, but the step drill has the huge advantage of a geometry usable on aluminium. If he opts instead f or a standard drill bit & doesn't mod it it'll be a curse perfecting experi ence. Also a step drill will avoid a great number of bit changes.

NT

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Do remember you'll get some 'wander' when enlarging holes by any such means which might matter with lining up the fixings between two parts.

[GB]

I assume the point of using 10mm holes is to allow for this. After all, you couldn't possible really need 10mm bolts to hold a bit of ali tube together.

Umm, could you?

I thought 10mm holes and drop M6 bolts in, which gives 4mm play. After all, it's only got to take the weight of a toddler.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Think if I were fixing ally sheet to ally tube, I'd use pop rivets. Not mess around with nuts and bolts.

[GB]

We've moved on from joining sheet to tubes. The OP's son is joining two

1" square ally tubes together. It all looks like over-engineering to me.

[Bill]

In message , GB writes

What it looks like to me is a make it up as you go along job.

What he has made is more flexible than he hoped, hence the reinforcing struts. Hopefully the mesh may, if it's the right type, help stabilise it all.

His problem, and why I probably won't sit there and advise, is that his work is international and he is away most of most weekdays. At weekends he is plagued by phone calls and has often to drop everything and video conference from his office in the house.

He tells me he got 3 of the junctions bolted together, thanks to advice here and my drills, at the weekend.

Oh and an apology for the birds: It was two herons that ate the fish. The crane was a 4 foot high ceramic masterpiece that he found in one of the old sheds and which he put by the pond to scare the herons. They just knocked it over and broke it.

[GB]

We used to pass a pond next to the road. Next to the pond was a sign saying 'No fishing', and on the sign a heron used to sit, eyeing the fish.

[Bill Wright]

Not possible to give a sensible answer because I choose the drill for the job. At the top end is a big ass mains drill and a genny.

The first battery drill I had wouldn't drill a 1/4" hole in softwood!

Bill

[T i m]

So the answer could be 'yes', assuming you might treat your cordless as being equally capable as your corded for 'most stuff' (like I do)? ;-)

That wouldn't come under the classification of a cordless drill then I guess. ;-)

I think mine was the DeWalt and that was pretty good (even then).

I still have and do use mains drills and will often use them as my first choice for some tasks (like big SDS work) [1] or when going lots of de-rusting where revs might be a good thing, along with duration.

For most general drilling though (inc percussion stuff) I'll pick up the cordless.

However, they do need a bit of discipline in that you have to ensure you put them away with all batteries fully charged (or at least one given they charge pretty quickly) or it's no use when you want to use it for something quickly (which seems to be the case with many of my mates and their cr*p cordless drills). ;-(

Cheers, T i m

[1] I know they now do some very credible cordless SDS drills but I don't have one (well I do, a mate gave me a Makita that needs a new battery / charger).

[Dave Liquorice]

Does he get paid for *all* the work hours he does? If not he needs to consider his work/life balance and tell work to f*ck off.

No point in having oodles of cash in the bank if you don't have a chance to spend it. Even if it's only on a decent drill and set of bits, but more to the point he's not spending "quality time" with his toddler and rest of the family.