how do you drill a hole in leaf spring

My question is how do you drill a hole in a leaf spring ,

 

I think the spring shops punch them. I've never had much luck trying to drill through a spring during my attempts.

 

why would you want to put a hole in a leaf spring?

 

Just use a quality HSS bit and a little oil, don't spin the bit too quickly.

Dave

 

P.S., don't forget to debur with a C/S to help prevent cracks.

Dave

 

Use a die grinder with a carbide ball bit. I used it make the recess for a spring clamp with the locating dimple.
If you need to drill through a stack of leafs I'd invest in a solid carbide drill bit. As mentioned, go slow and use cutting fluid.

 

very carefully.

 

In a drill press ONLY. It's no big deal.

 

Yep,drill press using low speed,a good sharp bit and good drilling/tapping oil and it will cut right through. I've done this many times and firm pressure and low bit speed are key.

chicken

 

I use quater elliptic springs on my T buckets and I just use an end mill of what ever size i want it to be at about 640 rpms and cuts like butter also cobalt drills (the split point kind) do almost as good. And yes you want to deburr after.

 

Drill press and a cheap masonry drill with the brazed on carbide, might need to touch it up a little on a green wheel. Use cutting oil and don't push it to hard, you can get it hot enough to melt the braze. If you know someone who has a Cole Drill you could drill it with a good HSS drill.

 

I had to put some holes in my bumper brackets,which are spring steel, ended up using a hot wrench (torch) to do the job.

 

All of the key ingredients in one tidy post. +++++++++

Frank

 

I used a 'masonry' drill bit slow speed and plenty of oil, worked ok for me.



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I recommend Dormer or Hertel drills. They'll go through with a slow speed and plenty of cutting oil no problem.

 

Thanks Its just the bottom leafs The holes just dont line up with the plates .I know there tempered and I also know you dont want to use heat ,Im taking a break from the 29 and fixing another mistake on the 32 pickup ,

 

Whoever said to use a plasma cutter should be slapped...HARD...

I wish everyone had some basic machinist training to know just how important speeds and feeds are, not to mention cutting angles, lubricants and proper safety...it's good to see guys giving great advice, and even better to see people heeding that advice...

 

Go to Lowes . In the tool department you can by a colbalt drill. Works great!
Don

 

These drill bits will do it www.baddogtools.com

http://www.baddogtools.com/cat.php?id=2

 

I've drilled a hole thru a 7 leaf spring and it wasn't hard to do. I have a drill press and I used a cobalt drill bit. Slow speed and lots of oil, it took me about a hour to do both leafs.

 

Sloooow RPM----100 or so.

 

Amen.

Drills cut only on the cutting edges, not on the web or the sides. Learn to sharpen a drill properly by hand. Practice. Don't heat it up to the point where it changes colour, better to not quench it when sharpening if you can. Use a centre drill to locate the hole, drill a pilot hole for larger sizes. Deburr with a countersink.

Speeds: General rule of thumb, four times the cutting speed of the material, divided by the diameter of the drill= drill press speed. Use 90 sfm cutting speed for steel, 200 sfm for aluminum. Tougher steels- divide by two, carbide tooling- multiply by 2-4. This'll get you in the ballpark.

Edit: Coolant is a must. Water-soluble coolant/ cutting oil mixed about 20:1 is best, light oil is ok too. Keep some in a squirt bottle by the drill press, use liberally.

 

as per what everyone else is saying-drill press/cutting fluid etc.either an end mill or drill bit.if you are after a 1/2" hole i'd start smaller-say 1/4-3/8 first so the hole doesn't "walk" on you.

 

Thanks my drill press is already set at the lowest setting ,I was gonna heat it up first ,But I heard that would take the temper out of the spring and drilling it with a drill I didnt think would work ,But like always You guys would know ,

 

I'm going to say what everybody else has, but throw in a twist! Then everyone else can tell me it doesn't work!!! Slow speed on the drill press, good quality drill, Instead of cutting/cooling oil? White glue! Yes, god old Elmer's white glue! A good buddy of mine hipped me to this about 15 years ago. He was a hot rodder emeritus, racer, and grew up in his family's heavy truck repair business. I usually took evrything that Larry said at face value and never questioned it, but this kinda made me say; "Huh?" Then he proved it! It's the only way I have done it since. The other cool thing about this, is the quality of the drill bit doesn't seem to matter as much as it would with regular cutting oil. Try it and tell me I'm wrong! I've done it lots, by the way...

 

I went thru a bunch o' bits doin this for my bike front end. The bits started out good but then pooped out about 3/4 thru. guess they heated up and hardened the alreday hardened steel.

Spin

 

cant agree more it seems that because you can now buy tools at afordable prices thatplasma has become todays oxy equivelent unfortunatly educated knoledge seems to be in short supply . thank god for the hamb

 

dont heat!!!!!!

 

Thats why Im not heating ,Ive already drilled my spindles cost 30 dollars in bits .Heres the real kick in the pants ,Needed drop spindles anyway .Anyway back to the leafs ,Thanks Its what I thought