[BT1]

Alluminum Bronze: AB2

Made quite a few bushes out of this material in the last year and geez it is not bad boring wise, but drilling and reaming still drive me nutz.

Has anybody had similar issues that may have overcome this nightmare.

Drilling wise i have been grinding drills just slightly off-set so they won't grab. Still iffy!

Reaming wise is an absolute hell mission, talking small reamers that is, under 1/2 inch.

Cheers, BT.

[BT1]

I guess there aren't to many of us **** here involved in aerospace. Surely one of you buggers have come across this material and found similar issues.

BT

[HuFlungDung]

You bet, BT. It is really quite awful stuff to drill with conventional twist drills. Perhaps a spade drill would serve better, because there would be far less wall contact, and you could even relieve the outside lands of the spade if you wanted to reduce wall contact even further.

Reaming, well, it better be a perfect carbide reamer.

[Rob D]

For Drilling try grinding a small flat on the lip of the drill.

Rob D

[BT1]

Thanks for the suggestions guys.

Trouble i face also is with the power that be, he is not one to let you experiment alot in order to get the job done, he just expects it done. Can't possibly see him purchasing carbide reamers.

Tooling wise i am going to have to purchase this myself in order to make life a little easier for me. I am not looking at a huge expense. So:-

* Drilling Wise:

HU, i will definitely try spade drills, good suggestion! Possibly masonry might be another idea?!?!

Rob, interesting, will try this.

Coming back to carbide reamers, geez i may have to purchase these myself. I am only looking at 1/2 inch and under, and we only deal with inch sizes so, mmm might have to.

I'll let you know how i go!

Cheers, BT.