Drilling small holes in Die steel

[drk]

Hi everyone,

I needed some guidance with trying something I haven't done before.

I have been asked to help make some punching dies for PCBs. Most punches will be 0.8mm-1.6mm in dia. These will be coming from

http://industrialpunches.com/products/ip1.html


Now the thing is that I have never drilled die steel and maybe some one could help with what feed, rpm and peck settings should I be trying to drill 1mm holes in say 8mm thick die steel plates.

I will be using 1mm standard carbide PCB drills.

Thanks for your help.


Dev

[kalmah]

Mmhhh it's not good idea to use PCB drill. The carbide of PCB drill is designed for abrasive plastics and not for steel. It's too brittle for steel.

Your die, is it already hardened or annhealed ??. If it's hardened, good luck !!! If it's anhealed, it's better.

For die steel, use common drill on cemented carbide. You can use the following cutting parameters:

Vc = 50m/min ( S = 20'000 for diam 0.8, S = 10'000 for diam 1.6mm)
f = 0.001xD
pecking cycle = 0.4xD

Use cutting oil or air blow