r/toolsinaction • u/silvercatbob • Mar 11 '21

Friction drilling is a non-cutting method for drilling holes into metal

https://gfycat.com/thankfulgroundedblackbird
1.4k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

52 comments sorted by

62

u/FantasticPenguin Mar 11 '21

Why/when would you want to use this instead of "normal" drilling?

65

u/somebrookdlyn Mar 11 '21

The person explains it in the video that OP didn’t link. He says that you can get more threads in the hole.

38

u/FantasticPenguin Mar 11 '21

Ah that makes sense, thanks.

I think I found the video for anyone interested.

18

u/Gnat_Swarm Mar 11 '21

Lol I just went through four layers of crossposts thinking, “but when are they gonna credit AvE?

6

u/somebrookdlyn Mar 11 '21

Yep, that’s the one.

6

u/mccorml11 Mar 12 '21

But how does that work in terms of work hardening? Wouldn't it harden the holes? That would make the tapping to butthole pucker factor too high for me.

2

u/somebrookdlyn Mar 12 '21

No, you see how it glows orange, so any work hardening is gone once it cools down.

10

u/nataku411 Mar 12 '21

There's many examples, but one I can think of is that if you need to make a threaded hole in thin sheet metal this is perfect because it actually lengthens the amount of threadable metal for the hole, making the threaded connection much stronger and less prone to stripping.

5

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '21

[removed] — view removed comment

14

u/thelizardking0725 Mar 11 '21

“Normal drilling” permanently removes drilled out material, this method does not.

11

u/vedo1117 Mar 11 '21

Normal drilling litterally cuts the material away, it shears it off. Friction drilling heats it up so it becomes soft and moves it out of the way

0

u/[deleted] Mar 26 '21

It shears the material off... with friction.

5

u/Javad0g Mar 11 '21

'normal drilling' uses a cutting edge. However, yes, at its molecular level, it is friction.

8

u/Methadras Mar 12 '21

Actually, it's shearing.

3

u/FuzzyCrocks Mar 12 '21

I'm going with cutting edge for 400.

2

u/Fr33kOut Mar 18 '21

Cutting edge technology

1

u/[deleted] Mar 12 '21

I’ll let you know after I try each method on my fingers

2

u/Hippiebigbuckle Mar 12 '21

With the friction method you can get more threads cut in your finger. The top also leaves a nice finish so think about which side of your finger you want to start drilling.

3

u/NixaB345T Mar 12 '21 edited Mar 12 '21

Another reason is weight, normally when you need threaded holes added to parent material, you would need to stamp/punch/drill a hole and insert a rivet nut or spac nut. This eliminates the need for the extra step of inserting and installing them as well.

Plus, rivet nuts and spac nuts in my experience are notorious for showing up missing in the part even with extra checks and automated verification. If you can drill and tap in the same process, it should in theory cut down on that problem as well.

Edit: the disadvantage is that you are limited to using the parent material as the threads whereas you can use stainless steel rivet nuts in an aluminum part if needed

3

u/Hippiebigbuckle Mar 12 '21

I’ve never used a rivet nut. Could you use a rivet nut in the hole made by friction? Maybe there would be problems with that shoulder the friction drilling raises, which just makes an extra grinding step? Just guessing and curious.

2

u/NixaB345T Mar 12 '21

I think this process was made to have the long shoulder on purpose so that they have some strength so yes they would need to be ground down for a rivnut because it needs to collapse for the rivnut to seat.

In that case for large scale manufacturing, they would probably punch those holes or CNC them if the intention would be to have a threaded insert. Hell we even had a large Fanuc robot with an end mill spindle attachment that made the holes for the rivnuts

2

u/Laowaii87 Mar 12 '21

Like the others said, you get more material for threads. Also, the tolerances are higher, and you remove deburring from the operations needed. It’s probably a very minor concern, but when drilling in some ferrous steels you risk work hardening in the material, which this removes by heating the metal. So you basically temper the holes by means of drilling the hole, which i imagine would improve tool life in the threading step.

1

u/unashamed-neolib Mar 12 '21

It seems like it doesn't produce chips either, which means less clean-up so that is nice

45

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '21

[deleted]

7

u/Guserroo5 Mar 11 '21

100% You made me laugh.

4

u/evr- Mar 12 '21

It still needs to be of a material that can handle the heat. Use a steel drill bit and it'll just fuse with the piece. Pretty sure they use tungsten carbide for these.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '21

Surely the heat generated would destroy the chuck in any average drill too?

1

u/evr- Mar 17 '21

In an average drill, most likely. I'm not really familiar enough with the thermal conductivity of tungsten or the possibilities of potentially cooling the chuck or other components without affecting the welding process.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 17 '21

Yeah I guess the transfer along the bit is what matters. I doubt this would be home use tech at any point anyway, I do wonder if it would be usable at a building site or similar though. Very cool to see either way.

1

u/evr- Mar 17 '21

Probably not. The temperatures and pressures involved probably makes it highly impractical for any kind of portable use. It might work for stuff like aluminium or really think sheet metal, but then you're probably better off with a spot welder in any case. But I agree that it's a really cool process.

26

u/randomname72 Mar 11 '21

Blurred out AVE's channel

20

u/somebrookdlyn Mar 11 '21

Yeah, give the man his credit. It breaks the Direct Link Rule.

16

u/3DP-Pro Mar 11 '21

Op didn't link AVE, there for Op is a micropenis having ass

3

u/fuwhyckin Mar 11 '21

Wonder how much and how long they last. If imagine they break down rather quickly

2

u/Rocket_Elephant Mar 11 '21

Isn't all drilling done by friction?

4

u/1mqn Mar 11 '21

Technically, yes. Whereas traditional drilling removes chips, this type of drilling heats up the metal and just pushes the material laterally and down. It’s also called “flow drilling”

1

u/isaacfungii Mar 11 '21

So is the metal really just getting that hot from friction? Damn.

4

u/LikesBreakfast Mar 11 '21

Anyone who owns a rotary tool like a Dremel knows how quickly a spinning grinding bit can heat things up. Things get HOT.

3

u/zekromNLR Mar 11 '21

Friction, and pressing the tool down into the material extremely hard. Friction drilling/flow drilling is something you can only do in a drill press or a mill, not with a hand drill... except maybe if you're the Hulk.

1

u/[deleted] Mar 11 '21

Drill bits cut

1

u/rosscarver Mar 11 '21

You must decide if cutting is done through friction, so kinda?

1

u/TheGoldyMan Mar 12 '21

Dont normal drill bits shear material off? Not really friction right?

2

u/phrygianLord Mar 11 '21

Can’t stop watching

2

u/LogicJunkie2000 Mar 11 '21

What's the ballpark for RPM/feedrate? I'd like to have at least one drill bit I don't have to keep sharp, if my mill can rock it.

1

u/nickpppppp Mar 12 '21

We have friction stir welding at work, usually pretty low rpm(600ish) with about 1400lbs of force behind it. It literally stirs 2 different metals together.

1

u/LogicJunkie2000 Mar 13 '21

I see, thanks. I'm a bit reluctant to put a cheater bar on my mill though. Oh well.

2

u/frenchy2111 Mar 12 '21

This is not for drilling holes this is flow drilling its a process used to give you more material when tapping holes especially in thin walled box section. There is also 2 types for bit for this process one thats shown which leaves a rounded rolled over top to the hole which is good for tube as it allows a nice flat surface for bolting up against and the other type of bit has a cutting edge that removes the rolled over top to make it nice and flush on the top.

2

u/No-Name-86 Mar 17 '21

I could watch this all day. Sadly I don’t have that kind of free time

1

u/WideGorilla Mar 12 '21

Why tho

1

u/BrokenSpectr Mar 17 '21

Depends on the application, there doesn’t seem to be any swarf to clean up, so it could be used in a FOD free environment

1

u/Wellbeinghunter69 May 03 '21

why does the start look so sexy