I have been, or at least have been attempting to drill 1/16" diameter holes in HDPE to a depth of ~1". I am doing this on a C-Beam XL, with a Makita router. Ideally, I'd like to use a 1/16" drill bit at a low speed. However, the smallest collet that I have is 1/8", and I have not been able to locate a drill bit with a shank of that diameter, only end mills that step down from 1/8" shank to 1/16" diameter cutter. Does anyone have any suggestions regarding availability of a smaller collet, or another method? Thanks in advance.
Mark the spots with a V bit and drill on drill press.. Or you could use 2 flute endmills with 1/8 or 1/4" shank, HDPE cuts like a dream so plunge type endmills with a peck/retract every 1/8 or so would be fine. cheers Gary
Get the endmill, or do as Gary said with a Vbit and drill press. HDPE cuts like butter. The other more expensive option is to buy the RoutER11, and then supplement the collets it came with with additional collets. That is what I just did now that the RoutER11 was in stock. My lovely wife was even kind enough to intercept it and give it to me for Christmas. I even found an 8mm ER11 collet so I can still use my 8mm endmills. That one was a little harder to find.
That's actually exactly what I've been doing. It's more tedious than I would like, so I'm hoping to be able to find a way to use a drill bit.
Too bad Elaire does not make a precision Makita collet smaller than 3mm. You can get a 1/8th to 1/16th collet reducer. It is cheaper than the small extra long endmills.
I agree. I have three of the Elaire collets and they are great. Thanks for the find on the collet reducer. I'll order one and see how it works.
1/8" shank bits are available for tools like Dremel and for drilling PCB's like this: 1/16" drill pcb - Google Search Also, anyone with a lathe can make a 1/8" brass tube with a 1/16" hole in it, just locktite the bit into it.
I work in HDPE almost exclusively; I had issue with drilling using routers, because I couldn't get the rpm's down enough. Now that I've switched to spindles and I can bring the spindle speed way down, it makes a big difference with drilling.
Oh wow, I've been all over the internet looking for something like that! Now I just need to see if I can find some with longer flutes. Thanks! A lathe is definitely on the list of things to get. However, I either need less stuff in my shop...or a bigger shop first.
That's good to know. My plan was to see how it goes by dialing the router all the way down once I figured out the right cutting tool. I may need to upgrade to a spindle at some point.
