20 Feb
2002
20 Feb
'02
11:50 a.m.
On Thu, 21 Feb 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
If you get a really cheap Torx bit, you can often
soften the metal by
heating it to red heat (ish) and cooling it slowly. Decent tool steel
will not soften when you do this. However, a carbide or diamond drill
would probably do it.
Huh??? *Any* steel can be annealed. Granted, though, annealing
really high-grade alloyed steel is a very relative thing. Also,
other-metal alloys -- steel-tungsten, manganese alloys or whatever --
may need a completely different annealing process.
Since these bits tend to have a 1/4" hexagonal
body, I'd clamp it in the
3 jaw chuck of a lathe, put the drill on the tailstock, and slowly feed
it in. Should be (easily) accurate enough.
I just put my torx driver in a mixing-bowl of water, eye-balled center
(since I don't have a centerpunch harder than a Mac Tools Torx driver)
and went to town with the diamond ball. It was accurate enough.
For you non-tool-freaks, that's a 1.75mm medium-coarse diamond-in-
nickel-matrix ball on a tapered 1/8" stub bit, driven by a
Foredom Flex-Shaft tool. The mixing bowl of water compensates for my
lack of a coolant feed. It works. My use of her cooking utensils does
sort of irritate root^H^H^H^H Grace....
Tony, did anyone ever explain Swiss-Watch Syndrome to you? ;^)
Doc