Atomizer tank hole drilling??

[the_vape_nerd]

Ok, so I have a few RDAs and i need to drill some holes.

How are you guys doing this?

Basically what I've tried thus far is mounting the thing on an old non-working Ego battery and then trying to use my drill to make a hole. All it is doing though is skipping around and not going into the hole. It's marring up the finish on the atty housing.

I realize a drill press would be optimal but I don't own one.

Are there some tips or something I'm missing?

 

[Ding]

Use a center punch where you want the hole.Start with a smaller drill bit and then finish with the size you want.This,the center punch, creates a place/dimple for the drill bit to start and will eliminated the skipping.

 

[the_vape_nerd]

Use a center punch where you want the hole.Start with a smaller drill bit and then finish with the size you want.This,the center punch, creates a place/dimple for the drill bit to start and will eliminated the skipping.

Well theres already a hole there, I put the drill bit on there and skipping all over.

 

[Oomee]

Hold the work in a vice .
Use a low torque and pretty slow speed .
Use some cutting fluid if needed .

The vice would be the key thing if you were to pick one !
Note you can get vices that have rubber guards for the jaws .

 

[Ryedan]

I assume you are using a power hand held drill, correct?

If the answer is yes, first let me say I have only ever done this with a drill press. You need to get good, firm control of the cap so you can put pressure on it with the drill. I would try the following. Get two small clamps and a piece of wood, 3/4" plywood sounds good to me. buy a metal (as opposed to wood) bolt, nut and two washers, sized such that you can put the screw through the drip tip hole in the cap and the washer makes good contact with the cap.

Drill a clearance hole for the screw in the wood. Put the cap on this hole and put the screw and a washer though it and the wood. You need to have the screw long enough so you can then put a washer under the wood and screw on the nut. Tighten with a couple of wrenches, tight enough so you can not move the cap when you push on it fairly hard. Clamp the wood onto a table with the cap hanging over the side of the table facing you as you stand there with the hole in the cap pointing right at you. The table must not move easily when pushed on, so put it against a wall or have someone sit on it.

Now comes the fun part. Take the drill and make yourself stable in front of the cap. I would try to hold the drill with my hand on my hip or leg for support. Fire up the drill and then firmly make contact with the hole. If the drill jumps around, you are not pressing hard enough. Try not to put so much pressure on it so it starts cutting right away. Increase pressure until it starts making chips, that means it's drilling. Don't put any more pressure on it than that. Don't go very far before pulling the drill back a bit and then starting over again.

Run the drill at medium speed. Some type of coolant/lube helps. Vegetable oil is good. When the drill breaks through the other side it can grab and break the drill bit if you are pushing on it. Push with your body (hip or leg) and hold the drill back with your hand so that you have control of the drill in both directions.

I hope this makes some kind of sense! Best of luck with it

 

[jrs99]

I saw mention somewhere about just using the space between the wood slats on a picnic table to hold the atty still.
I'm getting ready to drill out my Igo-L, just gotta find a bit and a picnic table >.<

 

[D. Waterhouse]

Chuck the bit as short as you can and find/make a dowel that fits snug inside the cap and clamp the dowel down to the table. I ended up taking a pair of vice grips to a 1/16" bit and breaking it in half to get it to stick out about 1/4" out of the chuck to eliminate wobble.

 

[Ding]

Chuck the bit as short as you can and find/make a dowel that fits snug inside the cap and clamp the dowel down to the table. I ended up taking a pair of vice grips to a 1/16" bit and breaking it in half to get it to stick out about 1/4" out of the chuck to eliminate wobble.

this,especially the bit chucked as short as it will go.I was gonna reply with this very statement yesterday.I am not privy to the material they are,be it if they are either metal or aluminum.If you don't want to break a drill bit there are tools called "center drill countersink bits" which would do the job.The cutting speed for mild steel is ~80-100 FMP. To figure how many RPM's to turn your drill, simply multiply the cutting speed x 4 then divide by the diameter of the drill. So for a 1/4" hole in mild steel, 80 x 4 /.250 = 1280 RPM. Small drills need lots of RPM's or they end up getting broken or damaged from too much feed pressure.Cutting speed for aluminum is ~ 300-700 FPM.So D waterhouse is correct in putting a piece of wood/dowel into the piece and clamping it down.