Hi,

I need to drill a small hole in a carbon tube. How do I do that without damaging the tube?

thanks

DON"T!lol

Any sharp drill bit with an electric hand drill will work on CF. If you needed to drill hundreds of holes, a carbide bit would probably last longer than the ordinary high speed steel or TiN coated hihgh speed steel. CF is abrasive and wears cutting tools quickly.

Thanks DaveS, it's just one hole so I will keep it simple.

be sure to GO SLOW. you could cause stress concentration and cracking if you try to take it too fast.

Light pressure, med/high speed works best, if you push to hard it will split the back out (splinters really) and looks crud...

Show us what your working on?

_________________
I guess there's worse hobbies than making a bike light? Right?

I always drill a small hole first then, with a sharp file open hole to size i need.
If you use a new file it will do way less damage to the carbon in the inside where you cant see.

If the tube is very thin/fragile you may want to make up a small "doubler" piece and drill through that so the strength remains (like the diamond device that surrounded water bottle bolt holes) as some fibres will be broken by the drilling

You can get a set of abrasive diamond coated needle files from places like HarborFreight super cheap. risk of splintering with those is almost zero.

Another thing you will probably want to do is make a jig for drilling at an angle, asuming you're drilling for cables or the like. What exactly are you doing this for?

You can use a small block of wood, drill a pilot hole at an angle in the block of wood, then secure that to the frame and drill a pilot hole into the frame through the block. Then re-drill the block at your desired size and repeat against the frame.

Overall, I'm not so sure I'd recommend drilling a carbon frame unless you really know what you're doing.

Don't be scared. Take your time. Go for it!