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Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:40 pm
by Zak
Hi,

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

thanks

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:47 pm
by boolinwall
DON"T!lol

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 9:47 pm
by Weenie

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Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Wed Mar 13, 2013 11:16 pm
by DaveS
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.

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 8:34 am
by Zak
Thanks DaveS, it's just one hole so I will keep it simple.

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 9:12 am
by davidalone
be sure to GO SLOW. you could cause stress concentration and cracking if you try to take it too fast.

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 11:13 am
by weeracerweenie
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? :thumbup:

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:29 pm
by Vjl
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.

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:49 pm
by latman
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

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Thu Mar 14, 2013 2:50 pm
by thisisatest
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.

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:20 pm
by sigismond0
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.

Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 2:20 pm
by Weenie

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Re: Drill hole in carbon tube. How?

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2013 3:13 pm
by natiedean24
Don't be scared. Take your time. Go for it!