Drilling Cassette Teeth

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McGilli
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by McGilli

Occasionally I browse through the forums here every few months for some eye candy, and to get some inspiration for possible future projects. I'm positive I have seen cassettes which have had their teeth custom drilled - 2mm or 3mm holes - in the quest for losing weight. I've searched the forum but never found anything concrete with regards to "How I did that". Looking at an Ultegra 11-28 right now - it looks like 13 of the 28 tooth's teeth are drilled - could all cassettes have all their teeth drilled (if done properly) to lose some weight, and yet avoid any risk to the integrity of the teeth?

fogman
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by fogman

I think any dentist would be able to drill your teeth.
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dereksmalls
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by dereksmalls

I ca't think of a reason why not, you just have to have the patience, a calm hand and maybe a drill press instead of free hand. Donald or Weeracerweenie could probably offer some more input here

Raineman
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by Raineman

If you look closely, the teeth that aren't drilled tend to be the ones with the shifting ramps, thus I would expect the shifting to degrade a little. I can't imagine the weight saving will be that significant, maybe 5g? You would be better off buying a lighter cassette (sram 1190, recon etc.) or using a tighter cassette such as an 11-25

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wheelsONfire
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by wheelsONfire

McGilli wrote:Occasionally I browse through the forums here every few months for some eye candy, and to get some inspiration for possible future projects. I'm positive I have seen cassettes which have had their teeth custom drilled - 2mm or 3mm holes - in the quest for losing weight. I've searched the forum but never found anything concrete with regards to "How I did that". Looking at an Ultegra 11-28 right now - it looks like 13 of the 28 tooth's teeth are drilled - could all cassettes have all their teeth drilled (if done properly) to lose some weight, and yet avoid any risk to the integrity of the teeth?


Don't do that!!
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Marin
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by Marin

Try it.

The monetary investment isn't huge, and, depending on your drill, drilling 186 holes (for an 11 speed 11-25) won't take too long. If you manage a hole every 5 seconds, drilling will take less than 20 minutes.

Remember to add a few minutes to change drills - cassettes are HARD! :D

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elviento
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by elviento

I'd just get a Dura Ace cassette for the amount of work involved... Or drill the DA.

That being said, properly made parts have typically gone through rigorous testing so drilling could add some risk.
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11.4
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by 11.4

I don't even remember people drilling out freewheel teeth back in the days of wholesale drillium. And here we're talking about doing it not even to a Dura Ace or an ultralight KCNC or other cassette but an Ultegra? What other components are you drilling as well? We need photos. This is pretty nutty.

XCProMD
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by XCProMD

The problem is you are going to save almost nothing and we're probably talking about something like a 400HB material.

I would advice a column drill with automatic feed. With HSS drill you will be probably at 0,05 mm/revolution for a 5 mm drill, 10 for 10mm and so on.

McGilli
Posts: 373
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by McGilli

Ha ok!

I guess Dura Ace 12-25 is the way to go :)

This was more just getting some ideas from people since I couldn't find anything on search, have a lot of free time this summer, I'm building a new bike, and I' pretty sure I saw it done on Donald's custom build bike.

But true, if Shimano has already done the work for me, I might just go that route.

Thanks for all the input!

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Leviathan
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by Leviathan

Id say give it a pop. Worse thing that can happen is you end up in a bloody heap by the side of the road, hoping to god theirs enough of your blood type in the emergency room surgery.

But seriously, one of the biggest problems with this site now is that the entire industry has evolved to the point where just buying an off the shelf mass produced DA cassette is the lightest option - the reason why this site is now full of "should I buy the Dogma or the C60 posts", devoid of artistry or insider information, which makes this site now about as much fun as an amish wedding. Come back Felix, all is forgiven. Go for it.

Marin
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by Marin

Get a Red, the DA has issues.

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pdlpsher1
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by pdlpsher1

Does anyone know if the holes on a stock cassette are made by punching, water jet, laser, or drilling? The holes look too clean for being drilled.

Geoff
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by Geoff

@11.4, you don't?! You must be too young! When that was going on, the freewheels (no cassettes yet, either) were super-heavy Maillard 5-speeds. The 'large' cogs (the 21 or 23) were factory-drilled, but you had to drill the others yourself if you wanted to be one of the 'cool kids'. Lots of school shop drill presses were used for that purpose, I can tell you!

I broke factory Regina Extra factory-drilled chains, but never a drilled Maillard...

XCProMD
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by XCProMD

pdlpsher1 wrote:Does anyone know if the holes on a stock cassette are made by punching, water jet, laser, or drilling? The holes look too clean for being drilled.


You can consider it as punching. The cogs are stamped, sometimes is a progressive stamping, sometimes is in just one stroke.

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