Sun Oct 05, 2014 8:35 pm by Altashot
Yes, I've used Bosch and other even cheaper brands, Bosch are good.
I drill at high speed and high pressure. Normally with a tie down strap wrapped around the safe and the drill. I use the ratchet to apply pressure.
The all carbide bits are for use in drill presses only. They do NOT flex at all, they shatter and chip very easily. Just drop a 1/8" bit on a concrete floor and it's in pieces.
Put too much pressure on them and they practically explode.
As for building up heat on the hard plate, with the pressure I put on it, it does get hot, sometimes even red hot.
The problem is that I've gotten some to the point where they started to melt in the hole and seized and twisted off.
You can imagine that drilling a drill bit isn't easy...
I try to keep it reasonably cool enough to prevent that. A combination of drilling and punching seems to weaken the hard plate enough to get through.
I have a threaded drill post rig I hardly ever use. It doesn't tilt though. It too, mounts with rare earth magnets but with enough pressure, they pop off. I used to have to strap the rig down to the safe. Ok, the magnets were not capable of holding 600 lbs, but I wouldn't want them any stronger either, they are dangerous enough as it is. They are strong enough to break a finger or at best give you a nasty blood blister. They also pull tools out of your hands and all the shavings stick to them, which is impossible to completely clean off.
Magnetism is a force that is not felt so it is easy to forget about it and accidents happen quick and with a lot of force. I had my hand pulled to one while I was holding a 1/2" Allen wrench, the back of my hand got all cut up from the sharp shavings that were already stuck to it.
Other things I don't like about it is that it take too long to unscrew to check the depth of the hole, change bit or to clean out the shavings.
You can't shine a flashlight in the hole or punch the hard plate because the rig is in the way. To do this, the rig must be dis-assembled, and re-installing it exactly at the same place is time consuming.
I've used other rigs too, but liking the KISS principle, I stick to my tie down strap whenever possible.
I don't want to discourage you from building your rig but these are my observations and I wanted to raise some points to consider, notably the danger associated with strong magnets.
M.