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QUESTION:I have an older John Deere skidsteer and need to drill eight 7/16" or
1/2" holes in the bucket. It appears to me that the steel in a bucket
is harder than soft steel so it will take the abuse. Also, I need to
spot the holes on the inside, then somehow drill a small hole that
I can enlarge from outside the bucket. I have had poor experience
before trying to drill holes in steel with what I have in the shop.
What I am wondering is, can I use my acetylene torch with a
small tip, blow a hole thru the steel and then enlarge it with a drill
from the other side or am I going to harden it even further and just
make a mess?
ANSWER: Your buddy wants to locate some holes on the inside of a bucket, blow
a small hole through with the torch, then drill from the outside?
I am afraid that the torch gases will do local spot hardening, causing
normal HSS bits (regardless of what magical coating they have) to fail.
I am sympathetic to the difficulty of drilling such holes with a hand
drill. If you locate the hole with a centerpunch, then *maybe* you
could drill by hand with a series of solid carbide bits. This would
be a lot easier if you only had to apply force to the drill without
worrying about keeping the bit square. I think if I had this problem
(and it is a nasty one) I might focus on a 4-pronged solution
- use solid carbide bits
- use a drill guide (maybe a steel bar with a hole in it, clamped?)
- either rent an electromagnetic drill press or use at minimum a
1/2" Milwaukee Hole Shooter. No small hand drill will work.
- use step drilling, in 1/16" increments
Never saw the original, but if this is a loader bucket or similar,
they're no biggie to drill through unless this is a Really Big Hole.
A method that will work (done all the time in structural) is to use a
torch to make the hole almost to size then grind both sides and use a
bridge or car reamer to finish the hole. If this is actually
high-carbon steel (I wouldn't expect that in the body of a loader
bucket, but hey...) then this won't work.
Drilling an 1/8" hole in this bucket will be a *cakewalk*. Really.
If you have any experience hand drilling in steel you will have no
trouble. Since you specify that you want to finish the holes from the
outside, obviously you're not drilling in the blade of it, but rather
the top or sides. Just put an 1/8" bit in there and rev it up. Those
skid-steer buckets are no thicker than 3/16", normally. Once the 1/8"
hole is there you can enlarge it from the outside easily.
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