Saturday Afternoon hellllp! Drilling into Swiss Army blade

[DavZell]

I'm trying to move an implement from a larger Wenger to smaller Victorinox.  I already ground the piece to fit, but I can't drill the pivot hole for the life of me.  No bit I have makes more than a few hundredths of mm into it.  Some just broke.  I went and bought a Milwaukee cobalt bit, but that's not doing much.  It does make a creaking noise the others didn't, but no real progress.  I've tried RPM's from mid 300's down to 150 (the slowest my drill press will go).  I've tried gentle, I've tried hard.  With oil, without oil.  It's probably work hardened by now, I suspect.

Help me!  I wanted to do this today/tomorrow, or at least during the bid snow Monday.  I ordered a carbide bit, but it won't be here till late next week.  None locally that I know of.

Any guidance you can share?  By the way, it's a 1/16 or 1.6mm hole.  Carbide tipped bits (eg masonry) all start larger at Home Depot by me.  They also don't sell cutting oil.  I'm using WD-40.

Thanks!

[King_Gorilla]

I went through exactly the same problem last year. 

I am NO expert, so don't take this as gospel. 

I was eventually successful drilling through knife blades, including victorinox.  I burned through so many high speed steel bits and even some cobalt bits.
Some guys on this site gave me some helpful ideas. 

-use a drill press
-set it as slow as it will go
-instead of WD-40, use a 3-in-one oil, I even used CPL one time and it worked fine
-go to harbor freight and get a pack of glass cutting drill bits AND masonry bits.

Start with the small carbide glass cutting bit.  Go slow and gentle. If you see ANY smoke, back off and add more oil.  Keep going until you get the hole through.  Then change out the bit to the correct size masonry bit.  Once you have a pilot hole, the masonry bit should be able to widen the hole to the size you need. 
I got so tired of spraying oil that I just put a small thimble size cup and filled it with oil.  Then I would back the bit out and dunk it in the oil rather than spray it all over my work space.

[DavZell]

I went through exactly the same problem last year. 

I am NO expert, so don't take this as gospel. 

I was eventually successful drilling through knife blades, including victorinox.  I burned through so many high speed steel bits and even some cobalt bits.
Some guys on this site gave me some helpful ideas. 

-use a drill press
-set it as slow as it will go
-instead of WD-40, use a 3-in-one oil, I even used CPL one time and it worked fine
-go to harbor freight and get a pack of glass cutting drill bits AND masonry bits.

Start with the small carbide glass cutting bit.  Go slow and gentle. If you see ANY smoke, back off and add more oil.  Keep going until you get the hole through.  Then change out the bit to the correct size masonry bit.  Once you have a pilot hole, the masonry bit should be able to widen the hole to the size you need. 
I got so tired of spraying oil that I just put a small thimble size cup and filled it with oil.  Then I would back the bit out and dunk it in the oil rather than spray it all over my work space.

Thanks.  Unfortunately, at 1/16", there was nothing at HF.

[hiraethus]

Have a look at carbide PCB drills. Use high speed and make sure everything is well clamped in place.

[DavZell]

Thanks.  I saw them, but I wasn't sure if they were up to the task.  You said keep the speed up.  Most things I've read I thought said use slower speeds.  Was I mistaken, or do these bits require different handling?

Thanks.

[hiraethus]

The smaller the hole the faster you need to drill - and even more so with carbide - to get a good surface finish (and to a lesser extent maintain tool life).

[King_Gorilla]

Thanks.  Unfortunately, at 1/16", there was nothing at HF.

Sorry, I missed that part.  1/16" is a tiny pivot hole!     is this for a little 58mm SAK?

[DavZell]

Sorry, I missed that part.  1/16" is a tiny pivot hole!     is this for a little 58mm SAK?

Yes.  I'm putting two tools from a Wenger Pocket Tool Chest into a modded Victorinox Minichamp.

[smiller43147]

The PTC is my favorite little SAK.  Post pictures of your finished project.


If you're just enlarging the existing pivot hole, I've read here that you can roll a small piece of emery paper, chuck it up and enlarge the pivot hole that way.

[DavZell]

The PTC is my favorite little SAK.  Post pictures of your finished project.


If you're just enlarging the existing pivot hole, I've read here that you can roll a small piece of emery paper, chuck it up and enlarge the pivot hole that way.

The tool sizes are different between the two, so the entire tang must be ground down and a new pivot hole drilled into the tools moving from the PTC into any 58mm Victorinox.

My bits finally arrived, after delays from the storm.

[DavZell]

The PTC is my favorite little SAK.  Post pictures of your finished project.


If you're just enlarging the existing pivot hole, I've read here that you can roll a small piece of emery paper, chuck it up and enlarge the pivot hole that way.

Here you go... complete project recap.

https://forum.multitool.org/index.php/topic,86603.0.html