That's a lot of holes. Congrats on getting that far along. It will be a challenge to get that looking precise in that condition. You could bead-blast it but it will not have the brushed surface anymore unless you block-sand it, and you'll have to have it re-anodized, painted, or powder-coated.
I think AVWERK has made an excellent suggestion (and my compliments for that nice plate drilled by hand!) You might consider having a new plate made on a laser-cutting machine. Obviously, anodize it after cutting if you want the black anodizing to cover the cut surface of the holes. IMO, having the bare aluminum showing is not as attractive and professional looking as fully coated.
If you are committed to doing this yourself, you may wish to use a smaller diameter pilot drill for every hole before your final diameter cut. Make sure your aluminum plate is a harder material, since soft material leaves more metal piled up around the holes, and that many holes severely weakens the plate strength.
I think AVWERK has made an excellent suggestion (and my compliments for that nice plate drilled by hand!) You might consider having a new plate made on a laser-cutting machine. Obviously, anodize it after cutting if you want the black anodizing to cover the cut surface of the holes. IMO, having the bare aluminum showing is not as attractive and professional looking as fully coated.
If you are committed to doing this yourself, you may wish to use a smaller diameter pilot drill for every hole before your final diameter cut. Make sure your aluminum plate is a harder material, since soft material leaves more metal piled up around the holes, and that many holes severely weakens the plate strength.
If you can find one, get a Titanium Diboride coated Tungsten carbide countersink, as this coating has a very low affinity for aluminium which reduces build-up on the cutting edge. Use at moderate speed in a drill press with a depth stop and flood the workpiece with lubricant - any cutting operation in soft aluminium will usually lead to problems if attempted dry.
I have the feeling that, even though the work was done quite nicely, I bungled on the important details:
Dry drill with some non-specialized, ordinary, probably a bit dull, metal drill. But it’s not FUBAR, and I don’t give up yet even if it makes me feel a bit like a drill-bit bitten in the plate 😇…
(Starting over or having it done CNC is prohibited by dried out budget)
Dry drill with some non-specialized, ordinary, probably a bit dull, metal drill. But it’s not FUBAR, and I don’t give up yet even if it makes me feel a bit like a drill-bit bitten in the plate 😇…
(Starting over or having it done CNC is prohibited by dried out budget)
I have sometimes used a scalpel or an X-Acto knife to delicately remove small burrs. Once those are gone, you can use, as earlier suggested, a sharp countersink in a pin vise to gently bevel the edges just a little.
If you have a drill press you can set the depth so the countersink just kisses the top of the hole and goes no further, but you will need to re-set for every different hole size.
If you have a drill press you can set the depth so the countersink just kisses the top of the hole and goes no further, but you will need to re-set for every different hole size.
I'll second Tom's advice. Those bits are called ''Querlochsenker'' in Germany.
Hello,
Before thinking about how to deburr holes, you must ensure that the burr is as small as possible.
For this, you need, on the one hand, new drill bits that cut well, drill bits adapted to the material you are drilling (a drill bit for steel is different from a drill bit for aluminum and different again from a drill bit for copper blade) the helix and the cutting angles are different.
The last tip is to work the last bit on a small amount of material.
Let me explain.
If you want to make a hole of 10mm in diameter, you make a first drilling of 3 or 4mm to be precise on the position of the hole, you make a second drilling with a 9.5mm drill bit. This makes a fairly large burr, and you make a final drilling with a new suitable 10mm drill bit. The previous burr will be eliminated and a very small burr will arise from this last drilling. You can remove this last burr by hand with a deburring cutter.
Before thinking about how to deburr holes, you must ensure that the burr is as small as possible.
For this, you need, on the one hand, new drill bits that cut well, drill bits adapted to the material you are drilling (a drill bit for steel is different from a drill bit for aluminum and different again from a drill bit for copper blade) the helix and the cutting angles are different.
The last tip is to work the last bit on a small amount of material.
Let me explain.
If you want to make a hole of 10mm in diameter, you make a first drilling of 3 or 4mm to be precise on the position of the hole, you make a second drilling with a 9.5mm drill bit. This makes a fairly large burr, and you make a final drilling with a new suitable 10mm drill bit. The previous burr will be eliminated and a very small burr will arise from this last drilling. You can remove this last burr by hand with a deburring cutter.
A sturdy drill press is a must for this to work out alright. Do not try this with a hand drill.
A lot of great ideas have been presented here. To be brief in my machine shop class I learned to use synthetic sanding/scouring pads. Start with a course grit (often green) and wet sand with cutting oil or water to knock the bigger features down and then move to finer grits. As others have said, the ultimate solution is to have something laser cut or lithographically etched.
As to me now, I am lazy. I would use a random orbit sander and wet sand with a course and progressively finer grits.
As to me now, I am lazy. I would use a random orbit sander and wet sand with a course and progressively finer grits.
This comes pretty close to how I did it (except for the correct and sharp drill bit) .
I printed the grille in the correct scale,
sticked it onto the plate and center-punched those holes,
predrilled all of them with a 2 mm, so the smallest diameter in the center-row got finished right away
from there I finished the next 2 rows (2.5 mm and 3 mm) and re-predrilled the remainiing sizes with either 3 mm or 3.5 mm, don't recall
I then finished the 3.5, 4, 5 and 5.5 mm holes without intersteps.
The more I think how it went, the more I'm convinced it's mainly a dull countersink...
I'll try the Querlochsenker first, plus a hand-tool and maybe a countersink with 5 blades (flutes), said to be efficient on soft metals…
Patience will tell!
I printed the grille in the correct scale,
sticked it onto the plate and center-punched those holes,
predrilled all of them with a 2 mm, so the smallest diameter in the center-row got finished right away
from there I finished the next 2 rows (2.5 mm and 3 mm) and re-predrilled the remainiing sizes with either 3 mm or 3.5 mm, don't recall
I then finished the 3.5, 4, 5 and 5.5 mm holes without intersteps.
The more I think how it went, the more I'm convinced it's mainly a dull countersink...
I'll try the Querlochsenker first, plus a hand-tool and maybe a countersink with 5 blades (flutes), said to be efficient on soft metals…
Patience will tell!
I think I have a new hobby…
(From the website: „As many engineers appreciate, the cost of hand deburring can be greater than the cost of the manufactured part.“)
on the other hand, @Mark Johnson ‘s advice to make the tool from wood is the one costing the least money and I’m sure it is working as good as I imagine it is a fascinating old school technique—haven’t looked it up in detail yet but glimpsed at the Janka scale and found „snake wood“ 😎 …
(((and I once again wonder where the hell did he gather so much knowledge?)))
(From the website: „As many engineers appreciate, the cost of hand deburring can be greater than the cost of the manufactured part.“)
on the other hand, @Mark Johnson ‘s advice to make the tool from wood is the one costing the least money and I’m sure it is working as good as I imagine it is a fascinating old school technique—haven’t looked it up in detail yet but glimpsed at the Janka scale and found „snake wood“ 😎 …
(((and I once again wonder where the hell did he gather so much knowledge?)))
A 10-15 dollar swivel deburring tool is sitting at your local hardware store (or amazon dist ctr) and would make fairly quick work of it. Hell, a slightly larger, sharp drill bit hand spun over each hole would work fine. Sanding, as pointed out would work as well. The bright exposed aluminum hole edges would drive me nuts, so I'd be painting it anyway for a more finished look.
The ones above are great, and you can also get a bit that’s made for deburring holes of various sizes, which will fit in the same handle and make repetitive hole cleaning much easier…
“Noga” makes a lot of great inserts for deburring tools if you’re looking for something out of the ordinary…
“Noga” makes a lot of great inserts for deburring tools if you’re looking for something out of the ordinary…
