The F1M Forums

As many of you may know I have restarted working on my P34 Mega Build ( https://www.f1m.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=29&t=11855 ) At the moment I'm preparing the parts from 16 eJan EJP828 detail parts sets for installation on my DFV engines This requires drilling of 26 .020in. holes in the parts for each set of parts. I'm progressing nicely but have broken one drill bit already rendering one part unusable. As a professional fabricator in motorsports for 35 plus years I figured there must be something I could do to make drilling these parts easier. When drilling aluminum we always use some type of a lubricant on the drill bit to prevent loading up of material on the bit. I noticed this was happening quite frequently on the drill bit even though I'm only using a pin vise and not a drill motor of any type. I figured that drilling with a pin vise would be slow enough not to load the bit up but was wrong. Not wanting to use any type of oil on the bit for fear that it might make painting troublesome I tried using bar soap. We use bar soap on aluminum and it works well when you are trying to avoid contaminating the material before welding. The bar soap works like magic on the white metal making drilling much faster and trouble free. I don't even open the bar soap up. I just plunge the drill bit through the wrapper and into the bar a couple of times and drill. Repeat frequently and this seems a good answer to prevent braking drill bits and making them last longer. Good luck!!!

An unusual tip, but thanks for that, I'll definitely test it

steinietrabi wrote:An unusual tip, but thanks for that, I'll definitely test it

+1

Awesome tip. I look forward to trying it out. Thanks!

Thanks a lot for a very helpful tip.

I am about to start my first MFH kit, the Lotus 56B from the '71 Dutch GP. You can guess my name from the driver of that car.
I look forward to using that tip.

I'll give that a go! +1

Never thought of using soap for that but a great idea. One of my other hobbies is wood working. I have been using soap(and have an absolutely ugly bar to show for it) for wood screws for as long as I can remember. Never ever had any contamination with wood and wood finishes. Thanks for the reminder!

Nice to see resurrection of old(ish) threads specially with good useful info. Thanks for the tip

I guess no more showers so I can use the soap!