Old timer at the shop told me to quit peck drilling stainless

I was doing these 1/4 inch holes in 304 stainless with a peck cycle like I always did. He walked over and said just let the chip break continuous and use more coolant pressure. Changed my feed from 3 IPM to 8 IPM and the cycle time on that part dropped from 6 minutes to 2. Anyone else had an old school trick that made you look dumb?

2 comments

2 Comments

juliahall22h ago

Did you ever have one of those moments where you realize you've been doing something the hard way for years and the fix was right in front of you? I had a similar thing happen with tapping in aluminum. Old timer watched me struggle with a tap that kept breaking and he just said "quit using cutting oil, use WD-40." I thought he was messing with me but it worked perfect every time after that. Makes me wonder how much time I wasted over the years just because nobody told me the simple trick.

hugo_nelson16h ago

Whoa that's wild with the WD-40 trick, I've always just used tap magic but now I gotta try that. Reminds me of the time I spent months fighting with a stuck bike chain before my buddy told me to just spray it with cooking spray instead of chain lube. Honestly half the stuff I know now came from some random person saying "hey stop doing that" and I felt like an idiot lmao.