Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Mini diamond drill bits for sea glass


 

Mini Diamond TWIST drill bits vs Mini diamond SOLID core  bits

 

Over the last several years that I have been selling mini diamond drill bits to Creative Jewelry designers I have found that the diamond twist bits are just a tad more popular than the solid core bits. Your favorite type would more likely depend upon the kind of material you are drilling. The thickness and the hardness of the material you are drilling would influence the type of diamond drill bits that would work best for you. It’s a good idea to try both types to see which ones last longer and gives you a nice clean hole. Sea glass is often much harder than beach stones or pottery shards to drill.

Mini diamond TWIST drill bits work much like an auger. This type of drill bit will lift the fine silicon dust out of the hole as you drill. You should still lift the mini bit out of the hole just a tad as you drill. A touch n’ go technique is recommended. The thicker the piece of material you are working with the more I would suggest using the twist diamond drill bits.

The mini diamond solid core bits have very fine diamond segmentations at the very tip of the drill bit. This gives you a little less diamond cutting surface. When using  solid core diamond bits you need to lift the drill bit out of the hole every few seconds to clear out the glass dust and to keep water in the hole. Solid core mini diamond drill bits will usually have a longer shank with just the tip doing the work. The shank size is usually the same size as the diamond drill bits. I always insert the shank as far up into the collet that I can.  You want just enough of the tip to penetrate the thickness of the material you are working with. These needle thin mini drill bits can bend or break very easy.   I just cut away the bent shank and continue to use.

As a general rule the thicker the material the slower speed you would want to use.. I find that the middle setting on my Dremel rotary drill motor works just fine.

 

 

 

 

 
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