Flow Drilling Using Friction

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

[“Bill Hancox”Participant @billhancox]

I love this one. Whether or not it has a modelling application is arbitrary. It is nonetheless a super slick process.

**LINK**

[OldMetallerParticipant @oldmetaller]

Wow! No more turning boiler bushes!

Regards,

John.

[Keith HaleParticipant @keithhale68713]

The process has been around some 30 years. Initially it was called T-Drilling and produced an external collar. It produces joints ideal for producing strong leak-free joints by silver soldering – close tolerance and parallel.

Is it a good technique – certainly and particularly on sheet and square tube. Round tube ?

Is it viable for the model engineer? Depends on the cost of the drill bits.

One source of boilers stumbled across the flow drilling phenomenon by accident and considered a patent. But we have all used a blunt drill at some point!

Keith

[Roderick JenkinsParticipant @roderickjenkins93242]

Interesting. I think you would have to give serious consideration to the metallurgy of the heat affected zone. From the video the area is getting seriously hot and then quenches – similar to welding.

Rod

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Flow drilling has been discussed in MEW in the past, but as it wasn't in the article title I can't find it in the index.

Neil

[colin hawesParticipant @colinhawes85982]

I recall seeing studs welded to plate using this method at an engineering exhibition. If my memory is right steel studs could be "welded" to aluminium. Colin

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