We’ve got a job where we need to put qty (144) ¾” holes in 20 gauge stainless sheet steel parts (unsure of alloy, but it’s a stamped/formed part if that helps). These are purchased parts that we are modifying for our needs. Quantity of 2000-2500 parts. Tolerances are loose enough where a twist drill would be good enough if that’s what we end up using.
So far our plan is to stack as many of these parts together as we think we can, sandwich them between two aluminum plates (fixture), and start punching holes. We are concerned a twist drill might be too grabby. An annular cutter/rotobroach was considered but it seems the slugs would build up and plug up the tool. Spiral ramp an endmill? Maybe we're over-thinking the whole thing.
We had a local shop water-jet a few. The results were acceptable but the price was outrageous (didn’t seem like they actually wanted the job). A different local shop lasered a few and the price was much more reasonable, but the results were awful. Out-of-round, burs, etc.
Any suggestions? We have a late model VF4SS and VF6SS in the shop. We even tossed around the idea of approaching a stamping company to see what a tool would cost to form the part and punch the holes.
So far our plan is to stack as many of these parts together as we think we can, sandwich them between two aluminum plates (fixture), and start punching holes. We are concerned a twist drill might be too grabby. An annular cutter/rotobroach was considered but it seems the slugs would build up and plug up the tool. Spiral ramp an endmill? Maybe we're over-thinking the whole thing.
We had a local shop water-jet a few. The results were acceptable but the price was outrageous (didn’t seem like they actually wanted the job). A different local shop lasered a few and the price was much more reasonable, but the results were awful. Out-of-round, burs, etc.
Any suggestions? We have a late model VF4SS and VF6SS in the shop. We even tossed around the idea of approaching a stamping company to see what a tool would cost to form the part and punch the holes.