Drilling tungsten molybdenum?

[Jtecalo]

Need some suggestions on what to use to drill some holes for handle pins in a blade I made from tungsten molybdenum.

About 25 years ago I made a blade from a tungsten molybdenum power hack saw blade and epoxied the deer antler handle on it because I couldn't find anything that would drill thru it.

Carbide drill bits won't touch it. I could just epoxy it back on but I'd like to have some of those neat mosaic pins to hold it.

any ideas, thanks
Jim

[DomBunn]

If you like those mosaics put fake ones in each side. I do not know how to drill it.. But it will look like its pinned. Db

[Mike Stewart]

If a Carbide Drill won't touch it--it must because of how hard it is.

I have Drilled R6M5 with Carbide Drills so Yours must be Different.

There is an easy way but it will probably be Expensive.

You and take it to a Company that does Water-Jet Cutting and they can shoot holes exactly where you want them.

Since they would have to Write a program you could end up paying a lot of money for those holes.

Epoxy and Blind pins may be the Best Solution.

Mike

[Jtecalo]

Thanks guys, I kinda thought I might be out of luck for drilling.

Fake pins sounds like the way to go since I already have the holes in the antler. Should have tried drilling the tungsten before I drilled the pin holes in the antler.

Any recommendations for epoxy or glue that will stick to the antler and the metal. Back in mid 70's when I made this thing I used a dupont off the shelf Kmart epoxy.

It lasted a few hunting seasons but eventually the bond broke.

I'd like to fix it right this time, but on the other hand it won't be getting the use it was before.

It was my "fledgling" effort, so I'd like to keep it to remind me of what not to do, kind of a "sharp" THIMK sign.

Thanks for your input.

[Jeff Marshall]

I used to machine solid tungsten counterbalance weights for the internal gyroscopes for the Longbow missile. I used carbide tooling, lots of oil, slow RPM's and a boat load of tool pressure and I never had any problems. Let me see if I can find you some surface footage speeds and chip loads...it has been a while since I had to machine anything that tough and the numbers escape me at the moment...

[PatrickKnives]

I have used a dremmel abrasive cut off saw to make square holes in hard material, takes a few but they are cheap. If you dont have a dremmel you can run them at high speed in your drill press.

[Jtecalo]

I actually am trying to grind the holes in with my dremel, it seems to be working but it is slow.

It looks like it may just work. It's how I had to make the blade shape in the first place. Marked it out and then ground it part way thru on a pedestal grinder, snap off the excess.

This was the first knife I ever made and always heard files and industrial hacksaw blades were great for blades, but this one is super hard to work with.

Once I had it sharp it stayed sharp and was my skinning knife for deer and elk hunting.

jim

[tim37]

I, and a lot of other knife makers, feel that West System G/flex is the best epoxy for gluing on scales. Abrade both the scale and the tang with 80 grit sandpaper. Wash each part at least twice with acetone and apply epoxy. Don't squeeze too hard or you will get a glue starved joint. Good luck.

Tim

[Komitadjie]

Aside from some really exotic tooling in a mill, the only things I could really think of would be either abrasive-tube-grinding like you'd use to make a hole in glass (with possibly a diamond or CBN abrasive instead of cheap SiC) waterjet, or EDM. All will be pricey. Glue those suckers on!

And you made a BLADE out of that stuff? Dang, what's the hardness on that thing?

[GDOK]

Aside from some really exotic tooling in a mill, the only things I could really think of would be either abrasive-tube-grinding like you'd use to make a hole in glass (with possibly a diamond or CBN abrasive instead of cheap SiC) waterjet, or EDM. All will be pricey. Glue those suckers on!

And you made a BLADE out of that stuff? Dang, what's the hardness on that thing?

Exactly what I was thinking.

You can get diamond grinding bits online for pennies. Only thing you'll need to do is flood the area with coolant. The material adhering the diamond fails fast if it gets too hot.