What does a golf ball have to do with a drill? Very simple. It’s a vibration measurement device. What? Okay… let’s take a step back and look at the setup we have here. Almost looks like a diving board. It’s a 16-millimeter strong 4140 steel plate that we have clamped in the vise. And, on the other end, we’re going to put a golf tee. And on top goes our golf ball. We’re going to drill into the diving board starting on the right, moving towards the golf ball. As you can see, it doesn’t just look like a diving board, it’s also as unstable as a diving board. So, we’ll see some good vibrations here. We’ll do this with two different types of drills: the GOdrill™ and HPX solid carbide drill for steels.
GOdrill vs. HPX Drill
We’re going to test two different type of drills:
- Number one – the GOdrill, a truly versatile solid carbide drill. If you have many different materials to drill on a daily basis, then this is what you should go with.
- And drill number two – the HPX solid carbide drill for steels. This is the drill you need when speed is all that matters and when you have no limitations with your machine tool or your spindle. But, if you do have limitations, the HPX drill with its low-thrust drill point design works just as great on those types of machines. What a low-thrust drill point design also means, is less pressure on the workpiece and less vibrations.
So, let’s put them to the test and see if our low-budget vibration measurement device is any good. We’ll run both drills with the same speed of 106 meters per minute and 0.35 millimeters per revolution.
The Results
Okay, the GOdrill made it one third of the way through the diving board, making a total of three holes, then the golf ball fell off.
The HPX drill went a lot further, a total of eight holes. And the golf ball didn’t even fall off. In between each hole we gave the golf ball enough time to settle down. The table movement did not make the golf ball fall off. It was the vibrations in this unstable setup that made the golf ball fall off.
When drilling with the HPX drill, we could clearly see how our diving board was moving up and down while the HPX drill got closer and closer to the golf tee. But no visible vibrations there, and the golf ball stayed on the golf tee.
This clearly shows the benefit of a low-thrust drill point designed by producing less vibrations. And clearly shows that our low-budget vibration measurement device worked really well.
This content was first published on the Kennametal website.
