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How to make a nail drill

I will show you how to make a simple drill from an ordinary nail, with which you can drill steel, wood, plastic, etc. Yes, you read it right, with this drill you can drill thick steel of the order of 5 mm. Savvy thing is a good thing, it will always help out in a difficult life situation. So, to increase the level of self-development, I suggest that you familiarize yourself with this method. Perhaps useful in life.

Making a drill for metal from a nail


We take a nail and grind off his point on an emery. You do not need to do this completely, about half.
How to make a nail drill

With a hammer, we flatten the end under a flat screwdriver.
How to make a nail drill

Next, on emery, we make cutting edges like a drill.
How to make a nail drill

This is how it should turn out.
How to make a nail drill

In principle, the drill is ready, but only wood, plastic or other soft metals can be drilled with it.

Drill hardening - carburizing


To turn a drill into a drill for metal, it must be hardened. To do this, we need a DC welding machine and a metal jar with crushed graphite. Graphite can be obtained from old brushes by grinding them with a file.
How to make a nail drill

If there is no jar, you can use a piece of flat steel. We connect the positive electrode to the jar, and the negative to the nail.
Turn on the welding machine.
How to make a nail drill

We lower the cutting edge and lower it in graphite. As soon as the masa begins to blush, we raise the nail. The main thing here is not to burn everything that has been machined. It is not necessary to overheat, we drive with a nail to achieve a small spark. The whole procedure lasts 1-2 minutes.
How to make a nail drill

This method is called cementation. That is, the cutting edge is saturated with carbon, which in turn will add strength.
How to make a nail drill

Then we clamp in a vice and saw off the hat.
How to make a nail drill

The metal drill made of nail is done!

Metal test


We pass to tests. We clamp the drill in the chuck of a vertical drilling machine.
How to make a nail drill

And we drill a steel corner as an ordinary drill, periodically spraying with grease.
How to make a nail drill

The hole is drilled.
How to make a nail drill

We give the second attempt.
How to make a nail drill

The outlet was drilled no worse than a conventional drill.
How to make a nail drill

Now the task is more difficult - to check the stainless steel. It is known that it just cannot be done.
How to make a nail drill

Also drill with grease.
How to make a nail drill

Some more.
How to make a nail drill

The hole is drilled.
How to make a nail drill

Of course, the strength of such a drill for a long time is not enough. If you drill a tree, then in principle it will work, but for steel the safety margin is limited to several holes, it all depends on the thickness of the steel.
How to make a nail drill

In difficult situations, it may well help out. Bye everyone!

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Comments (13)
  1. March
    #1 March Guests June 26, 2018 15:42
    13
    Difficult life situation.There is a welding machine, there is an emery, but there is no drill for 10 rubles. But I liked the cementation. We saturate the outer layer with carbon - the hardness increases, the middle layers are viscous. Everything is as it should be. We apply the method for any purpose.
    1. Sergey K
      #2 Sergey K Visitors February 21, 2019 16:41
      0
      You misunderstand the situation a little. I somehow needed to drill a window frame, it was somewhere around 250 mm, there weren’t any drills there, I was reluctant to buy because of one hole, all the more not the fact that such a drill would be in the store. I had to do from the fittings. From reinforcement because in it the steel is much better hardened than nail. As a result, he drilled himself with an ordinary drill, then finished with this home-made one.
  2. Guest Anatoly
    #3 Guest Anatoly Guests June 27, 2018 09:21
    3
    Interesting from a purely cognitive point of view. The message is not correct. What is this difficult life situation in which, due to the lack of a drill, you need to find a DC welding machine in order to make this drill.
  3. Guest Anatoly
    #4 Guest Anatoly Guests June 27, 2018 1:49 p.m.
    4
    The house is not a locksmith. There are emergency situations.
    1. Dmitry
      #5 Dmitry Guests 28 june 2018 06:58
      1
      This is in terms of no drill, or no welder and sharpener.
  4. gvsp
    #6 gvsp Guests June 28, 2018 11:11
    3
    So before the revolution, peasants held such events even without a welding machine. It just seems to me that carburizing is not enough. It is still necessary to temper.
  5. Chubich Eugene
    #7 Chubich Eugene Guests July 20, 2018 11:02 p.m.
    0
    Cementation is correct. Only quenching is required in water. In this case, there must be steel 0 and no higher than steel 3, otherwise the quenching will have to be done in oil.
    1. Guest Igor
      #8 Guest Igor Guests 10 september 2018 20:14
      0
      Use ST-3 brand sal, which all locksmiths call wood iron?
      Have you ever dealt with this brand? This is the most lousy steel of the times of Stalin.
      1. Sergey K
        #9 Sergey K Visitors February 21, 2019 4:44 PM
        0
        For its purposes, it is even better than the 45th steel. When welding, 45 will be hardened and this place in the structure may burst due to stresses, in general it will be a weak point, and ordinary structural steel practically does not harden.
  6. tool sharpener
    #10 tool sharpener Guests July 21, 2018 9:13 p.m.
    0
    reminds an old joke: If you don’t have yeast then go and buy, you won’t get a fig without them))
  7. Guest Igor
    #11 Guest Igor Guests September 10, 2018 20:06
    1
    From the series, our hands are not for boredom. Having a welding machine, and not having a set of drills, is just ridiculous. Or a toad strangling after buying a welder? But save a lot on cents.
  8. Sergey K
    #12 Sergey K Visitors February 21, 2019 16:51
    1
    The author presented the material a little incorrectly. Of course, it is difficult to understand that a master with so many tools and equipment has difficulties with a conventional drill. A nail drill that you don’t do with it will not replace the ordinary, especially if you drill steel again. Here and HHS usual in flight!
    But the option when you need a disposable drill of a non-standard length or diameter is quite acceptable. True, hardening at home can be difficult, as well as cementation, but according to the above technology, it is possible and necessary to drill a drill from a piece of reinforcement and drill a tree. Although it is quite possible that in the process it will also have to be re-sharpened several times.
  9. Guest Vladimir
    #13 Guest Vladimir Guests April 11, 2019 05:16
    0
    I read the comments .. For metal, I think, not an option, but when working with wood, I had cases when I made such "one-time" drills. There are different situations: the child “killed” the last drill an hour before you needed it (the wreckage, of course, was discarded quietly), and the shops are already closed or just need a couple of minutes to drill, and it takes about 20 minutes to get to the store on the “top bus” one way. So what? Run for the drill? There is no point. So the idea has a "right to life."

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