Is this an indexed drill bit?

How To
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I’m calculating feed rates in FSWizard for a drill bit I bought. Please excuse my ignorance - I want to make sure I set this up properly. This is a link to the drill bit I bought.

8879a617_bbfbfd95-3258-4ba6-af79-f2c568bb9282@2x_637889868705772738

  • Is this an indexed drill bit? FSWizard has a few options: Jobber, Hi-Helix, Spade, Indexed, Straight Flute, and Spot.
  • Does this bit have one flute? It says “four facet” under point style, but I count only one flute on the bit.

For the Shapeoko HDM, FSWizard recommends an RPM of 16K and feed rate of 900mm/min. Does this look right for cutting through 6061 aluminum? I’m drilling a 6mm hole.

Thanks -

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If the picture is correct, this is a 2 flute. “Indexed” means is has replacable cutters, so this is not and indexed bit.

The closest description is likely ‘Jobber’. It’s shorter than a regular bit, but it otherwise has the same characteristics as a regular (jobber) drill.

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Thanks for the super fast reply. I thought it looked off.

I switched it to Jobber w/ 2 flutes in FSWizard. I’m now getting an RPM of 16K and a feed rate of 3200 - a lot faster.

In a course I took, it was saying to make the plunge feed rate slower. Should this be something like 1600 mm/min then?

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Sorry, I personally can’t help with F&S. I don’t use drill bits, somebody else may have better info.

The usual advice is that “Drill bits are not designed for these high speeds, you need a special CNC drill bit instead.”.

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thanks my issue has been fixed.

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Caveat: I’ve never used a drill bit in aluminum on a CNC.

Is this for drilling holes in aluminum? If so, that RPM sounds really high to me. I would have expected something much slower and a quick web search seems to say around 4K rpm as a recommendation (200-300 sfm whereas 16K rpm is almost 1,000 sfm). If I remember correctly, I actually use a much slower rpm than that on my drill press.

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I ran 6mm carbide drilling test yesterday for a production job I am setting up cutting 6061 22mm deep holes.

10k rpm 30 ipm .050" peck drilling with full retract went perfectly.

I’ll link the video.

TiAIN coating is not great for cutting aluminum but you can get by in a pinch with it. A uncoated bit is better or Zrn coated is best.

This is the drill I used in the video

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Maybe I’m just tired, but that picture looks like a left handed bit.

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