Homemade 30mm Spade Drill

I thought another boring video but you really drilled it home that its the ace of spades.

Another great video. One suggestion when milling to get longer mill bit life when you can cut the full depth and then move into the piece. If you don't do this you are always cutting with the very tip of the bit and so it wears (particularly the corner) and the sides hardly get used at all.

Great Job Matty, if you keep making tools you will put us out of business!! 😝😝😝

Very nice result 👍 Maybe talk to Kurtis & find out who he uses for nitriding - gives a great finish (and corrosion protection) to his shop made tools. All the best, Paul

Caswell has the real black oxide. Its the real deal and you can buy a small bottle, just enough for that job. As soon as I'm done building my anodizing room, I'm going to be offering single item black oxide coatings. Otherwise you're right that cold blue is garbage.

I love it when a plan comes together. 👍

Worked well Matty. The finish was very surprising. Good job. Cheers Rob

You impress me to no end! A piece of round bar and some expert machining and you have a a very expensive tool at little cost other than your time. The end result must be very rewarding!

You must be well happy with that - drills through that smoother than a hot knife through butter. Total success. 👍👍 Shop tools for the win.

Another top tool for the shop, mate. Great work. 👍🇦🇺

Great addition to the shop! Thanks for sharing 🇨🇦

Cold blue isn't the way to go to afford it any real protection. If you do decide to go that route, make sure you get every lick of contaminant off of it, then heat it up to about 100c, slather it on, and when it cools hit it with a coat of rem oil. I have never had any luck with it looking decent, but a light buff with some 0000 steel wool and rem oil would give you about the best bet. Oh, and do not touch it with bare hands between cleaning it and applying the cold blue. It has been a good 15 years sense I've messed with it, so it might be better now.

That is so awesome.

Great build Matty..How about utilizing the centre hole for through coolant..? all you need to do is plug the hole with a threaded bung at the rear end of the bar, install a port on top of the bar near the ER collet to supply the coolant and bore a couple of holes for coolant jets near the insert.

I use Van’s Cold Blue, the stuff is great, paid $36 US and received a quart of the solution. Its supposed to be industrial-grade. I've used it on a few tools, the first being in 2019 and it's held up quite nicely with all the use that the tool gets. The trick is to clean the tool thoroughly and keep the tool wet, don't let it get dry, with the Cold Blue solution for a minimum of 5 minutes, after 5 minutes, rinse off the tool with cold water and dry it. Lastly, soak the tool in a lightweight oil for 24 hours, remove the tool from the oil after 24 hours, and wipe dry. If you just wipe the cold blue on the tool, the tool will become black because that's how the solution works but it will not provide the best results doing it the quick and dirty way.

That’s a thing of beauty.

Brilliant result Matty. But what about going the whole hog and adding coolant to it? After all, the hard part is done with the hole through the centre. Two holes at the tip angled into the tip with a hole about 3 mm should be plenty and then drill and tap at 90 degrees at the base for a fitting. Put a bung into the bottom and you're away. That might stop the chips from packing at the side near the top causing the scuffing.

A nice addition to the toolbox. Good work mate!

That is really outstanding work. Cheers, Matty.

A great addition to the workshop Matty. I did check my local supplier and at the moment they are doing the drill bodies so cheap, it wouldn't make sense to make them. The inserts however! Smaller sizes are £30 but you have to buy 2, and the larger one start at about £50. A thought on you drill body though. You could drill through to the bore behind each side of the insert with say a 3mm drill. Thread the rear end and plug it, then cross drill to the bore again, thread a fitting and connect to your coolant. You then have a through tool coolant supply, it'd help flush out the swarf and lube the insert.