drilling through bar for oil feed

[LadyBandCo]

im still a b it green with chainsaw milling and i had an idea for an extra oil feed system for my Alaskan mill. Im having a difficult time drilling through my 36" Oregon bar. ive ruined multiple bits.. is there a certian bit i should be using? i need at the most 1/2" hole near the grove of the bar. right where the chain guide is. any ideas? thanks!

 

[Squareground3691]

What saw are you using ?

 

[Squareground3691]

im still a b it green with chainsaw milling and i had an idea for an extra oil feed system for my Alaskan mill. Im having a difficult time drilling through my 36" Oregon bar. ive ruined multiple bits.. is there a certian bit i should be using? i need at the most 1/2" hole near the grove of the bar. right where the chain guide is. any ideas? thanks!

1/2 inch hole is way to excessive, is your oiler turned up all the way ? Probably drill a hole next to the regular oil hole same size or little bigger without going threw just to inner rail

 

[WES999]

Chainsaw bars are quite hard, a standard drill bit wont cut it.
Try one of these, carbide topped die drill. (They come in several sizes)
A carbide tipped masonry drill may work.
Use a drill press if possible.

 

[Mad Professor]

You'll need proper bit and feed, Not hand drill friendly. Contact local machine shop.

Consider water as heat is as bad as no lubrication milling on bars.

 

[Squareground3691]

#4 carbide counter sink should suffice

 

[BobL]

If you drill the bar you have to drill both sides (you will occasionally need to flip the bar) as you want the oil delivered on the outfeed side of the nose otherwise it just gets thrown off the nose.
I drilled a couple of bars but then gave up on that method because the holes eventually get blocked. Now I just "wick" the oil direct onto the line where the chain rides on the bar. This means locating the wicking point as close as possible to the bar/chain.

This photos shows two oiling points- the Thru bar oiler is a hole drilled in the bar.
Then a hollow bolt with a hole in the side lined up with the bar gap,

The top one uses a hollow brass bolt within a 1/64"of the bar/chain.
Brass is used because if it vibrates loose it won't change anything.

 

[fields_mj]

Both of the bars for my 064 are Oregon bars (28" and 42"). I was able to drill them both with a cobalt bit and a cheap drill press. I ran at about 1000 rpm and used bar oil for cutting fluid. I normally used ATF, but I had the bar oil sitting there and I've had good results with it as a cutting oil on ferrous metal.

 

[blades]

it can be done with a reg high speed bit just have to go real slow on the rotation of the bit and lots of coolant, as mentioned not by hand.

 

[Coralillo Lo Pro]

I'm sure the OP figured it out a long time ago, but just to add knowledge to the thread, I'm mildly surprised so few people know anything about using sharpened carbide tip concrete/ceramic bits for hard steel drilling. I picked it up off Youtube maybe via this forum some years back. The guy there just used a regular carbide tipped concrete bit but sharpened it some, and it drilled chainsaw bars no problem. For reasons unknown to me, next to no company in the US has ever sold sharpened carbide tip bits for this purpose except some overly long shank ones from Bosch I was unimpressed with. Suitable bits are already being manufactured in China and cost next to nothing. I got sharpened drilling bits for ceramic/tile/etc for a few bucks from Aliexpress (for the entire set) that I drilled multiple size holes in a GB titanium bar with my drill press with no particular effort at all. Figured the carbide might be such crap quality they wouldn't work, but they worked amazingly well.

 

[Grateful11]

#4 carbide counter sink should suffice View attachment 990563

That's actually called a Center Drill. Some people use them as countersinks but there's better tools out there for that.