How to drill through pennies?

[Dewbakuk]

I've done it in the past very slowly with a pin-vice/hand drill but I need to do a whole bunch of them for pinning. I went out and bought a 'bosch' titanium drill bit but it shattered on the first attempt to drill with my dremel.

Anyone got a good suggestion rather than ruining drill bits at £5 a pop?

[Silent Invader]

You want the old alloy ones as the more recent imprints include steel and I think are slightly thicker

[Mitch K]

Drilling tiny holes in hard metal is a rotten job. The only way I've ever found is to centre punch the spot, then have both the drill speed and the feed rate way, way down. I'm lucky I've got a drill press I can do stuff like this on, but otherwise I think an old-fashioned hand crank drill would be a better bet that a Dremel. If you can pick up a cobalt bit they tend to be slightly less miserably brittle than TiN bits in tiny sizes.

[Vermis]

Anyone got a good suggestion rather than ruining drill bits at £5 a pop?

I'm going to be an unhelpful sod and say that for that money, you could get quite a few Renedra placcy bases. 

[Gary Peach]

Drilling pennies...  more money than sense...  Defacing the currency is an offense in law in the UK.   

Washers already have holes 

MDF or Plastic Round MDF bases Sarissa - 50 for £1.50 ... no drill.  If you know where you want the holes email Sarissa and they could cut them with the pin hole in too.

[OSHIROmodels]

How big a hole?

cheers

James

[Mitch K]

Another option with anything like this is heat the metal you're drilling until it's red-hot, then let it cool slowly, so it's as soft as it can be before you start drilling. Washers are an idea, but I suspect the hole will be in the wrong place and too big for the pin anyway

[Vonkluge]

First question is "why and what for?" then we can better answer since it seems that a better solution to what you are doing is in order, not a better way to drill... . However Good drill bits in a DRILL PRESS with the piece to be drilled locked in place is the way to go. Dremels are not well suited for drilling in hard material. A medium to low speed with a slow steady pressure. Cutting fluid will help extend the life of the drill bit, but all this is a lot of work for what you might possibly solve by another method if you let us in on the project....

Bill W

Now this is a "Drill Press" 50 year old Sears Craftsman floor model! Cast iron, 10 speeds, depth gauge, solid as a rock, in the corner of the shop.... I've drilled 1/32 holes in 1/16 plastic to 2 inch in half inch steel!  

[zizi666]

What Vonluge said : drill press for a nice perpendicular movement, no high speeds and cutting fluid. And ofcourse a HSS drill bit, but I guess that titanium was just that.

I assume your going to create some flyer stands. Can't you just use washers and fill the holes with moldable metal putty. If you pop your pins in while drying, they're already glued in place.

[Westfalia Chris]

Drilling pennies...  more money than sense...  Defacing the currency is an offense in law in the UK.

Although it appears that the Forgery and Counterfeiting Act of 1981 repealed earlier applicable Acts, in particular the Coinage Offences Act of 1936, without instituting replacement rulings (still, I am under the impression that melting down coins to receive base materials for counterfeit money is still illegal). So technically, he should be on the safe side.

Not to mention that pennies and tuppence are actually "cheaper" for the consumer than steel washers of corresponding size these days. I'm still using up the stash I accumulated when living on the isle.

That said, I've always shied away from inflicting any "permanent damage" to coins (too much of a "law-abiding citizen", I guess), not in the least to the fact that you pretty much need a proper rig, as described before.

Finally, I'll echo the "more details" faction. I've had good success in attaching wood dowels to coins by use of paper pins to increase the glueing surface and get a bond between similar materials (i.e. metal on metal instead of wood). For figures, I'd probably wimp out and use plastic bases instead.

[Mitch K]

First question is "why and what for?" then we can better answer since it seems that a better solution to what you are doing is in order, not a better way to drill... . However Good drill bits in a DRILL PRESS with the piece to be drilled locked in place is the way to go. Dremels are not well suited for drilling in hard material. A medium to low speed with a slow steady pressure. Cutting fluid will help extend the life of the drill bit, but all this is a lot of work for what you might possibly solve by another method if you let us in on the project....

Bill W

Now this is a "Drill Press" 50 year old Sears Craftsman floor model! Cast iron, 10 speeds, depth gauge, solid as a rock, in the corner of the shop.... I've drilled 1/32 holes in 1/16 plastic to 2 inch in half inch steel!  

Handsome beast, that. Mine's bench-mounted, got a two-horse motor and is far too heavy for me to lift. Once I got it in place, it was staying there!. People tell me it's overkill, but when you've got a pile of doors you need to drill for cabinet hinges with a 2" Forstner bit, I'm glad of it. And oddly enough, so are some of the ones who reckon it's overkill, when they need something like that doing...  

[Gary Peach]

Yes, your right since 1978 it was no longer an offense to deface the crowns currency, or deface a picture of the 'queen'...  however, it is legal tender and does cost the state - tax payer to make it, and at current costs not much less that the face value.  That is why its no longer an alloy and now basically steel.

Re- what are you pinning? upside down flat head drawing pins on MDF or plastic bases sound a good solution.

Look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.

[Dewbakuk]

Wow, lots of replies

Okay, wood and plastic aren't any use as they need the weight. Essentially these will be used for basing clumps of bamboo. The intention is to have lots of 1p and 2p coins with tall bamboo clumps on. Holes need to be small, about 1mm. Washers are no good as metal washers are far more expensive than coins and tend to be made of steel anyway plus the hole in the middle would have to be filled.

[Connectamabob]

What're the bamboo shoots going to be made of?

If wire, I'd say bend it like staples- flat bottomed U-shapes where each upright is a shoot. That by itself, or twist two "staples" together in the middle to make a kind of cross-shaped caltrop with all four ends pointing up. Glue the flat bottoms down and cover/imbed with glue sand "soil", and you've basically got "roots" that'll make your shoots stable and well attached. It'll thicken the base slightly compared to drilling, but it'll be a lot easier.

*EDIT* Oooh. Strike that: no twisting needed, just make an extra bend in flat bottom of the individual "staples" so it contacts the penny's surface in a V shape instead of a straight line.

*EDIT PART DEUX* Like this, only, y'know, a bunch of them clustered:

[Vonkluge]

I have the answer now that I know what you are doing, well how I would and have done similar things, no time now but will reply later tonight.