So today I went to the steel yard and picked up a foot of 2 3/4" by 5" wide piece of mild steel (it cost me $47.00, is that a good price?). I was going to get a 2 inch thick piece instead but they didn't have that. what I'm planning on doing is making a striking anvil out of it,  drilling a hole then drifting it out square for the hardy hole. What I'm thinking on doing is on one end of the block have a square hole the same size as my hardy hole on my anvil, and then on the other end have a 1 inch square hole. The one that's the size as my hardy hole on my anvil will be used for holding bottom fullers, cupping tools, etc., etc., and the larger one will be for drifting hammer eyes, because the my anvil hardy hole isn't quite big enough. On the way home I picked up a 1 inch drill bit made by Dewalt for $30.00, and before I open it, and began drilling I wasn't sure if it would even be able to drill through my 2 3/4" thick block of steel, or if I should go a different route, or different brand. I hope this all makes sense. Thanks in advance!

                                                                                                                                  Littleblacksmith

About a dollar a pound so for new metal not too bad.  Is it A35 or some other alloy?  I generally get my stuff from the scrapyard for 20 cents US per pound; but selection is limited to what's there when I show up.

Now is the drill bit made for steel or wood?  Will you be step drilling it?  How large is your drill press and how slow will it go?  A drill press for wood may not go slow enough for steel, especially at that size.  (I turned down a 1" drill bit for US$2 at the fleamarket last Sunday, of course I can sharpen them freehand as needed.)  If I didn't have the proper equipment I would probably have offered a small machine shop $30 to do the drilling on an "as they have spare time job".

Crazy Ivan had a post with lots of pics of his striking anvil.

The forum doesn't seem to want me to post the link, but you can look up S7 striking anvil WIP.

 

I just saw that you were the first person who commented in that thread, so obviously you have seen it.

I appoligize for the lack of information I gave.Here's a picture of the packaging, although not much info on it either. I think what ill do is either, buy a different drill bit- it advertises that it can drill through, wood, sheet metal, and pipe, but doesn't mention solid steel. or ill take it to a machine shop, I'm still not sure, any other thoughts? I do have a drill press, although its one from horrible freight, but I think that you are able to adjust the speed. I also have some hand held drills that may work? but I guess I want as straight as a hole I can get, which may be difficult with one. A friend of mine at church works at a welding/fabrication shop, and may be able to help.

                                                                                                         Littleblacksmith

Strongly doubt it gets down to proper speeds for drilling deep holes in steel---say 333  rpm at TOPS.  How many real horse power is the motor: 2?  How many steps were you planning to use?   Is that DP rigid enough to do a heavy duty job?

SOP rule of thumb is that anything above 1/2" requires a pilot to clear the web of a larger drill bit.  That pilot should be roughly the web thickness plus a hair because too large a pilot will cause the bigger drill bit to wander/chatter...one clue to this is that it'll usually make a bit of a pentagon rather than a round hole.  That chatter can also break the cutting edges on the bit.

The typical HF or light drill press is not rigid enough to get the appropriate down-pressure on the bit and keep it cutting properly.  Too little down pressure causes rubbing which quickly wears the drill bit.  On light machinery it becomes a bit of a dance to maintain enough pressure while not causing too much deflection in the machine.

As ThomasPowers said above, the proper SFM speed for a 1" calculates to around 300 rpm.  You can vary quite a bit from that without problems but that's the number to shoot for. In a perfect world, the bare minimum feed per revolution of a 1" bit should be .007".  That would mean your hole would take a little over one minute.  Aint gunna happen without heavier equipment.

Those dewalt bits are mediocre.  Good enough to get by but pushing the limits on something like you are trying to do. The "silver & deming" style with the reduced shank can be it's own problem due to the weak point at the neck--hard to tell from the photo but it looks like a 1/2" reduced shank.  If it's one of the 3/8 shank, return it. A 3/8" shank actually has about 1/3 the bending strength of a 1/2" shank (yes, for the engineers it's a bit more complicated...making a point).

CLAMPCLAMPCLAMP!  Do NOT think you can rely on holding the piece while it's being drilled. Do not put any part of your body in the part-path of a clamping failure.

You will need to peck drill to clean the hole about every 1/2" of depth.  Good drilling lube will be important also.

That whining being said, I'd probably go for it...knowing that things might go terribly wrong or at least be quite aggravating.  Sometimes you have to play the "get-er-done" card.  If you have concerns and money, just have a machine shop do it for you.  It's not that bad a hole and a breeze on heavier equipment with quality bits.

Note that you will NOT get a clean hole and a drill bit NEVER makes a truly round hole of the size it claims.  Probably doesn't matter to your case but people are often mistaken in thinking a 3/8" bit makes a clean true 3/8" hole(random size example):  For that you need boring or reaming.

I just checked and the biggest twist drill in my collection is 2-1/2" dia.  It aint fun, even in plastic.