How to drill an oil hole in a chainsaw bar

[davefrommd]

I have a 36" solo bar and I'm using .404 .063 chain with 106 links going on a Mcculloch PM 1000. The bar fits nicely however I need to drill a oil hole and I was wondering how to do it as I have never done it before. Has anyone ever drilled an oil hole in a bar before and maybe you could give some suggestions as to how to do it. Thanks in advance.  dave

[Rocky_J]

I have a set of drill bits I got at Home Depot, about $25, with the DeWalt name on the case. These bits have a pilot point and are of decent quality. I think it's the 5/16" or 3/8" drill bit that has the pilot point about the same size as a typical oil hole. I drilled the bar at the appropriate spot and as soon as the pilot point went through, I stopped drilling. I used a stiff putty knife to scrape the burr off the inside of the rail.

I wasn't drilling a new hole, but rather enlarging one of those miniscule, angled, 'oil conserving' holes. I don't WANT to conserve oil on my ported and modified saw, I want more oil to keep up with the blazingly fast cutting saw.

[davefrommd]

So I guess the first thing I need to do is use a high quality drill bit. Hey rocky, thanks very much.  dave

[Minnesota_boy]

I tried drilling a hole in one of my bars and found the bar to be harder than the drill bit.  You may have to use a carbide or diamond tipped bit.

[oldsaw]

and went very slow.  Stopped frequently and put a couple of drops of oil in the hole when I took a break.

Worked fine, but, took a while.  That stuff is HARD!!! and wasn't meant to be drilled.  Just don't try to rush the hole, or it will take even longer.  I kept it just above stall speed on my VS drill.

[davefrommd]

It sounds like I have some hard work ahead of me. How about if I used my dremmel tool with a thin cut off disk and carefully cut into the bar groove till I hit that hole where the oil will come from. dave

[SasquatchMan]

That sounds even more difficult.  Oldsaw is right on - cut slow with a new bit, and oil it up real good.

You can cut a bathtub in half in about two minutes with enough wd40 hosed on a sawzall blade.  Not that bathtubs are as hard as chainsaw bars, but the idea of cutting metal with a lubricant is a good one.

I've always found dremels very hard to control, and when you try to do something tough with them, you just burn up a bunch of cutters.

[rebocardo]

But, some steel, like that found in some laminated bars are much harder then what is trying to cut them. If the drill is made from 50k steel and the bar is made from 90k steel, the bar is going to win.

It is like trying to cut welds. I can usually use my sawzall for cutting most metals, with a lot of lube, but, hit a weld produced with a hard ARC rod and the blade goes bye-bye and loses all its teeth in a hurry.

They sell 1/8 drill bits for body shops that are meant to be used on welds. Try one of those if your drill bit will not readily eat into your bar.

[Tom]

I was told by a shade-tree mechanic that the best thing to use for hard metal is a masonry drill.  It's hard and cheap (er).

[Rocky_J]

Wow! I'm so glad to learn that my method that I've used 3-4 times using a simple pilot-point drill bit won't work. Otherwise I might have just continued using that method with my same cheap Home Depot drill bits.

Oh, I started out trying to use a 5/32" bit and it snapped. But then I tried a much larger 3/8" bit (which happens to have a pilot point about 5/32") and it worked easily. And just as the pilot point broke through the side rail into the center channel, the rest of the drill bit hit the side rail. This acted as a 'stop' for me so I didn't drill too far. So I guess the pilot point is hardened just as the edges of the bar siderails are hardened. All I know is that it took me about 4-5 minutes with a 14.4v cordless drill to enlarge two holes in a bar. The bar is a GB Pro-Top (good quality bar, not laminated).

And I have no idea of the quality of the bits. They came in a yellow case with 'DeWalt' on the front in black lettering and I bought them at HD several years ago to go with my DeWalt cordless drill.

[Tom]

It's hard to argue with success, RockyJ.  Your tip is a good one and I'll bet will be followed by lots of folks in the future,

DeWalt was purchased by Black and Decker to give an aire of class to their high end tools.  I would imagine that a set of drill bits with the DeWalt name on them would be pretty good.

[SasquatchMan]

Luckily for Rocky, his drill bits are some of the hardest around, and superb for cutting metal.  If they're the older DeWalt bits, they are machined slightly differently on the cutting tips and will absolutely drill through anything by literally cutting thin layers off.

[incognitive]

I've got several B&D "Professional" or "Industrial" grade tools and they're absolutely top-notch.

Those drill bits were made in Germany, right Brian?

[Rocky_J]

Yeah they are, how did you know that?   I guess they are decent quality. I wasn't expecting top of the line when I bought them, I got them because they were on sale and the plastic case fit inside the drill case along with the drill.

[incognitive]

How?  I know a lot.

hahaha

I should say that my reference to those B&D tools is more historic than current.  My 8-1/4" Super SawCat is irreplaceable at a good 15 years old, but it gave me superb service building an entire (small) house working solo last year.  I did have a hand setting the trusses, and couldn't do the HVAC/plumbing due to stupid licensing requirements, and of course I subbed out the thin-coat plaster (though I hanged the wallboard); oh, and no interior painting or wood trim surface finishing.  It sometimes sucks a little not having any friends... but then again, the proceeds didn't need to get divvied up.

Many of the (better) current DeWalt power tools are the same or progeny of the old high-end B&D items.  I know about the drill set because those are the ones I buy when I have to.  That old circle saw is something else.  The blade comes to an almost immediate stop when the trigger's released.  The next-closest version gives a much fainter braking impulse which really just decelerates instead of stops outright.

Oops, wrong kind of saw for here...

[woodbeard]

The problem with drilling bars is the metal gets harder when heated. Enlarging an existing hole is not too difficult, but making a new one can be impossible if the bit is at all dull ( rubbing rather than cutting ) or you let the rpms get over 80.
I have had the best luck with a old fashioned bit and brace.
Also, putting the bar on another ( junk ) bar while drilling helps dissipate some of the heat.

[davefrommd]

I would really like to thank everyone for their input. I bought this bar brand new for $10.00. The price was fine but I'm not to sure on the extra work that goes with it.

How about machinest drill bits. Are they a harder steel. I have a bag full of them in various sizes some used some brand new never used. dave

[Carl_B]

I have drill 1/2 inch holes in a sthil bar that we put on a procut mill. Use a lot of cutting oil and put a metal backer under the bar and turn the bit slow. I started with a 1/4 inch and worked up to half inch.

[balaban9331]

hi,robert here.i work with hardened steel every day and the best bit for the job would be carbide.i have access to mills so fixturing and rigidity,which is important for carbide is no problem.if you have access to any sort of mill or fixturing device for the drill,any endmill will do.if drilling by hand you might want to try a carbide burr or,as tom suggested a masonry drill bit.

[Blake22]

I'll go along with Tom on the masonry bit.

[sawguy21]

Some excellent tips here. Those expensive carballoy bits are worth evey penny and are the only ones I find will touch bar steel. Go slow and don't be chintzy with the oil. Some of the cheap consumer bars are no problem but then none of us deal with those, do we?