High Speed Twist Drill Bits

MSC

MSC

Natural Pearl Lover
Joined
Oct 11, 2012
Messages
2,861
So I wasn't sure if I should post this here, in industry or in other stuff, but here goes: I recently purchased a pearl vise system from riogrande (http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Pearl-Drilling-Vise-System/113475?Pos=27) and I am trying to find high speed twist drills with specific dimensions to use with this vise. Riogrande doesn't carry anything that works and their technical team was kind of useless in response (that is not usually the case, mind you).

What I'm looking for is a drill head that is 0.5mm and 0.6mm in diameter, with a shaft that is 2mm or less in diameter, but also that has a long shaft. I have watchmakers drill bits that are the right head size and shaft length, but the shaft diameter is too thick to use with the vise. I also have drills that are the right head size and shaft diameter, but the shaft length is too short. Ugh!

If anyone has any recommendations please please please post them here, I'll be forever grateful!

Photo of pretty conch pearl necklace 1bb73e34cf48113b27e442f83430d005.jpg just cause ;)
 
Thanks for the words of encouragement, Pattye! All the drill bits I've been finding are 2.35mm shaft diameter, so I think I'm going to order a set and see if it'll fit in the vise, but I have a feeling that'll be just slightly too wide. Will certainly update here when I try that out. Not sure why Riogrande is offering a vise system in which none of the drill bits they sell will work with. It seems like a good system, holds the pearls in place really well. I may try to modify the vise opening to make it fit the drills I can find. Should be too hard using a bur, I assume. Any bets on me eating my words there?
 
Question for those who drill...my wonderful jeweler charges $10 per pearl to drill. Not bad when you have a pair of earrings or a ring, but I have a necklace to make, and it would be about $750 for the drilling alone. The value of the pearls in a finished necklace will be well beyond that price plus their cost, but I am curious if that's an outrageous amount or a fair price. Thanks!
 
What Katbran said, Jersey! You could get a flex shaft and ALL the accessories for less than $750 and just do the drilling yourself :D

I found some bits that may work today and ordered, I'll post results when they come in!
 
The lack of a pearl drill (and the skill/ability/hand dexterity :) is the only thing that's stopped me from buying bunches and bunches of loose pearls so far, Jersey Pearl ... thanks for the pricing info; should be similar in PA to Jersey ... at least I have some idea.
 
Thanks for the encouragement Wendy :) It's actually my hands stopping me ... they don't work very well ... but I'd love to try!
 
How about drilling lessons! I'd gladly pay for those...seriously, though, there is talent involved in drilling pearls because deciding just the right spot to drill and how best to present the pearl would take me hours to determine. I couldn't even hang my drapes (using the drill to mount the rod).
 
Jersey, I just read this. I think it's an outrageous price!! Sending you a pm now.
 
Okay, so I've finally gotten all the pieces in and have been able to do a bit of a comparison.

It's the pearl drilling machine (http://www.gemcuts.com.au/pearl-bead-drilling-machine) vs Riogrande's Pearl Drilling Vise System (http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Pearl_dash_Drilling-Vise-System/113475?Pos=25)

Busch drills from Otto Frei: http://www.ottofrei.com/Busch-Twist-Drills-on-3-32-Shanks-.50mm-2.30mm.html (but apparently these: http://www.riogrande.com/Product/Diamond-Twist-Drills/349066?Pos=8 and these: http://www.riogrande.com/Product/LYNX-High-Speed-Steel-Twist-Drills/349201?Pos=9 would also work because they have the same shank size. Amazing the Riogrande technical service rep couldn't confirm that these would work with their pearl vise system, but I digress...) The flat drills that come with the Riogrande pearl vise system suck, so I went with high speed twist drills.

Long story short: I prefer the Riogrande Pearl Vise System with my flex shaft for small size pearls, but will use the drilling machine for pearls/beads 5mm and above.

That's not to say that there aren't issues with the system, but they are not as big as the issue I have with the pearl drilling machine: I cannot find small enough pearl cups for the machine. After emailing a bunch of different vendors for the machine that I have (Chinese not Japanese) to see if I could acquire replacement cups for the sizes that I am needing, I was only able to secure cups small enough for 3-4mm pearls. These cups were still too large. I ended up drilling through part of the cups to be able to drill the pearl. Because I am mainly drilling 2-4mm pearls, this is a big enough issue that I cannot continue to use the machine for drilling pearls of these sizes. However, I think the machine has some pros over the vise system, mainly in that you are able to see the pearl and the drill bit. The advantage to this is that you can see if you've gone halfway through the pearl. The pearl vise system nylon jaws are cloudy and so you can't really see well how far in the drill has gone (you are supposed to measure halfway and adjust the bit in the hand piece). It's important to tighten the jaw enough and to also hold the drill straight, otherwise the vibrations from the bit will loosen the vise and knock the pearl out of whack. This is not an issue with the drilling machine. An advantage of the pearl vise system is that Riogrande offers replacement jaws. Seeing as how I have had major issues in finding replacement jaws/cups for the pearl drilling machine, this is a major advantage, in my opinion.

The Busch twist drills work great in both systems and after using cheaper twist drills and having the bits break off in the pearls, I can definitely say the money is well spent for the better quality drills. The Busch drills run about $15.00 for a set of 6 through Otto Frei (but Otto Frei's shipping cost is kind of outrageous FYI).

I hope this helps anyone who may be considering doing some pearl drilling of their own!
Please note: I only tested these systems with natural pearls and did no testing with bead nucleated cultured pearls.
 
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