Slight Engineering Conundrum

[bluestoesonnose]

Slight engineering conundrum, I'm in the process of making A. N. Other motorcycle a little noisier by bypassing some of the baffles.

Now I've chain drilled around the outlet pipe (the max size drill I can get in is 8mm) I'd like to join the chain drilled holes up but can get much in there to achieve it. The metal is stainless steel and hard as nails. I've tried diamond needle files but they don't even touch it, any ideas?

Cheers

[PDS]

Any chance you can post a picture up? stainless is a pain to work with but a picture might help,

Is the outlet removeable? riveted?

[slob]

Pointy snips

[PDS]

From the sounds of it I would be going down the route of a Die Grinder,

[Nickj]

Plasma cutter would do the biz or a high power mig/tig to melt between the holes.

[Rally]

How about a Dremmel or a 1mm thick cutting disc in a grinder?

[damien666]

A rotorzip with a spiral cutting drill bit?
Or an oscillating multi tool wth thin metal cutting blade?

[gary tompkins]

How about a Dremmel or a 1mm thick cutting disc in a grinder?

Would have been my suggestion as well - dremel with a small reinforced cut off disc

http://www.justtools.com.au/images/ez406_2.jpg

[utopia]

As pds says, stainless can be a bugger to cut, largely because it work hardens, so its important to be very positive at your first attempt, ie sharp tool, adequate pressure and perhaps a cutting fluid (paraffin or cold tea is better than nowt).
Also a pic would help.
In the meantime, I'm wondering if there's any advantage in being able to drill the holes a little larger ?
If so, you could maybe use a carbide tipped masonry drill which has a 8mm shank but a 10mm cutting tip.....if you could wangle the wider tip through your existing access hole. You'd need to regrind the tip though, as they have a negative cutting angle for masonry, but I've done that successfully in the past, and you'd only need to grind the edges anyway.

Plasma cutters indeed...!
Next it'll be "beam up the offending material, scotty". :rolleyes:

[bluestoesonnose]

Hi All, thanks for the comments.

The depth is too deep for a Dremel or that would have been my first choice, I can't drill the holes larger, 8mm is the largest hole I can drill. I've tried die grinders and they just bounce off the material, god only knows what kind of stainless it is. I've ordered some stainless steel cutting saws for my jig saw.

'll get some photos later and you can see the issue.

Cheers

[Rally]

Are you sure it's not Titanium? That is a problem to work with!

[bluestoesonnose]

Hi all,
Once again, thanks for all the comments, I'm sure it's not Ti, Suzuki wouldn't use that on a sports bike production silencer.

I've included a photo of the issue:

http://i1091.photobucket.com/albums/i391/bluestoesonnose/SVSilencer_zpsa8b4cac5.jpg

Cheers
Blues

[bluestoesonnose]

Oh! I forgot to say that end cap bolts are tig welded on, and I don't want to spoil the look of the end cap trying to grind back the tig welds.

Cheers
Blues

[zhango]

Come on Blue - you can mark out better than that - you're guessing it!
Centre pop then use your engineering dividers to scribe an arc with a radius of 9mm then centre pop again which leaves you 1mm to remove. Use a small drill on the centre pop and it will stay on the mark then open out to 8mm.
I have done a similar job with a hand held junior hacksaw blade but hold it so it cuts when you pull it to stop it bending and use decent quality such as eclipse blades.

[utopia]

My initial thought is, if all the holes are that far apart, could you not drill a series of smaller holes in the gaps ?
You'd probably need a centre punch dot to locate the drill point accurately.
Then you could widen the holes using progressively larger drills until they break through.
It'd be a bit dodgy though as the drill is almost bound to snag as it breaks through in such thin sheet material.
Maybe a thin, tapered grindstone in a dremmel could be squeezed in there, or even a countersink, for widening the holes more safely ?
Either way, you'd probably need to clamp the can very firmly somehow, unless you're doing it in situ.

Though you've probably already considered all this.

Whenever I cut something using a series of small holes, I nearly always end up regretting that I didn't mark them out accurately and drill them a little closer together the first time. I'm guessing that you feel the same on this occaision (though there's hopefully still scope to do this on the second can).

Will ponder further.


ps. kinda like Zhango said...but faster.

[bluestoesonnose]

Lol, I could do, but I thought, I'd get the top and bottom ones where I wanted them and then "just use a die grinder" to finish it. Well we can see what thought did.

Not thought of using a Jnr hacksaw blade, I guess cos I don't own one. Yep always set my pad saw up that way to pull not push.

Cheers

[bluestoesonnose]

Hi Utopia,
This afternoon I'll be putting a few more holes in to help link it up. It's too deep to get a Dremel in or it would have been the first bit of kit I'd use. Borrowed a mates die grinder and the stainless is mentally hard, guessing it's something to do with the heat...

[utopia]

Actually you may struggle to get a consistant pressure on a flimsy junior hacksaw blade, without it rubbing and hardening the material, but its worth a shot.
Maybe a std hacksaw blade would be better, if you can grind the back to thin the blade at the business end ?
Obviously in such thin material, you'd be best using the finest toothed blade you can get your hands on.
And either one of those hacksaw blade holders, or a rag to grip it with.

[Wildfire]

Recip saw?

[bluestoesonnose]

Up-date, drilled more holes, and bought a tungsten carbide coated saw blade. That'll be the holes all joined up, just need to get in there with a file to clean the edges up. Coolio...

Thanks for all the help, and comments

[PDS]

Glad you got it sorted, it would be one of those jobs that I would of started and then thought "why did I start doing this?" :) 5 minute jobs.............................................. ...:D