Drilling Stainless Steel

Need some advice. I bought some Frontrunner RTT quick release brackets which are made of stainless steel and I'm hoping to adapt them to work on my Victory4x4 rack. I'll need to drill new holes in them in order to attach them to the Victory rack but I've never attempted to drill through stainless steel. I have a drill press I picked up a few months ago but I need some advice on what type of drill bits I should use, what lubricant or oil I should use, and any tips or tricks.

Thanks!

 

Here is the right way to drill stainless steel:
Start with a sharp drill and have it turning as slowly as your drill or drill press will allow. I set my drill press to its slowest speed or run my portable drill as slow as the trigger will allow.


You need to exert a lot of pressure on the drill bit—as much as it will bear. Small bits can be a challenge because pressure can cause them to bend and break, but you can put a lot of pressure on any drill bit that’s ¼in or larger. You will know if you are exerting enough pressure if a continuous spiral of material comes off the bit as it turns.

You must keep the drill bit and stainless material cool. Machine shops have a continuous stream of lubricant that they spray onto the tip of the drill bit to both cool the drill bit and the stainless and to lubricate the cut. When you’re drilling stainless onboard, in a boatyard or a home shop, that is not possible.

However, what you can do is regularly stop drilling and drip some oil onto the bit and in the hole. If you have a helper, you can also have them place a few drops on the bit as you are drilling to speed up the process.

Ideally, you want to use cutting oil, although motor oil or even WD-40 will do the trick. I even used olive oil once. The key is to stop often for cooling and to make sure there is plenty of oil.

 

Question is, why do you need to drill "new" holes? Because their holes don't line up with the Victory rack?

 

Yes. These are designed for a Frontrunner cross rail which has a single track down the middle for attaching stuff. The Victory4x4 rack, Prinsu as well, has two offset tracks. The adjustments on the Victory rack don't quite get the cross rails close enough to each other to use the Frontrunner holes as they are and I'd rather drill the brackets vs elongating the adjustment holes on the rack.

 

Just a suggestion, not sure if it'll work, but can't you mount the mounts (LOL) parallel on the Victory rack? You'd be sliding in the tent from the side instead of the back tho, don't know if that be an issue for you.

 

I could but I'd still need new holes. The existing hole in the mounts is dead center and the cross rails on my roof rack the mounting tracks are offset, I'll link a pic to the Victory rails below.

 

Ahhhh....Got it!

Looks like you be drilling then!

 

Water soluble oil works well too. Mix up a bottle put it in a plastic water bottle punch a small hole in the cap to squirt it out. Once the bit is dull, sharpen it or change it out. Once it stops cutting it's just making heat and hardening the stainless more. I've heard of drilling a small pilot hole first, but never actually tried it. I would think it would harden the area being drilled making the bigger hole harder to drill.