als and the person under whom I had my original apprenticeship, I decided I would take the job and learn on the fly. I was armed with a basic idea of what to expect and a game plan, even though horror stories of relockers, glass plate and ball bearing hardplate floated in my head. I knew the key to making this safe drill profitable and easy to repair would be quality drill bits and a quality drill rig, along with pinpoint accuracy for drill points and a knowledge of what was inside the safe mechanically. I had a few days before this job, so I decided to be- gin my research on drill bits. This took countless hours of reading everything from paid advertisements to private fo- rums and blogs from welders, fabricators and machinists. I attempted to sort through everything from materials like titanium nitrate coating, high-speed steel (HSS), cobalt, black oxide and carbide, and then op- tions like 118° or 135° drill point angles, pilot points, split points, and on and on the list goes. I knew I would need help from a professional, so I was off to the local welding supply store to pick their brains, since they deal with metal and steel every day. They had very good ad- vice for most applications, however they were unfamiliar with the term hardplate or anti-drill plate. The closest thing I could come up with to describe hard- plate was a very hard alloy stainless steel, like that used to make knives, with a Rockwell Scale “C” rating of 60+. They directed me to their best set of drill bits in stock, which was the Champion Brute Force Platinum series. They also stated that these drill bits may not drill some- thing that hard and I may need to use a carbide-tipped drill bit. Putting Them to the Test Trying to put all of this information together is very difficult. I began to WWW.ALOA.ORG “It is very difficult to cut through all the flashy advertising of products and get down to what really works. So many products are designed for impulse buying. …. Usually, the worst products are marketed with the most glitter and glam and have the ‘grab me now’ packaging.” understand that it would be hard to get a straight answer and there would be no possible way to know if a drill bit was going to penetrate this hardplate unless I tried it out for myself. That’s when the light clicked: I needed to try these drill bits out on a piece of this hard anti-drill plate before I go do this in the field with the customer. That would be the only way I could be 100 percent positive that I would be able to accomplish the job in a reasonable amount of time at the location. I had a piece of hardplate ¼" thick out of a Winchester safe with an HRC rat- ing of 60+ for my practice run. I also wanted to find out what drill bits really did work on what materials not just one specific type so I began to collect tool steel, chisel steel, knife steel, spring steel and other hardened alloys that would not be commonly seen or that had not been discussed on Internet forums. I wanted to break this down scientifi- cally to have a 100 percent definitive way to decide what drill bit will work on what material and why. I already had some drill bits from common big-box stores along with the Champion Brute Force Platinum series from the local welding supply store. The specialty brands, like twist diamond drill bits, locksmith drill bits, and solid carbide drill bits, I ordered online. I planned to compare them head- to-head on different materials from some of the hardest steels and alloys that I could possibly come up with. The plan was to research the Rockwell Scale C rating (HRC) of the steel that was being drilled and the HRC rating of the drill bit being used. This would give me a flawless formula for drilling hardened alloys and other uncommon materials that could be encountered. If the drill bit is a certain percentage harder than the material being drilled and has a sharp cutting edge, the drill bit will cut. I just needed to find the formula of how much harder it needed to be for the specific applications. The results from this experiment are listed below, and as far as the Cannon safe goes: All drill bits tested in this ex- periment were purchased outright and no company paid for any of the actions described here. The actual video results of this test can be found at www.wayneslockshop. com and at https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_Mr0sU4SVW8. I can only hope this article helps save other fellow locksmiths and safe technicians the time, frustration and aggravation of finding quality drill bits. APRIL 2019 KEYNOTES 31
