You might try heating the spots your wanting to drill with a propane torch.
You might try heating the spots your wanting to drill with a propane torch.
If I understand that correctly, that will soften the metal by "annealing" it? Will that work with stainless steel?Originally Posted by Toney
After doing LOTS of searching about drilling stainless steel, I found these statements:
"just apply alot of pressure and pulse the drill so it never gets hot if stainless gets hot it will crystalize and you will never drill a hole in it."
I think this is probably what happened with the first set of bits I tried (the steel got too hot and crystalized), and that ruined my chances for drilling with the other bits.
"I Needed to drill some stainless steel, hi quality restaurant grade. So before I burned a dozen bits, called a friend that does iron work. Neat tip. Take a center punch, and grind it on 4 points, like a pyramid, then make the starting point. The bit will cut better then just the normal "dimple" made be a normal center punch. If the bit starts to run dry (as in not cut), dimple again with the punch. I tried it tonight and drilled 24 holes in a 3/16 plate with the same bit with out sharpening once. This was with a hand drill, not a drill press."
This is what I'm going to try next.
If that doesn't work...well, I don't want to pay someone $30 to drill a couple of holes, so I'll probably just forget the whole thing...I'm just out the cost of the G3 mag ($8 if I remember right), and the cost of the various drill bits (maybe another $40), which I can probably use for drilling other materials, just not steel...
You need some sort of lubrication for drilling holes in stainless steels.
Thread cutting oil, band saw water soluble, heck even motor oil. Something to lubricate the cutting edge of the drill bit, plus to help wick away the heat generated.
You can do it with a hand drill, just be ready for when you punch thru, the bit will catch and spin the drill. Ease up on the downward pressure as the bit starts to open the bottom hole. With practice you can hear, and feel it on the drill and the press.
But there are Model 11s that use Axis-style mags. If the 11VT magazine has a plastic tab on the floorplate, then it is the same as an Axis magazine. Based on this, they are the same.
thanks, found my next project for my new axis 223.
That hole and bump is the mag catch point. I didn't have to do anything with the Pmag and I assume the metal mag would be no different.
Here's the follower. I pushed it up until it hit something in the Savage body, lightly grinded until it fit and tested fitment. I think a total of eight areas needed to be touched to get it to fit where the Savage mag becomes single feed. Honestly the easiest part of the whole build.
I bought two C Products Defense ten rounders to originally try this forced marriage of mags, but it was not fitting inside the Savage stepped area without serious grinding through the front corners of the AR mag. I will revisit it with a Ruger Mini 14 mag, but I cannot find one in stainless yet. The weld is going to be difficult enough, I'd rather not add dissimilar metals to the mess as well.
Thank you very much for sharing :)
You're welcome. Good luck with your build.
Might as well throw my own magazine into the mix. Took a cheap ebay Axis mag and merged it with a cheap 30rd Magpul. Ended up with something that holds 14 rounds or so. To me the hardest part was shaping the follower to make the action smooth enough. I used small nails through the mag slots into holes drilled into the Magpul. After fitting the Axis baseplate on I filled everything in with JB Weld. It honestly feels strong as hell.
I wish someone would make this as a commercial product. You end up spending $50 on all the parts to produce it and many hours of fitting...but it's worth it.
Attachment 5373Attachment 5374
Somebody does. Check Snyder Magazines. Be prepared tho, $90 for 10rd and $95 for 15, but you get a guaranteed to work mag and somebody to call if it doesn't.
Well since this ancient thread has popped up again I mite as well add mine in here too, however mine is only a 10 round as that's all you can have here by law. I used small sheet metal screws that I happen to have since they seemed simpler and more secure than pins. When I finished I filled in any gaps between the pmag and the cut out floor plate from the old mag with jb weld plastic bonder(not plastic weld), the result was a very ridged magazine that i feel I would have to work at to damage. I had a slight problem with the pmag spring binding on the top of the cut of pmag inside of the original axis mag when loading the magazine. My solution for this was to just sand off the 90 degree edge of the pmag cut with some sandpaper and my dremel, loads reliably now.
Rusty Shackelford
How much will cost me for you t make me one am disabled and can’t do a lot with my hands? Thanks mike
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