Need hep with drilling resin

[butchbird]

Not exactly connected to battletech but as I assume there's more then one good modeler on this board and the answer to my question on brushes was so helpfull...

I'm encoutering a problem in drilling a bore for a 5mm magnet in a resin HS-129 from battlefront.

So I got a pin vise set. Wonderful little thing, I progressively enlarged my bore until I hit 1/8". I'd procured a bigger hand drill in which I then proceeded to insert a 5/32 drill bit.

From there...things changed. A bigger drill then 1/8 seems too aggressive and tend to bite too hard. Feels like it's trying to rip off instead of cutting, bites in the material. Thank the gods of miniatures that I looked into this and didn't barge in with an electric drill.
Unfortunately I still had some way to go, needing to drill the bore ideally to 1/4", at worst to 5mm so I can at least insert the magnet. What to do? Can always try to go with less increment (go with 1/64 increments, but that will mean havind to procure new drill bits, probably at work), but I'm asking here first in case there's something I don't know about drilling resin.

I'm using good old HSS drill bits, 118 degrees lip. Is there a different kind of drill bit that is recommended for resin? Perhaps use a less agressive angle for the drill? Should I simply abandon the idea of 5mm magnets and go smaller?

Any help to face this new issue is welcome

[worktroll]

Can't say I've used a drill bit as big as 5mm, but some thoughts.

1) You'll need a vice, clamp, or grip to hold what you're drilling into. I think whatever you use will be big enough to need two hands to control it.

2) Given 1), you could look at a Dremel, or even a cheap-ass imitation Dremel. Two hands would give you enough control, I think.

3) Considered using a brad point drill bit? They're for woodwork, but you can get them at 5mm, and I think they might do what you're looking for more efficiently than a conventional bit.

Hope that makes sense!

[butchbird]

Can't say I've used a drill bit as big as 5mm, but some thoughts.

1) You'll need a vice, clamp, or grip to hold what you're drilling into. I think whatever you use will be big enough to need two hands to control it.

2) Given 1), you could look at a Dremel, or even a cheap-ass imitation Dremel. Two hands would give you enough control, I think.

3) Considered using a brad point drill bit? They're for woodwork, but you can get them at 5mm, and I think they might do what you're looking for more efficiently than a conventional bit.

Hope that makes sense!

Okay, considered the answer and checked on what I had elsewhere.

1) I'm loathe to put those two resin hs-129 in my vise. Very fragile, one of 'em arrived broken in pieces (more assembly, yay!), and they're rare as pope dung at this stage of the "version". As for clamps, modeling is relatively new to me and I'm more of a metal guy...so I can't really figure out a good set-up. Have any pointers?

2) Resin chips off real easily. Have you prior experience using a dremel on brittle resin minis? Which type of head would you think is best suited?

3) Considered it, wasn't sure. Since you advocate it that very well might be my next attempt if 1/64 increment of metal hss drills leads to more danger.

[worktroll]

Sorry. My experience is drilling with 1mm & smaller drillbits - for pinning 'Mech parts - for which mini in one hand, pin vice in the other works well. I can't imagine being able to manage anything bigger than a pin vice with only one hand.

I do have a cheap-ass Dremel imitation - $20 from the local hardware store 10-15 years ago. But it's only got the torque for drilling balsa or dried clay. Mainly use it these days for carving cockpits into lumps of clay, or with the brass brush getting recalcitrant paint off metal minis. My resin drilling has all been with the pin vice, so haven't had the chipping problem. And of course you know to wear a face mask while drilling resin - that stuff is bad for your lungs.

You mention Hs-129s. I'm guessing you want to magnetise the weapon pods, either for movement or for variation? I'd almost recommend "poor man's magnet" - blu-tak. Would be enough to hold the weapons pod on depending on scale. I use blu-tak to secure IWM tank turrets mainly.

[butchbird]

Actually it is to enable the possibility to detach the plane from it's flight stand. Too easy to knock it down, 'specially when you have a child amongst the players. Take it down when it's not making a strafe.

But yeah, Blu-tak, would never have thought about that one. Might be a life saver if the drilling past 1/8 proves too dangerous...or some other material relatively similar.

Thanks again

[butchbird]

So in case anybody was wondering...

As I said, I'd been able to drill with a pin vise in resin up to 1/8 easily. Precision pin vises are truely a marvel. Went up to 5/32, chipped too much, asked around and there we were.

Brought my caliper home for the weeked along with a complement on drill bits in increments of 1/64 so as to go from 9/64 to hopefully 1/4.

Problem: the HS-129's fuselage made  0.248" at its widest. Same size as the head of the flightstand. Thought about it, opted to house the 3/16 magnet in and leave it at that. Might as well have simply glued it under the fuselage but I was not very excited at that prospect, using worktroll's advice of putty/blue-tak or similar stuff was kind of more appealing, would've probably glued the head of the flight stand on the fuselage then worked the flight stand to allow the head to be removable...but I really wanted to use my new hand drill (bigger then pin vise, up to 3/8 drill bits, not as good a product as pin vise but still good) and magnetize the whole thing.

So I went along and drilled into the resin in 1/64 increments.

While the resin chipped a bit, I was able to successfully and with minimal chipping to bore the hole up to 3/16 size so as to be able to house the magnet in the fuselage and glue it there. Tried to go to 13/64, resistance was too great. Lost one of the magnets though, don't understand how. Eyes got too foggy due to fatigue, will try to find it again tomorrow but more likely I'll have to buy some.

So yeah, you can successfully drill into brittle resin up to 3/16 inches with little damage to the mini.

[butchbird]

So having to buy magnets has got me thinking.

I'm already planning to use FoW small based infantry to proxy on the BT field, those small bases fit in hexes just fine. Now since I'm gonna have some spare magnets, why not make battletech bases for the FoW planes to use as proxy for BT? The odds of a "easy to obtain" mechbuster conventional plane in the near future are rather slim afterall.

So here I am once again, humbly asking for advice on custom basing minis for use with battletech. Evidently, due to my background, I'm already thinking about some stainless hex bases and all...anything more obvious I'm missing?

[mechnut450]

hopefully you got this done already. but if actually resin  why not just get a 5 mm sanding disk and use it then can just put a couple drops of resin  in and harden with magnet in place. ( been 3d printing and I found a small  sanding dish on my dremel works good (not done a 5mm hole but i make 2-3 mm drain holes on minis  if i print hollow and just a drop of resin and a uv light to fill once i am done.