How to drill out a bushing?

Nissan11

Nissan11

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 29, 2005
Location
Marston, NC
I need to drill this bushing out to 1/2". It is currently 12mm. How should I do it? I have access to a drill press but I don't know how to secure the bushing to the press.


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Nissan11 said:
I need to drill this bushing out to 1/2". It is currently 12mm. How should I do it? I have access to a drill press but I don't know how to secure the bushing to the press.
ai130.photobucket.com_albums_p275_nissan11_Mobile_20Uploads_IMG_2144.jpg
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I've drilled them out before with a hand drill holding the sleeve in a vice. Sometimes it's easy, sometimes it sucks.
 
Chuck it up in a vice. Use the current size drill bit to center it up then swap out to 1/2" & drill away. Keep it cool with cutting oil.
 
It will work with a vice and a drill I've done it before. Unfortunately you have three big things working against you. Heat, the fact that it's hardened and that your only gonna be taking like .028 out of it. That means only .014 of the flutes of the bit will be cutting. I usually use a straight flute reamer in my drill press to do this, that's more what they're made for. Just make sure you keep it cool and use steady pressure. Once it starts cutting try to keep it cutting. If it stops you'll likely kill the bit and need to re-sharpen.
 
I would call around to a couple of machine shops and see what they would charge to do it. You would come out ahead not having to buy a reamer and not ruining the bushing trying to do it without the proper tools.
 
I'd buy a vice for the drill press and go that route.
 
From your location (Greensboro) it would be a good drive, but I have a lathe and would be happy to open up a bushing for you.... no charge. :)
 
Granny said:
From your location (Greensboro) it would be a good drive, but I have a lathe and would be happy to open up a bushing for you.... no charge. :)
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I work in Hallifax county near VA during the week, 3 hours from you. If I mail you the bushing could you open it up for me?? I could stop by the post office after work today.

Hurley, I had a custom swingarm built for my motocross quad. The rear suspension linkage mount holes are 1/2" and my factory bushings/bolt is 12mm. I can either send the chromoly swingarm all the way back to CA (2 weeks in shipping alone) to have it modified or I can drill out this single bushing and use a bigger bolt.
Buying a new bushing would probably be very difficult and expensive since the outside diameter needs to be metric and the inside diameter needs to be SAE.
 
OK... before we go any further with this... I need you to take a file and see if the metal can actually be cut. If the file will scratch or cut the metal it should be OK, but if not, then it will depend upon the actual hardness of the bushing. If it's hard like a bearing race I would suggest looking at other options as Hurley mentioned. Post your results and we can go from there.
 
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