Drilling Track

[ljhuuki]

Hi all, I am about to build the track. I bought to rubber belting from Barrie without the holes drilled in it which maybe I should have got them drilled in. Any idea of where I can get a bit for drilling a nice 1/4" hole??? Barrie any ideas??? Thanks.

[Barrie2777]

I don't think one exists. You will have to run the bit back and forth to create a hole. When drilling rubber, the rubber expands away from the bit then fills in the hole when the bit is retracted. I did the first ones with a regular drill bit with spade points but to the same or near identical effect. The next batch we used a regular router bit and got a nice hole. Can you get the belting to me in Alliston? I could send you belting with holes.

[fap67]

Drill bits for drilling rubber are very common for putting studs in newer snowmobiles. I bought mine at Hay Days from a place called Snow Studs, phone # 1-888-234-9822 or http://www.snowstuds.com . Most studs these days require a 5/16" hole and most of the places at Hay Days only had 5/16" bits. This place was the only one that I found that sold 1/4" bits.[

[Barrie2777]

Is that not a hole punch mounted in a drill? I have a set. I'm going to try them!

[fap67]

It could be used as a punch but they are sold as drill bits. The first one that I saw was back in the 80's, a friend of mine raced snowmobiles and bought one of these bits. Before he had the drill bit, he would sharpen up a piece of roundstock, weld a handle on the other end, then heat the pointed end up red hot and melt the holes in the track. Thats when it was time for me to leave and go back after the smoke cleared.

[Barrie2777]

I tried my "punches" in a drill and they do a fine job. They were bought as a set of eight from Busy Bee as hole punches for leather, rubber, cork etc and are extremely inexpensive. I find the resulting hole to be a bit loose since the whole diameter of the "bit/punch" must go through the belting.

[HUS-SKI ED 1961]

At the factory we used rubber drills but I cannot remember what they looked like. I do remember that they were used for drilling rubber conveyor belting and we purchased them from industrial mill supply companies.

[bhill]

i am a little late but ed is right,,,, there is a commercial bit used by convayer belt people and it does drill to size in ontario some one like RW hamilton has them unlike hole punches they have a very thin side wall and lots of the big quarry and mining belts are 2 inches thick so they cant drive a standard hole punch through
any industrial supplier that handles flex-co products or similar will have access
belt punch is on left standard hole punc is on right belt punch can be used with a hammer or ,,,,,,,
easier yet put in a drill