Holemaking
Whether it’s using drills to make holes, borings bars or reamers to enlarge their IDs, or taps to thread them, this is where to read up about holemaking. Holemaking is a process used to cut a hole in a part or a workpiece.
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ESSENTIAL READING
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When ‘U’ Want to Turn on a Mill
A U-axis head can be a good option for shops hoping to perform turning and boring operations on a CNC milling machine.
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How to Turn Machine Shop Downtime Into Process Expertise
To take advantage of a lull in business, JR Machine devised a week-long cutting tool event that elevated the shop’s capabilities with aerospace alloys.
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How to Tackle Tough Angled Pocket Milling With Two Tools
Milling a deep pocket with a tight corner radius comes with unique challenges, but using both a flat bottom drill and a necked-down finishing tool can help.
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Choosing Your Carbide Grade: A Guide
Without an international standard for designating carbide grades or application ranges, users must rely on relative judgments and background knowledge for success.
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Cutting Tool Technology Aids Lights-Out Machining Applications
These features can help improve cutting tool stability, standardize cutting performance and extend tool life, enabling shops to confidently run unattended shifts.
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How to Improve Peck Drilling Canned Cycles
Most CNCs don’t have a canned cycle for machining deep holes into malleable materials. Here’s what you do.
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Latest Holemaking News And Updates
Flex Waterjet System Provides Efficient Cutting of Complex Parts
IMTS 2026: Flex Machine Tools demonstrates the FlexJet Flx-1365 waterjet system with IGEMS Tilter five-axis cutting head, along with a range of tapping, drilling and torque reaction arm solutions.
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Koma Precision Boring, Facing Solutions Expand Machine Capability
IMTS 2026: Koma Precision showcases its full line of D'Andrea boring and facing solutions — including U-Tronic NC heads and TA-Sensitiv heads.
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Fives Horizontal Boring Mill Boosts Productivity in Large-Part Machining
IMTS 2026: Fives Group showcases its Giddings & Lewis horizontal boring mill, offering modular, configurable setups designed to reduce setup time and maximize throughput for complex, large-component manufacturing.
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Kays Gundrilling Machine Features Custom Workpiece Fixturing, Tooling
IMTS 2026: Kays Engineering's DeHoff 20144 features custom workpiece fixturing and tooling to perform gundrilling, pull boring, roller burnishing and thread tapping operations on a single machine.
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Tungaloy Cutting Tool Supports Single-Pass Drilling, Chamfering
IMTS 2026: Tungaloy-NTK America Inc. expands its DrillMeister exchangeable-head drill line to include pre-thread drills for standard tap sizes, combining drilling and chamfering in a single pass.
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Kennametal Modular Drilling Inserts, Turning Geometry Expand Capabilities for Steel, Cast Iron and General Machining
IMTS 2026: Kennametal introduces the KenTip FS HP insert and the Widia -MU geometry turning insert, targeting improved tool life, chip control and shop-floor flexibility across a range of drilling and turning applications.
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Featured Posts
Methods for Threading Blind Holes in Thin Materials
Struggling with blind holes in thin materials? Use these drill point strategies, tap selections and clearance tips to maximize usable thread depth and meet pull-out specs without redesigning the part.
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When ‘U’ Want to Turn on a Mill
A U-axis head can be a good option for shops hoping to perform turning and boring operations on a CNC milling machine.
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Drill System Reduces Setup Time, Tool Inventory
Tungaloy’s DrillMeister system enables users to build drills for a range of applications with a mix-and-match set of drill heads and tool bodies.
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4+2 Machining Cuts Cycle Times From Days to Minutes
By moving from legacy jig bores and tilt tables to a milling and boring machine, Highland Manufacturing cut cycle times from days to minutes on high-tolerance, large-diameter parts.
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Measuring Torque, Thrust Force for Smart Drilling Operations
To monitor drilling operations for smart manufacturing solutions, torque and thrust force can be measured.
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Finding the Right Tools for a Turning Shop
Xcelicut is a startup shop that has grown thanks to the right machines, cutting tools, grants and other resources.
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FAQ: Holemaking
What Are Carbide Coatings?
Most modern carbide inserts and solid carbide tools are coated with a thin film (between 3 and 20 microns, or 0.0001 to 0.0007 inch). The coating is typically composed of titanium nitride, aluminum oxide and titanium carbon nitride layers. This coating increases the hardness and creates a heat barrier between the cut and the substrate.
What is a counterbore?
Counterboring is a machining operation that will enlarge an existing hole’s diameter to a specified depth. Traditionally, counterboring is done with either a special counterboring tool that has a pilot, or it is done with an end mill. In either case, the diameter of the tool (end mill or counterbore) must match the diameter that is counterbored.
Traditional counterboring is great for smaller holes, but as holes get larger, the cutting tools get more expensive.
What is countersinking?
A countersink is a functional surface upon which a fastener head bears. Because fastener performance is so important, countersink tolerances are critical.
What is a chamfer?
Hole chamfers are usually specified simply to make it easier to insert a screw, pin, bushing, or other assembly component. The component doesn't bear on the chamfer, so diameter and angle tolerances are usually not critical to the part's performance.
Holemaking Supplier Categories
- Deep Hole Drilling Machines (Gun Drilling)
- Boring Tools & Heads for Machining Centers
- Drills
- Drill Bushings
- Fixtured Drilling & Tapping Units
- Boring Tools
- Multi-Spindle Drilling Machines
- Vertical, Up to Four-Axis
- Radial Arm Drilling Machines
- Drilling Heads/Attachments
- Bench & Column Drilling Machines
- Gundrills
- Boring Tools for Turning Machines
- Reamers
- Drill Chucks
