You would like to make holes in stainless steel sinks for various purposes, steps are explained above. You need to follow the steps mentioned above in order to make the hole successfully in the stainless steel sink.
You can make a bigger hole in stainless steel sink, but it is impossible to make smaller holes after you make one. If your sink is uninstalled, you can use the center punch and a drill press, but if your sink is installed, you will have to use the drill punch and hammer to begin the hole.
Now that you have created the metal hole for the sink, you are ready to install the drain assembly and connect the sink to the tubing. Whenever you are going to install a water faucet, soap dispenser, or an under-sink waste container, drilling into the stainless steel sink becomes a necessity.
Drilling through stainless steel can be difficult, but when installing a soap dispenser or filtering water faucet, this is your only choice. When you begin drilling, there is a good chance that you will slide your bit through a stainless steel surface. Do not use your hands to brush any shavings roughly, because that will scrape the surface of your sink. After successfully drilling the holes for you, I gently wipe off any metal shavings left over so that you will not scrape your stainless sink and you will not injure yourself.
Do not apply too much pressure, because after successfully drilling the hole, you may hit your surroundings with your drill. Remember always to start small with your hole in the drill at a fast speed, and expand the borehole later. Then, using a bit significantly smaller than the hole you ultimately need to cut–a 1/4-inch or 3/32-inch bit would constitute a good enough choice in this situation–start cutting at about half speed, using moderate pressure from the drill. The larger your drill bit size, the quicker the heat will accumulate, so that timing needs to drop off with larger drill bits.
Excessive pressure will have the same effect as drilling at high speeds, this will result in undesirable heat buildup. Even with slower speeds, lower pressure, and a good grease job, heat buildup is unavoidable with stainless drilling. You may get some smokiness when you are drilling, if this happens you must stop the drill immediately because the points are getting too hot.
Drill bits can break while working with any material, but the high pressure used when drilling stainless steel could cause a bit to break off, sending bits of metal flying into your eyes. It gets dangerous once you start drilling into anything, because a lot of tiny bits fly around, which could hurt your eyes.
As the drill tip starts coming through the bottom of a hole, the tendency is that the drill edge will catch the metal and turn the bit being drilled, sometimes with significant force, that could slice you and also fracture bones. When the drill begins spinning, it may skim across the surface of the sink, but you can prevent this issue by making a dimple.
BTW, I am guessing that the sink is about 1/16th thickness of stainless steel, and will need to make cuts near the edges of the sink around its perimeter. I dunno how this will work if there are no flat pieces of stainless that are level, however. What Bill did find, though, was that the first couple of cuts left marks all over the cutting lines, caused by shavings getting underneath the blade of the jigsaw.
After he scratched twigs around the cut line, I placed some strips of masking tape on either side of the cuts to be brushed over with the saw, which cleaned that up. Bill did the stainless stovepipe cover too (about 12×12 inches), strips of masking tape down the cutting line, marked cut lines on masking tape, took about 15 minutes each side, and really clean cuts using a power jigsaw with a cheap metal cutting blade.
I have been drilling 16 quarter-inch holes in stainless steel recently using standard HSS bits, the bits were still sharp and useable when finished. If you follow these tips, you should be able to drill stainless fast using a standard high-speed steel bit you can pick up at any hardware store. Drilling holes in even particularly hard stainless is pretty straightforward, even when you are using relatively basic, low-tech tools. As long as you are using the correct tools and techniques, you should be able to make holes the right size for your appliances.
Some folks will tell you that drilling clear, precise holes through a solid layer of stainless steel is a darned difficult, if not impossible, task. How to drill stainless steel is a question often asked, and drilling stainless steel is, for many, an intimidating endeavor.
Stainless steel may seem like an intimidating material to work with, especially for DIY projects, but it is not that hard as long as you know what you are doing. Given how tough and durable stainless steel is, it is easy to get a little overwhelmed if you find that you have to learn how to cut stainless steel. A plasma cutter is a handy cutting tool that can quickly make work out of any metal, including stainless.
Depending on what materials you are working with, you can slice them with either a tin-snip, a power saw, a circular saw, an angle grinder, or with a plasma torch. Use tin snips like a pair of scissors, and work your way slowly through the material, making sure you do not cut yourself on any edges that you have created. Then, drop the saw down on the surface and let the saw slowly cut through the material until you are done cutting.
Whether using a saw, grinding machine, or plasma cutter for cutting, you must use safety glasses (or full-face mask) and sturdy gloves. Whether you are looking to install a particular set of faucets, or an integrated soap dispenser system, you need to cut a hole into your stainless-steel farm sink, one way or another.