"Rich S." wrote

Amen to that, Jim. Have you ever let a drill bit spin just for a second on
some stainless and work-harden the surface?

My downfall is always using a large diameter bit, in a drill press that will
not go slow enough, in thick steel.

It is amazing how you can take the temper out of a 21/32" bit, in just a
couple seconds. DAMHIKT !

Also, I found you can actually get a molten blob of glass on the end of a
regular HSS drill bit. You DO have to try quite hard to do that, tho!
Especially the part of not breaking the glass, in the process. :-o

Sounds like he is using the reamer correctly, tho. It's just the lasered
skin that's dulling the tool.

I guess the answer is probably pretty obvious, but would it be possible to
normalize the steel right around the small area of the hole? Too much loss
of strength?

It does sound like lowering the tool speed would be worth the try, once the
new reamers get there. It will be fairly obvious is the tool speed is too
low, once a few holes are attempted.
--
Jim in NC