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Tip: Hex Adapter For Deburring

Adam Oke

Adam Oke

Well Known Member
I am too cheap to fork over $16 for a hex adapter for deburring. I was looking for alternatives and found a hex chuck adapter but those were going to be more expensive than the bit from Avery. After lots of grumbling about not wanting to pay $16 for a bit, I came up with this dirt cheap/free idea.

Step 1: Go to your peanut jar full of random nuts.

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Step 2: Find all of the 1/4"-28 thread nuts.

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Step 3: Hit it with some break cleaner and screw the nut on your countersink bit.

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Step 4: Use a 1/4" Hex 11mm or 7/16 socket and get back to deburring!

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I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner!
 
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Make sure it doesn't wobble and be careful you don't countersink the holes instead of debur with such a large tool! I personally prefer the little hand held tools for deburring on the RV, on thin soft materials (pretty much everthing on the RV) it's very easy to get carried away and take off to much material.
 
Walt said:
... I personally prefer the little hand held tools for deburring on the RV, on thin soft materials (pretty much everthing on the RV) it's very easy to get carried away and take off to much material.
Click to expand...

+1 for me. I just did rudder skins (0.016) last night, and there's no way I would approach that job with anything turned by a motor. Here's my weapon of choice (from Avery IIRC):

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I like your ingenuity but deburing needs a light touch. Be very careful with the powered deburing with your tool. It can be done but you don't want to countersink the hole. You just want to spin the tool enough to knock off any left over rough burs.
 
You shouldn't have to worry about taking off too much metal with this "power tool". It is a 3.6V screwdriver. You can get way more RPM out of the handheld duburring tool as shown above with just a flick of the wrist, let alone "full blast" with this under-powered unit. Don't be attaching this to your Sioux Drill! :eek:

However, the valid concern would be wobble. A magnetic socket is key.
 
I also use an electric screwdriver for most of my deburring. It turns slower than I do using the manual tool. As with any tool, the user determines the proper application. I have no problem with this setup.

That being said, I also had the problem of fitting the round peg (bit) into a hex hole (driver). I just wrapped the threads of the bit with blue tape and shoved it into the driver hex. This has worked perfectly to date for the emp, wings, and fuselage. Once the bit is crammed into the hex, turn it a few times, the threads will force the tape to bunch and lock it in place (like a rubber stern-plug on a boat).
 
Slow turning electric screwdrivers are great for deburing. The straight ones are even better since you can keep the bit aligned properly.

Very easy to get equal or better results over the hand held spinner tool. That tool guarantees a wobble in the turn.....
 
For the occasional stubborn burr, I sometimes "wobble" the hand tool on purpose. It looks to me like the cutting angle is shallower when "wobbling". Also, I rarely use more than one or two turns with the hand tool, and I find it easier to count the turns when I'm doing the turning. I suppose though that it wouldn't take long to get the timing down for a particular screwdriver.
 
This was recommended to me by VAF'er Jim W. about six or seven years ago (thank you Mr. Right!) :)

http://www.cleavelandtoolstore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=DB04

It has been and continues to be my #1 goto choice for deburring almost everything on my project. I have used it many times to countersink holes for rivets when I didn't feel like setting up the micro stop countersink for a few holes.

It has only one cutting edge so it is much more forgiving than the other quick deburr tools that have three blades that tend to countersink where you only want to deburr.

Using it in a battery powered drill made quick(er) work of deburring all the wing and fuse skins. I also use mostly it by hand, turning it with my thumb and index finger to deburr things.

Great tool! Just wanted to pass it along.
 
I figured that with at least 56,000 deburring operations I'd be doing over the course of the build, that $16 for a specialty, high quality tool would be money well spent.
 
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