So-called drill wander is a common and frustrating problem in many deep hole drilling operations.

So long as the drilling machine is set up correctly, the drill should – in theory – both enter and exit from the centre point. In practice, however, this rarely happens on deep holes; defined as any hole with a depth to diameter ratio greater than 10 to 1.

Trepanning is a machining technique for drilling large diameter holes in materials, particularly where there is a requirement to retain the solid core or when tolerances are not particularly tied up.

Hone-All's long association with the aerospace industry includes honing, drilling and boring services for bespoke parts, from landing gear for military aircraft to pistons for helicopter rotors . Along the way, we've invested in our people, systems and equipment to ensure accuracy, traceability and repeatability guaranteeing the stringent quality requirements required by this safety critical industry. Our continuing approval to AS9100D is testament to our commitment and success in meeting and exceeding the highest of standards.

Manufacturing enterprises within the engineering footprint remain the largest economic contributor of the engineering-based industries, generating £156.1 billion GVA (or 9.3% of the GVA for all industries) in 2015. Indeed, in 2016 almost half of the engineering footprint turnover came from manufacturing (46.5%).

For our machines to work their best, we need to feed them accurate information. Here are a few pitfalls that can occur in the world of precision drilling, and how you can avoid them.

As a business, we will naturally assume there is a requirement of concentricity or equal wall thickness unless we are told otherwise, for example, if the application is simply for fluid flow

You could argue that we are over-engineering the machining and this is at the expense of our competitiveness within the industry. However, we believe in giving the customer the very best that can be achieved and ensuring that they do not encounter any unexpected issues further down the production process.

At Hone-All we are committed to the belief that simpler is better when it comes to supply chains. Most people know Hone All for our practical services in advanced honing, boring, and CNC machining. However, we’re also dedicated to trouble shooting, project management, and ironing out supply chain creases.

Drill wander is a major feature of all deep hole drilling and deep hole boring machinery and service provision. This is where the drilled hole will start perfectly on centre and although the bore will be completely straight, the exit will be off-centre by an amount relative to the length of the hole drilled.

Specialist services such as deep hole boring, deep hole drilling and honing are a black art to some and still slightly grey for others.

Modern apprenticeships do not cover such skill sets and even the traditional apprenticeships from decades ago only ever covered honing or grinding in a minimal format.

One of the questions that often comes up is why Hone All invests in so many different types of deep hole drilling machines, tooling and equipment?