Silent Ultrasonic Drill

[NightStalker]

I was browsing Google looking for ways of quietly breaching reinforced concrete for...errr...remodeling my house ;), when I found this interesting tidbit.

http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/files/images/browse/ultrasonic_drill_2.gif (177kb)

An ultrasonic drill that will penetrate the hardest rock like basalt or granite, with hardly any force required, as well as NO noise. :)

Cybersonics, Inc., of Erie, Penn. is producing them now, though I've no idea how much they cost.

What could you do with a drill that'll go through the hardest concrete with minimal effort, NO noise (my favorite part of it all), and with minimal vibrations to set of the alarm...on your neighbors car, of course.

I didn't put this in tools since it's more related (to me anyways) to demolishing concrete and rock for whatever purpose you may have in mind.

[mongo blongo]

Sweet! It could also make a quite interesting weapon. :eek: I think they use something like this in lypo-suction. They use an ultrasound pen like thing which liquifies the fat. I've always wanted one. :)

[thrall]

These drills can work only on brittle meterials like rocks or ceramic but not on metals.For metal drilling purpose ultrasonic machining uses a slurry of ceramic powder that helps drilling by rubbing the metal with ceramic dust powered by the drill.

So getting into neighbours cars lock will be difficult I suppose.

Anyone knows some ultrasonic drill to drill in metals without using slurry?

[Lightfoot]

Perhaps another method for avoiding seismic detectors would be hydro abrasive cutting, though the systems are quite bulky and not particularly silent (though quieter than a jackhammer) they do cut through most materials . cf. http://www.xtek.net/catalogue/index.shtml

[Jacks Complete]

You can't cut metal with ultrasound, but you can weld really nicely.

I have played with ultrasound tapelayers that weld the strip that way.

If you could get the power up high enough, I guess you could melt it away...