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Right, more tips for you then Edou!
Stainless can be a monkey to work with, it will "work-harden" if you get it hot & let it cool, so much so that it can be nigh impossible to get a non-specialist drill to bite into it.

"Cheapy" drills & taps are ok in most materials, but for stainless & fibre-composites, you really need to be using High Speed Steel (Or Tungsten carbide (Not crappy plain tungsten) or cobalt-steel alloy) for example, Hall or Dormer drills & taps, look for the "HSS" marking, & be warned, a lot of cheap tools claim to be HSS & aren't.

To avoid problems cutting stainless, you need SHARP HSS drills & taps.
When you drill it, you need to find a speed that's right - it needs to be only just fast enough to stop juddering & drill breakage (You'll feel the drill cutting "nicely" at the right speed). You also need to lubricate the drill tip with oil (Cutting oil is best, but automotive oil will do) & you need to keep the pressure on. Fanny about, go too fast or warm the stainless (Or drill bit) up & you'll be in trouble! Depending on thickness of stainless, expect to get through more than 1 drill for every 3 holes, possibly more. Thin is worse to drill than thick (Cos it heats up quicker locally) & different grades of stainless can be easier or harder to work with.
IF the drill starts squeaking, stop immediately & replace with a sharp one, the squeaking is a sign the drill's blunt & is just heating the stainless. Carry on, & even a new sharp drill won't cut it.

Composite/fibre materials cut easily enough, but blunt the tooling really quickly (Hence the need for hard tooling) SO, plan what you're going to drill first, eg do the stainless first & use the blunted drills for the carbon fibre

Just thought of something else....
You can't easily tell from looking or feeling, if a drill is "Sharp", the only way to really be sure is to pay attention to how it cuts in a certain material.
For stainless, if your drill's sharp, lube, speed & pressure are right, you should get swarf that is shiny, continuous & curly. If there's squeaking &/or swarf turns gold/brown/black, you're going too fast &/or the drill's blunt. If the swarf comes off in small bits (Chips), the speed is too fast for the size of drill &/or the pilot hole is too small. Don't confuse this with "judder", which is the drill biting then freeing itself (Due to the springy nature of the material it's made from), which can be caused by going too slow, too small a pilot for the size of drill, or in some cases the ground angles of the cutting faces are wrong - you sometimes find that with some drill manufacturers, I normally just regrind them to correct, cos I can...

Cheers, eddrick for all the info.
My material of choice would normally be aluminium because I'd also be able to anodise that.
So the stainless was something I had to settle for (could drive there with my bike).
But I already had a lot of trouble even cutting it to the desired length...
Remembered stainless screws that were like butter but they were nothing like this stuff.



Man, wish I had some really decent tools. Like a drill standard.
I saw some specialised gadget to resharpen drills and what not at the store I got the stainless today.
And an awesome sanding and grinding machine...

I have to admit, when you said you were playing with stainless, my ears pricked up waiting for some trouble. Ally for toy cars is the way to go, it's light & easy to work with. Titanium isn't too bad either, by the way.

As for stainless fasteners, yes I've noticed that some are as soft as cheese & nothing like the raw material, & why is it the socket head button screws are always the softest?!

Have you got anywhere at your house that could be a workshop? - we've just bought some slot-together benches at work that are really sturdy & were less than 100gbp.
A small vice is a must, a proper bolt-down one, not those mickey mouse clamp-on or suckery ones - should be able to land a 80mm/100mm one for less than 20 quid off Ebay.
A small bench pillar drill - Silverline do an "ok" one for about 30 quid - I've got a "Hilka" branded one, same chinese bit of kit with a different sticker on it - I bought it to "just" do a particular job, but it survived so I kept it. It's about 20 years old now & still ok!
Not looked at bench grinders recently, I've got 2x new ones kicking about, unused, but I'm guessing 20 quid off Ebay. These are a must if you plan to sharpen drill bits. Personally I don't bother sharpening sub-5mm & usually buy 1mm, 2mm, 3mm etc in packs of 10x. Don't bother with those drill-sharpening jig thingies, they're a rip-off - if you have the intelligence to be able to set one up properly, you'll find it much easier to do the job without one! (& it'll get in the way when you go to use the grinder for other stuff!).

Don't have much room... studio appartment. With a nice big balcony though.
Maybe I can create a work bench somewhere. Those props all sound very tempting.

Possibly a dumb suggestion, but what about a fold-up bench fixed to a spare wall, ie like a fold-out bed? Wouldn't be hugely rigid, but better than nothing, & wouldn't take up much room

I've thought about something similar - a working table that swing on the wall and that I can put up and down.
Maybe with some easy to move chairs in front of it for when it's not used...
The balcony would even be big enough to build a small shed on btw.

What are you waiting for then? A balcony shed would be awesome! Get a fireman pole (Or slide) for it too!

It'll probably be until next spring before I can think of creating a more serious workshop. Mostly budget related.
Guess I'll be working with my blocks of wood (and wood clamps are great!) in the meantime.
Maybe female visitors will be tempted to dance around that pole btw...

What, you're looking for reasons other than personal use? I'd put a "no girls allowed" sign up - tell them they can't & they'll do anything to let them...