Drill Bits (1 Viewer)

[Jdog]

What do you all recommend as a good set?

 

[e9999]

Project Farm on YT probably has a review on those. That might be a good start.
My general impression is that the differences in steel between reputable brands basic bits are not huge. And regular sharpening will take care of that. So, if you will be doing a lot of holes, you may want to start thinking about a sharpening jig too. May save you a lot of $$ eventually.

 

[mrsleeve]

depends on what material your trying to poke holes in and what your using as a spinny thing. I am going to assume your wanting to poke holes in metal an using a hand drill or home grade drill press. I will say invest in good HSS bits and dont let your family, friends, neighbors kids etc use them with out direct supervision.

I will help made in MN USA, and some of the best you will find... worth it if you take care of them.

Norseman™ Drill & Tool | America's Finest High-Speed Steel Cutting Tools™

Norseman™ Drill & Tool our cutting tools are designed, engineered and superbly crafted to provide long lasting durability

norsemandrill.com

 

[e9999]

here is one:



it also does reinforce the notion of proper speed choice which too many folks ignore apparently

 

[e9999]

this is a bit more technical but interesting:

 

[MrMikeyG]

IMO from personal experience. The new trend with a short bit bonded to a hex shank (for use in impact drivers) is mostly crap. I will look into the ones that @mrsleeve posted above.
I've had pretty good luck with the (possibly discontinued) Dewalt "Pilot Point" bit sets. I've busted 40% of my Milwaukee "red helix" bits:

Milwaukee 48-89-4631 23-Piece Titanium Nitride SHOCKWAVE Red Helix Kit

Milwaukee 48-89-4631 Kit 23 PC TiN Shockwave

www.performancetoolcenter.com

They're bad enough that I might actually pen a letter to them. I broke my 3/8" bit drilling in 3/4" Cedar siding last week, and none of the smaller bits are ever long enough.
If you need to drill in metal, get yourself some Cobalt bits. It will be worth the extra expense.
For finer woodworking and cabinetry, a set of "brad point" bits can be pretty handy.

 

[TRAIL TAILOR]

I buy these... they are cheap, they last through 100s of holes in .120 to .625" mild steel.

KFD- Black and Golds

Black and Gold (KFD) Jobber Drills, Fractional Sizes | DrillsandCutters.com

Black and Gold (KFD) Jobber Drills, Fractional Sizes. Drillsandcutters.com stocks KFD Jobber Drills, Fractional Sizes & a large selection of other drills & cutting tools.

drillsandcutters.com

Jason

 

[Filo Bedo]

The thing with drill bits is that you need to sharpen them when the drilling performance starts to diminish. It’s not a voodoo art like some people would have you believe. A decent bench grinder will keep your bits in premium shape if you maintain the correct cutting angles. I used to work in a machine shop and have drilled thousands of holes in everything from cast iron to hastalloy. Speeds and feed rates are easily found on the net and if you follow those your bits will stay sharper longer and perform better. I’m a fan of cobalt bits for general purpose drilling, they are expensive but if you use the right speed and feed rate (pressure) and keep them sharp they may outlast you.

 

[ntsqd]

I don't buy sets, I buy individual drill bits. I too am a fan of 135° split point cobalt drill bits. Stub length is what I buy unless I have a good reason to buy jobber length. I buy them from local machine shop supply houses (that would be One Way Industrial on the lower left coast) when I need one right away and from places like MSC-Direct and Travers when I can wait. I usually buy 3-10 depending on size and cost, not just one of each size.

 

[e9999]

TBH, I'm surprised at the notion of people buying new bits all the time. It's pretty easy to sharpen them when needed, ranging from using fancy diamond wheel self-contained tools to simple cheap grinder attachments, to just holding them against a grinder (needs some skills - but free). They can basically be reused many times until they get too short, which would take a very long time for most DIYers. Kinda like a chainsaw chain actually. Same idea, sharpen vs buy a new chain. I do get the impression that most folks take for granted that a chain should be sharpened, not so much the case for bits. Of course, it's pretty easy to sharpen a chain even for a novice, so a bit less intimidating than bits maybe.

Not a criticism, to each his own, but I'm wondering if folks tend to overestimate how difficult it is to sharpen bits. And it's a good feeling when that freshly sharpened bit you just did goes through steel like butta...

 

[4Cruisers]

I buy these... they are cheap, they last through 100s of holes in .120 to .625" mild steel.

KFD- Black and Golds

Black and Gold (KFD) Jobber Drills, Fractional Sizes | DrillsandCutters.com

Black and Gold (KFD) Jobber Drills, Fractional Sizes. Drillsandcutters.com stocks KFD Jobber Drills, Fractional Sizes & a large selection of other drills & cutting tools.

drillsandcutters.com

Jason

Thanks for the link, just ordered a set, along with a 5/8" reamer and a 12-28 UNF die for my distributor refurbishment work.

 

[ntsqd]

TBH, I'm surprised at the notion of people buying new bits all the time. It's pretty easy to sharpen them when needed, ranging from using fancy diamond wheel self-contained tools to simple cheap grinder attachments, to just holding them against a grinder (needs some skills - but free). They can basically be reused many times until they get too short, which would take a very long time for most DIYers. Kinda like a chainsaw chain actually. Same idea, sharpen vs buy a new chain. I do get the impression that most folks take for granted that a chain should be sharpened, not so much the case for bits. Of course, it's pretty easy to sharpen a chain even for a novice, so a bit less intimidating than bits maybe.

Not a criticism, to each his own, but I'm wondering if folks tend to overestimate how difficult it is to sharpen bits. And it's a good feeling when that freshly sharpened bit you just did goes through steel like butta...

I don't tend to sharpen smaller bits (say smaller than .500") for two reasons. I usually buy them TiN ot TiAN coated so the sharpening ruins that, and my time to sharpen it is worth more than a $2.00 bit. Not that I place a high dolar value on my time, but that time spent sharpening a drill bit is time where I'm not making direct progress on whatever project I'm working on and time to do that is very valuable. In the case of the split-points it would take a set-up on the surface grinder to replicate all 4 cutting edges. Something that I could do, but am highly unlikely to do.

 

[e9999]

yes, of course, it all depends on what value you place on your time. I will say that it does take me quite a bit of time to do the first bit including setting the tool up etc, but if you are able to keep everything ready to go it's quite fast after that. In fact, I would say that I can then sharpen a bit in less time than it would take me to order one online including a bit of googling for best prices; and way less time than going to the store. Of course, if you are good at doing it by hand on the grinder (and it's not that hard to learn really), it would take all of 30s or so with no set up at all.
As to the coating, well, if the bit is dull, the coating is already lost (and probably was for some time) on the cutting edge so you don't lose anything further by sharpening it. Of course, if you really need the coating to get anything done, then, sure, you will need a new bit frequently. I doubt that is an issue for most DIYers though.

 

[ntsqd]

As I mentioned above somewhere, I buy drills several to many at a time and keep an inventory in a drill dispenser. Usually by the time the coating is worn off the shank is done as well. By that time a drill has likely made a minimum of several hundred holes and doesn't owe me a thing.