Educate me in drill bits

[Rewind97]

I'm wanting to build up my drill bit collection, right now I just have some I've been given, don't even know what kind they are. Do I need some just for wood and then another for metal?

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[shoturtle]

It really depends on what you are drilling. I have wood bits, masonry and metal bits, but I work with all three bits around the house. I would not get caught up on getting a huge set for every size in each type. Get sets that meat your needs.

 

[Murphy4570]

Yes! Dont mix bits for wood and metal work. Keep high speed steel bits or cobalt for steel work. Titanium coated ( the gold coating) bits are useless once the coating wears off the first time you use em. A good set of steel bits going up to 1/2" will run you $200-300 or so.

 

[Lkdelta]

what size holes are you going to need?

there are twist, spade and hole saws

 

[djjsr]

For wood only, I recommend brad point and Forstner bits.

 

[EricS]

Don't for get in twist drill there are metric(0.1 increments) ,fractional(1/64 increments),letter drills(A-Z) and number drills(80-0) example 1/4-20 tap requires a #7 drill and a 5/16-18 tap requires an F drill.

Eric

 

[Rewind97]

what size holes are you going to need?

there are twist, spade and hole saws

Just wanting to build up a good set for wood and metal.......General use

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[anthony666]

all the above, plus;

buy a big cheap set from a box store .. replace with good HSS stuff as you break them .. learn the right speeds for the application

and get someone to show you how to properly sharpen and dress a bit on a grinding wheel .. i have some drill bits that are 40 year old nubs that ive had since i was a kid

 

[woody 73]

For wood only, I recommend brad point and Forstner bits.

Start out with the above for a nice woodworking set.

then give Harry J. Epstein a call and pick up a Norseman set of drill bits for metal working.

with all three sets that will give you a very nice start for both metal/woodworking needs in your near future.

 

[helterskelter]

Buy individual bits on an as needed basis. No use for a big index of bits when you won't use 90% of them. Buy high quality bits. I hate using anything that isn't carbide , makes everything else seem dull. But that's in an industrial application with rigid fixtures and tool holding.

 

[justanengineer]

Hit the yard sales and buy older US made indexes for a few dollars each. Combine them as appropriate and when you find a dull drill, use the opportunity to learn to offhand grind drills. You can never have too many twist drills. As far as wood vs metal cutting drills, a good quality set of standard HSS twist drills should be able to handle both nicely. If you need a large/special bit I would suggest buying them individually unless you can find a set used for dirt cheap.

 

[jetmech09]

There are also drill bits for composite materials such as these:
https://www.onsrud.com/product/Item/m/itemDetail.html?itemId=86-102

It all depends on what material you are drilling into. HSS won't work too well for stainless or titanium, etc. etc.

 

[fotoflojoe]

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy Wood River (WoodCraft house brand) brad point bits! I've had several 1/8" bits "fold up" in use. Thing is, I was only drilling into soft pine when this happened. I guess they're made out of foil gum wrappers.

Also, the larger diameter bits have a tremendous amount of run out.

That's what I get for being cheap!

 

[carterbeauford]

Whatever you do, DO NOT buy Wood River (WoodCraft house brand) brad point bits! I've had several 1/8" bits "fold up" in use. Thing is, I was only drilling into soft pine when this happened. I guess they're made out of foil gum wrappers.

Also, the larger diameter bits have a tremendous amount of run out.

That's what I get for being cheap!

Lee Valley HSS

 

[rsanter]

There are also drill bits for plastic for drilling into lexan and acrylic which lessen the chance of chipout or cracking

Bob

 

[Zeke]

Buy individual bits on an as needed basis. No use for a big index of bits when you won't use 90% of them. Buy high quality bits. I hate using anything that isn't carbide , makes everything else seem dull. But that's in an industrial application with rigid fixtures and tool holding.

If any tapping is going to be done, then you need the fractional bits. A full set in 64ths isn't that expensive. But do buy a 2nd set in 1/8ths for general use in your drill motor or cordless. If you don't have a bench grinder with a good wheel, get one. Next step would be a Drill Doctor, but not everyone likes them.

 

[neophyte]

Yes! Dont mix bits for wood and metal work. Keep high speed steel bits or cobalt for steel work. Titanium coated ( the gold coating) bits are useless once the coating wears off the first time you use em. A good set of steel bits going up to 1/2" will run you $200-300 or so.

The special coatings( i.e. titanium nitrate, boron carbide, etc.) are designed and selected for drilling certain materials. The coating, or finish, on the drill bit should optimally be matched up to the material you are drilling. Titanium nitrate reduces galling and friction when drilling materials, such as aluminum and stainless steel. Bright finish bits tend to work better in wood than black oxide bits do.

Do yourself a favor and buy at least one full drill set, such as a 29 piece fractional set, 1/16" to 1/2" in 1/64" increments, or a 25 piece metric 1mm-13mm. set in .5mm. increments. This should cover most wood drilling applications, and be passable for a number of metal applications even if they call for a different bit size.

 

[Adam.C]

Consider buying a drill dr drill bit sharpener. No drill cuts worse than a dull one. Then you can buy cheap drills or used drills and sharpen them when you need them.

If you want to buy good drills now, here's what I recommend for general purpose use:
1 set 118 degree HSS bits for wood. 1/16" increments is fine, 1/32 is better.

If you have a drill press or plan to get one, you can drill metal efficiently with that. If so, buy 120 degree split point cobalt drills made in the USA in 1/64 or 1/32 increments (based on what you can afford and how much metal work you will be doing). Import drills are fine for wood, but won't do well for metal for long.

If you want to tap holes, buy a tap and drill set that includes the special drills. I don't recommend buying full sets of letter and number drills.

Brad points are good for wood but you can't sharpen them.
Spade bits are generally garbage, but they have their uses.
Forstner bits are good when they are good, terrible when they are cheap imports.

Generally, US made drills are significantly better than everybody else's ****. This isn't just a patriotism thing. Its my observation.

 

[bcradio]

Drill:

Drill BIT:

 

[justanengineer]

Drill Motor:

Drill:

Fixed it for ya! Jk. Either is correct.

 

[jteck75]

all the above, plus;

buy a big cheap set from a box store .. replace with good HSS stuff as you break them .. learn the right speeds for the application

and get someone to show you how to properly sharpen and dress a bit on a grinding wheel .. i have some drill bits that are 40 year old nubs that ive had since i was a kid

+1

 

[TwoInch]

Drill:

Drill BIT:

 

[reyna14]

Advise I have is, don't buy cheap. MSC Direct has great deals on Hertel US made sets all the time. A 1/16-1/2" 29 piece HSS set will run you ~$60-70 in their sales flyer. Night and day difference from my HF throw away set and other cheap Chinese **** I have laying around. Same thing with taps, get good ones.

I also have some brad point and paddle wood bits, masonry bits and some other stuff like carbide for special occasions. I do still use the cheap junk, but only as grab and go around the house or at the race track.

 

[ScaldedDog]

Can black oxide bits be used effectively on steel and, occasionally, aluminum? I've always used pilot-point Dewalt bits, but have a brand new set of black oxide ones. Should I keep 'em, or trade 'em?

Mark

 

[larry_g]

Black will do you just fine. The shiny is just a different finish with no real bearing on the work it will do. Now that said you can have black or shiny on carbon bits or HSS, good quality or bad.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[ScaldedDog]

Thanks Larry. Do you prefer pilot bits over non-pilot ones? All I've used for years are the pilots.

Mark

 

[wafrederick]

Don't buy the drill bits from the junk tool sales and I learned my lesson on them.Bought a brad point set from one of those Homier tool sales,would not drill at all and spun.I threw them away and bought a set from Rockler which have been good so far.I bought a Knkut set for work and been great drill bits.

 

[larry_g]

Thanks Larry. Do you prefer pilot bits over non-pilot ones? All I've used for years are the pilots.

Mark

I have not used pilot bits. That said most of my drilling is in a machine shop setting and they are not the customary bit there.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[ozyborn]

Go to farm auctions. Get several sets of old bits and sharpen them. I have a couple new full sets. One Cobalt for metals. One HSS for rest. From the auctions I have made nice sets of auger, forstner, brad point, and spade bits.

Cheap new bits are cheap, The use once and toss kind, not even worth putting in the drill.