Drill bits.

ltlvt

ltlvt

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I am looking for a source and brand for decent drill bits. I have the large set that has fractional letter and number sizes but this week some of the smaller ones would barely drill thru aluminum 1/8" thick. i am read to buy once and cry once. What good are bits that will not DRILL?
 
Good day
I like Precision Twist Drill the best. I also like the Cobalt drills, they will keep a cutting edge longer.

if you have a bench grinder, they are fairly easy to sharpen like new. YouTube is a great source for sharpening videos. Mind you the smaller ones are the ones I find the hardest to sharpen. A good pair of cheater glasses will be good for this.
Martin
 
I am not sure if Viking is quite the same company/product as it was 20 years ago. But their old stock (and Norseman too) is excellent. Another vote for PTD, too.

Since you asked about brands specifically, I wanted to post one: Cleveland Twist Drill. Cleveland owns the steel mill that cooks up their metal, all the way through to the finished product. No separation of church and state like so many other manufacturers (hey, we got a bad batch of steel, it's not our fault!) so you know the material is right for the product. Cleveland gives you a nice grind and the metallurgy to back it up.
 
I have a set of Hertel drill bits which are made in USA and cut great. While i agree with all of the comments above about buying good quality bits but on a whim i picked up a 60 piece titanium nitrite coated numbered drill bits from harbor freight. I figured a cheap set of numbered bits for $20 would be a bargain if they drilled at all and i wouldn't be too upset if i broke the little ones. Well i broke a number of the little ones mostly doing dumb things with fragile bits like drilling at an odd angle into aluminum while trying to mount my Z axis scale on my lathe!

But they worked pretty good and i was happy with them but there's a range of bits missing b/c in the #25 - #35 range so i figured i'd pick up a new set. Noticed the new Warrior packaging has been updated, and the new bits were 118* instead of 135* but that shouldn't matter. Well i'm here to tell you that the new set was junk. It's like they're all sharpened off center so they shake like they're bent. I took them back and got my money back - maybe it was a dud set that made it through QC but i was frustrated and said never mind for now.
 
I call the chinese TiNi coating "yellow butter". The budget index kits are great for filling gaps or keeping in a pickup truck toolbox. They can amazingly drill several holes each. They are either buttery soft, or overcooked and brittle, because if the metal for a given drill was heat treated just right, it would have had a name brand laser etched into it and would go in a different bin than the ones going to Harbor Freight. That's low-cost third world manufacturing for you. As long as you know what you are buying (I need this bit range for a wood project, or to drill extractor bores with it) and not duped into thinking it's the last drill bit purchase you'll ever need to make, then it's all good. Expecting to spend so much less and get the same performance (that's a box of drill bits, this is a box of drill bits, what's the difference?) is where people get peeved.
 
pontiac428 said:
I call the chinese TiNi coating "yellow butter". The budget index kits are great for filling gaps or keeping in a pickup truck toolbox. They can amazingly drill several holes each. They are either buttery soft, or overcooked and brittle, because if the metal for a given drill was heat treated just right, it would have had a name brand laser etched into it and would go in a different bin than the ones going to Harbor Freight. That's low-cost third world manufacturing for you. As long as you know what you are buying (I need this bit range for a wood project, or to drill extractor bores with it) and not duped into thinking it's the last drill bit purchase you'll ever need to make, then it's all good. Expecting to spend so much less and get the same performance (that's a box of drill bits, this is a box of drill bits, what's the difference?) is where people get peeved.
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I don't disagree with you but for the $20 i got a lot of use out of the yellow butter drills - more than a few holes each but still home hobbyist type of "production" runs. I built an AXA tool rack where i drilled 36 holes in bed frame angle iron and the #30 bit did it no problem - i've found bed frame angle iron to strip teeth off from bandsaw and recip saw blades with whatever chunks of hard metal is in there so i expected that the bit would be disposed of after that job.

I was trying to convey that i was happy with the old set and disappointed with the new set although it might just be the ones i got. I ordered a NOS set of the exact bits from eBay and i hope that it holds up as well as the set i have. I'd love a set of US made numbered bits but they're at least 5Xs the cost and i'm not sure if they'd be 5Xs better.
 
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