Best Set of Metric/standard Drill Bits?

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I would tend to agree with Mike. A 115 piece of cheap bits will work. Mark the bit with a sharpie every time you use it. When you get to 5-10 marks, go get a Norseman replacement.

I have a full set of Chicago-Latrobe that I like!

Aside: General purpose drill bits have a cutting flute on the bottom of the bit. Better quality bits intended for metal-work have a flat on the cutting flute. It prevents the bit from digging in when drilling chippy / brittle material.

Added later; A Drill Doctor is one of the best things for drill bits. It must be used exactly as described. Many people do not get good results, but I have always gotten excellent sharp bits from the DD.
 
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While I like Norseman bits quite a lot, but I go similar to Randy's suggestion. I bought a cheap Standard, Letter and Numbered 115 piece set from Harbor Freight on sale (titanium coated). I sharpen them with my Drill Doctor when needed and if I wear one out or break it, I replace it with a Norseman. But that's just me.
 
This is a very gross loaded question. Also one with missing information. Take for example the lack of knowing is pen making the *ONLY* thing that you will need to drill? Any other hobbies/projects/etc that you use drill bits for?

Some material has a tendency to crack if your tube to blank material is very tight, i.e. truestone. This and the variations in tube sizes would be a good reason to set a SET, so you can have the size up and size down in 1/64" increments.
 
A good alternative is a boring head in the tailstock.
This method has many advantages. Here are some...:wink:
1. Infinitely variable size
2. Easy to sharpen the bits
3. Virtually no heat build up
4. Great for boring segmented blanks with much less blow up risk
5. You can 'sneak up' on the correct size.
 
For the SAE bits I have the complete set from Harbor Freight because I make more than pens. As I work on projects I then replace the HF bits that I use the most with better grades of bits. For $30 on sale, I have every size I can ever need. I now have quality bits for the ones I use the most.

I don't use enough of the metric sizes to do the same, so I buy them as I need them and store them with the appropriate project/pen set. Maybe one day I will, but I doubt it.
 
99% of what I use mine for is penturning and I've found the titanium coated 115 piece set from Harbor Freight set and the HF brad point metric set to be suitable for me.
If I need a good one for a specific situation than I'll buy that particular one.
 
So I have a Drill Doctor....can anyone convince me to invest in good high quality(expensive) bits? I find that cheap bits such as harbor freight sets perform great when kept sharpened. Any thoughts on this?
 
Briskar said:
So I have a Drill Doctor....can anyone convince me to invest in good high quality(expensive) bits? I find that cheap bits such as harbor freight sets perform great when kept sharpened. Any thoughts on this?
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I can :) watch.


The lower quality bits are not perfectly round and thus have a 'wobble factor' called run-out. This run out will cause you drilled holes to be imperfect, not only in diameter but not perfectly round.
 
edstreet said:
Briskar said:
So I have a Drill Doctor....can anyone convince me to invest in good high quality(expensive) bits? I find that cheap bits such as harbor freight sets perform great when kept sharpened. Any thoughts on this?
Click to expand...

I can :) watch.


The lower quality bits are not perfectly round and thus have a 'wobble factor' called run-out. This run out will cause you drilled holes to be imperfect, not only in diameter but not perfectly round.
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Good point. How common is this? Do you see this on all, or most cheap bits?
 
I also had one of those sets in the 90s. If your drilling soft material its ok. But I found several of the bits had duplicates and not all of them were the size they were supposed to be.
 
Well that is the problem, there is no hard and fast rule as to which ones are bent.

Second point I should have made earlier was heat treatment, there have been numerous people I know buy 'new' bits and the bit bends in a 45-90 degree angle super easy, and does not break in half either so that means poor heat treatment or horrible steel, or both really.

Hard/soft spots in the material will make sharpening pure hell, you may get a hard spot and that could do wonders but once past that it's super soft so you will have to grind and grind to get to the hard spots. There is no hard/fast rule on that one either.

In short you are buying quality and accuracy. The main problem si that accuracy is not listed.
 
The week of tool bending

bent-drill-bit1-530x394.jpg


rCYqWp


What drill doctor could fix that one? :)
 
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Monty said:
I doubt you would encounter either problem drilling a pen blank. If you did, you must be trying to drill petrified wood.
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That is likely very indeed true.

However, as with most people when you buy some shop equipment you will find 'oh I can do this with it' next thing you know you are doing multiple things with it. Same holds true for drill bits.
 
There are exceptions to everything, even the best of companies produce some "lemons". In my 60 years of working with wood and metal work I have never seen a drill bit bend, snap in 2 pieces yes, both expensive and cheap, most were because of operator error. As to the second drill but that was burned, that wasn't all the drill bits fault, there is some operator error involved, looked like he was drilling to fast without lubricant. Probably also started with a dull bit, whose fault was that?
 
I buy good cobalt drills for any sizes I use alot like 1/4", 5/6" 3/8" etc. For pen drilling I agree colt 5 bits all the way. They dont last quite as long as cobalt but they do really reduce break out.
 
Well I ordered the Norseman friday......But as luck has always treated me...I was given a 29 pc set of Dewalt bits for Fathers Day...I guess we will compare the 2.
 
dogcatcher said:
There are exceptions to everything, even the best of companies produce some "lemons". In my 60 years of working with wood and metal work I have never seen a drill bit bend, snap in 2 pieces yes, both expensive and cheap, most were because of operator error. As to the second drill but that was burned, that wasn't all the drill bits fault, there is some operator error involved, looked like he was drilling to fast without lubricant. Probably also started with a dull bit, whose fault was that?
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I suspect that a torch was involved in the first one, also. Either way, I don't see either thing happening with a drill bit in normal use.

Like others, I went with the big HF set and replace individual bits with 'quality' ones as necessary.
 
I bought a small set of bits once from Sears, that was on a cart of half price items. They were cheap to begin with, at half price, I figured, what the heck. First one I use to drill a hole in some pretty soft wood bent right over. Like they were made out of soft lead! I was shocked, but it was also funny. I just threw the them away.
 
The first bent drill bit photo is for masonary and there has been numerous reports of this happening.

The second drill bit was used to drill into tempered steel. Well the subject was harder than the drill bit and well the rest is history.

I have known several people who bought new drill bits and they bend like this, poor quality and poor heat treatment plus not the best setup to drill will net you problems like this
 
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