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Thread: Glass drills

  1. #1
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    Default Glass drills

    I'm not sure where to put this but given the recent thread on drill bit sharpeners....

    Some time back I happened to have on TV in the background one of those infomercials. The "do it all drill". I don't know what they were charging, probably some ridiculous price to pay for the ads... but the ability of teh tungsten carbide drills to do difficult jobs looked interesting.

    Anyway I recognised them from my ebay wanderings. What they are selling is essentially glass drills, which you can get on ebay for about $5-$6 a set of 5.

    Be aware I'm not talking about the core drills, I'm talking about the drills with a spear shaped head and plain shank. The ones I bought have a hex shank so I can use them in my impact driver. This is a link to a current ebay auction but of course it will disappear later.

    https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/5Pcs-Set...IPV:rk:77:pf:0

    So I lashed out and bought some to see how they would go. They may well be the best $5 I've ever spent. I don't know how accurate they are and I don't know that I'd turn to them for precision drilling but when you have a difficult job,like drilling out rusty old gutter bolts on my roof last week,or through hard steel rivets on my ute's steel tray they are absolute magic. On the ute for example I'd destroyed several 3 mm jobber drills trying just to get a pilot hole through. The glass drills just did it, and really fast aswell. They ripped through those rusty bolts and they don't seem to go blunt at all. No lubricant required.

    So it might be worth considering getting a set, especially if you expect to do difficult unpleasant drilling jobs like the above.
    I'm just a startled bunny in the headlights of life. L.J. Young.
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  3. #2
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    Default

    Perfect timing. I'm looking to buy just these kind of things to put drainage holes in some ceramic pots!

    Thank you

    Edit: ordered!

  4. #3
    rrich Guest

    Default

    Interesting! Just if you are actually drilling glass, use a cooling liquid. Mineral spirits preferred.

  5. #4
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    Default

    Yes correct. I didn't think to mention that.

    Lubrication doesn't hurt anyway but I specifically bought these for butchering jobs where I'm dealing with a difficult situation.

    Also I took the end off the 3mm one on the first cut, but that's because it jammed and the shaft twisted off. The head itself was fine. Any drill would have broken in that situation, so they aren't unkillable. They are however dirt cheap and really handy in those situations.
    I'm just a startled bunny in the headlights of life. L.J. Young.
    We live in a free country. We have freedom of choice. You can choose to agree with me, or you can choose to be wrong.
    Wait! No one told you your government was a sitcom?

  6. #5
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    Default

    Looks good. Do you need to punch a dimple in the glass first, to start the drill accurately?
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  7. #6
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    Default

    Thanks Damian, will give them a shot. Ordered the last set.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  8. #7
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    Thanks Damian,

    Just ordered some too, I think there also called D bits but not sure on that.
    Bunnings also sell them as tile dill bits for quite bit more money.
    They are also what hand saw makers use to put holes in the saw plate.
    Which generally is 1095 tool steel sheet(tuff stuff)

    Cheers Matt,

  9. #8
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    Default

    I too have just ordered the last set! I already have a similar set with normal shanks but the ability to put these in my impact driver sells them. Never thought to use them on steels though.

    For normal drilling of hard materials I either go for cobalt bits, or my English Dormer branded HSS which usually outperform the Aus-made cobalts... I also have some TC tipped twist drills.
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

  10. #9
    rrich Guest

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by AlexS View Post
    Looks good. Do you need to punch a dimple in the glass first, to start the drill accurately?
    LOL!
    You are so baaaaad.

  11. #10
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    I used these for drilling through Glazed Tiles and they worked a treat...beautiful clean hole. I haven't tried them on glass but worth a try for the price....
    https://www.bunnings.com.au/ryobi-4-...t-set_p6360331

  12. #11
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    I used these for drilling through Glazed Tiles and they worked a treat...beautiful clean hole. I haven't tried them on glass but worth a try for the price....
    https://www.bunnings.com.au/ryobi-4-...t-set_p6360331

  13. #12
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    Well, my drill bits finally arrived today. I thought I’d do a quick test of them on some scrap ceramic and all was good right up until the part where I realised instead of sending me a set of five 3mm to 10mm they’d sent me five 6mm bits. This did mean though that I was able to compare them against each other; and I can confirm that they gave me 5 holes of about three different sizes... but to be fair the deviation was inside what I would consider acceptable for that type of drill... and about the same as a matching set of hand sharpened twist drills...

    So, followed the instructions on how to return them... and got a full refund AND a “you can keep the item”. So, I now have a set of extremely sacrificial 6mm TCT tipped bits.

    Then I ordered another set because I still want the mixed sizes!
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

  14. #13
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    The replacement set of drills arrived today... and they are also a set of 6mm bits instead of mixed sizes

    Same again; I requested to return the item but they simply refunded me instead and told me to keep them.

    Again, I have reordered the mixed set. Eventually they’ll either send the correct items, or I’ll be starting my own Ebay shop to sell the ones I keep getting for free!
    Nothing succeeds like a budgie without a beak.

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