Thread: Recommended drill bits?

Originally Posted by xXvapourXx

Hey guys
Im really in need of some new drill bits because my other crappy ones keep breaking, bound to happen though. So what are some good drill bit sets that are under $50?

Cooper

Poor technique and wrong speeds can break good drills as readily as crappy ones!

What do you see as a set ?

1 -10mm in .5 increments, or 1- 13mm.

What do you need , carbon steel drills or HSS?

You will be hard pressed to find a decent quality brand set of 1 -13mm HSS under a $100.
I call Sutton .P &N and Frost decent brands.

Grahame

I see a set being 1 to 10mm and i need HSS. Dont really need any thing bigger than 10mm at the moment as iv got some drill bits from 11 to 14

I was thinking of getting this set: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Frost-Sut...ht_2578wt_1139

Cooper

Without clicking on your link, Frost are made in China and are reputed to be crap.
Dormer make a great bit, as do Guhring. I think your quality desires conflict with your budget.

Greg

Hi Cooper,
I have 2 older sets(10+ years, made in Aus) of frosts and am very happy with them. However i have bought a few single drills of late and have been very disappointed with them. My good drills are Dormers and i have a few Bordo's in larger sizes. To be honest the bordo's are not up to the standards of the dormers. This link is what i would suggest....but it is twice the cost you want to spend http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Dormer-A0...item27c5a2bffd

Would these be alright?

DORMER A096 No.413 HSS Drill Set of 19 1.0-10mm x 0.5mm | eBay

They are the ones you want....but i would check with the seller about the set, the description says 1-6.5 x .05, but the title says 1-10....at the price i would have to say the 1-6.5 would be correct

hmm thinking about it, i reckon ill try and save up for the bigger set like the one you linked me.

Cooper

Originally Posted by xXvapourXx

I see a set being 1 to 10mm and i need HSS. Dont really need any thing bigger than 10mm at the moment as iv got some drill bits from 11 to 14

I was thinking of getting this set: Frost by Sutton Set Drill Metric 19Pce HSS HV274118 92258 | eBay

Cooper

Drill Sets
1000's of drill bits - high speed, cobalt, and carbide
G'Day Cooper, the links above will give you an idea of what is available, but these are both U.S. suppliers, so you will have freight on top.
Probably nothing wrong with the drill bits in your link, except if you plan on tapping drilled holes. The jumps are a bit big, and mostly miss the sizes needed for tapping drills. They would be o.k. for general use and you could just buy the bits needed for M3, M4, M5, M8, and M10 and use these only for tapping drills. This might help improve your tapping, as you would have more accurately sized holes for your job.
As Grahame has said, you can break good bits just as easily as poor drill bits, especially in smaller sizes, if all you have is a hand held drill. If you don't already have one a small drill press and vice may be a good investment. This will make it much easier to drill thin sheet, stainless steel and other difficult materials and save breaking your drill bits. Your holes will be square, and you can even start your taps using the drill press as a guide to get a straight start with your tap. You turn the chuck by hand, NOT by powering the drill press, and this can save breaking taps too.
If you do decide to just get the tapping size drill bits, for tapping the sizes you need, you will need to go to a good engineering supplies business, as your local hardware store is unlikely to have what you need, online suppliers may also be useful.
If you don't plan on tapping threads, but just need to drill the odd hole, then the set you linked to should be a reasonable starting point for you. All the best,
Rob.
Cooper I was unaware that Frost drills are now of questionable quality, Dormer are certainly good from what I have heard. In the links I posted both suppliers, have imported (most likely Chinese, and of uncertain quality) and also American made drill bits, which I would expect to be pretty good, although I have only seen their advertisements, and never used their products. Kitts Industrial Products have quite a few different sets, even a set of Cobalt drills from 1/16 to 1/2" in 1/64th rises, USA manufactured for US$ 85.00. They should be very good for drilling Stainless steel and other tough materials, as they are 1 step up from HSS. All the best, Rob.

Originally Posted by Ropetangler

Drill Sets
1000's of drill bits - high speed, cobalt, and carbide
G'Day Cooper, the links above will give you an idea of what is available, but these are both U.S. suppliers, so you will have freight on top.
Probably nothing wrong with the drill bits in your link, except if you plan on tapping drilled holes. The jumps are a bit big, and mostly miss the sizes needed for tapping drills. They would be o.k. for general use and you could just buy the bits needed for M3, M4, M5, M8, and M10 and use these only for tapping drills. This might help improve your tapping, as you would have more accurately sized holes for your job.
As Grahame has said, you can break good bits just as easily as poor drill bits, especially in smaller sizes, if all you have is a hand held drill. If you don't already have one a small drill press and vice may be a good investment. This will make it much easier to drill thin sheet, stainless steel and other difficult materials and save breaking your drill bits. Your holes will be square, and you can even start your taps using the drill press as a guide to get a straight start with your tap. You turn the chuck by hand, NOT by powering the drill press, and this can save breaking taps too.
If you do decide to just get the tapping size drill bits, for tapping the sizes you need, you will need to go to a good engineering supplies business, as your local hardware store is unlikely to have what you need, online suppliers may also be useful.
If you don't plan on tapping threads, but just need to drill the odd hole, then the set you linked to should be a reasonable starting point for you. All the best,
Rob.

I was planing to get the dormer set for drilling holes but also taping, but if i don't get the dormers will ill get the frost set. My dad is bringing my waldown drill press from his house to my house we were going to fix it at my dads house but dad dosent have the time at the moment so im bringing it to mine and replacing the motor and probably a good clean to. So ill most likely be making a thread about the drill press this week.
Are the Sutton Viper sets any good?? or are they just the same as the frosts?

Cooper

As far as i know they are the same.
I keep a cheaper set of drills for use in a hand drill, that way if i break them its not so bad. I then have a set of dormers in .1mm rises that i use just in the mill, drill press and on the lathe. When i have broken the smaller sizes i buy a whole box of 10 of them, so i shouldn't have to buy any for a looooooong time. the smaller drills are less than $2 each so its relatively affordable one box at a time.

Cooper, I can't help you with any info about Sutton Viper drill bits, until GQ's post, I thought that all Sutton and Frost were Australian made, but that appears to be ancient history now. Congratulations on the Waldown, that will be a great asset.
Ewan, do you get your Dormer drills locally, or online? Cheers all,
Rob.

I can +1 to the frost being crap argument. I gave them a go through school and within the week, most of them had been trashed, including one being snapped off in some timber! In particular, I found them to be really brittle. As a general rule, I only purchase sutton and P+N drills now. Ive just bought a few of the mentioned viper bits, they seems pretty good, especially the cobalt ones.

Bunnings has / had a box of 170 drills from 1.5 up to 10mm for $20, supposedly HSS with TiN coating. My head teacher got them saying "who cares how average they are, at that price we can go through them like candy and we'll still be ahead". I believed his train of thought...for a few hours. I had a look in the box to see what was in there, 3 of the drills in different sizes were sharpened back-to-front, 2 of them were incorrectly sized by more than .5mm and maaany of them would drill much larger than stamped because they were badly sharpened. A few were even bad enough to visibly wobble once the centre of the drill found the centre punch mark. They were all as brittle as ice too, the cutting edges had a tendency to chip and the coatings didnt stick around for long.

Very ...uhh...interesting drills.

I've been happy with Vipers. And I've also had a set of the horrors described by scottyd. They went in the bin. I keep metric x .5 and imp x 64th sets by the drill and a conversion chart. For tapping I can usually find one close en<cough> within tolerance.

But the single best investment you can make, after a drill press and some ok bits, is learning how to sharpen them. And there's a ton of material been written about that. (Hint: search)

I've been using Bordo as its what the local supplier BJ Bearings sell locally . I haven't got a complete set, but I buy the odd new bit when I need a particular size . They perform OK for my needs , mostly in mild steel .

Mike