Thread: Aint what it use to be

Sutton? I was under the impression their drill bits and the like were pretty good. Or did they move offshore at some point in the last decade or so?

Some of their stuff is made offshore and some is still made locally. Yes the offshore stuff is less than perfect, but it can usually drill thru mild steel. As far as I am aware their Viper bits are still locally made.

Dean

Their P&N brand are offshore specials.

Im a highschool teacher and I get to test out a lot of consumable stuff like drill bits out frequently. My experience with sutton labelled drills, both the viper bits and the regular ones you buy in bulk packs (who's model name escapes me at this point) and they have held up as well as the dormers I have. These drills see their share of abuse too, drilling without centre punch marks, cutting speeds waaaaay too high and feed rates that are just as stupid...Im not saying they are invincible, nothing is. They are a pretty hardy tool though, its one of few brands that survives longer than a few days in my workshop. You want to see some crap tooling, go buy some frost or the "craftright" crap being sold at bunnies.

I only decided to post this because it seems to be a popular bandwagon for people to be jumping on lately and it doesnt seem like theres a lot of substance behind the claim for me. Reading the description of the incident with the hole saw, I cant help but wonder what has caused the failure. Was the pilot hole too close to the drill size in the saw? What grade was the steel stock? Was the drill fed too agressively? Theres plenty of things that could have contributed to the damage that would be far beyond what sutton can control. All I can say is that in the seven hundred or so sutton drills Ive bought in the last 12 months, Ive been consistently impressed with their ability to last when used correctly and put up with teenager grade abuse otherwise.

The holesaw incident may have resulted from inadvertently drilling the pilot hole with a 6mm drill and then using the pilot in the holesaw which is 6.35mm( 1/4)" which is the pilot size for Sutton holesaws.

The holesaw pilot drill bites and snaps of the outside edges before it can completely drill through. When drilling 3mm steel with a standard angle drill bit this can often happen.

I know it can happen because I have done it.


Sutton last time I looked was Aussie made , but Frost a sub brand is Chinese made , while P & N drills have been made in New Zealand for years.



Has anybody tried the Alpha brand drills from Europe yet?

Grahame

Originally Posted by Grahame Collins

Has anybody tried the Alpha brand drills from Europe yet?

Grahame

Yep, had a few box sets of them purchased in 2012. Theyre not awful, but Im not rushing out to fill the drills with more of them. I found the smaller sizes to be a bit brittle compared to the suttons, but the bigger ones are still kicking around. Ours were TiN coated and it appeared to be the reason they didnt live long in the metalwork rooms, the coating would eventually die and the drill underneath that wasnt up to the job. The drills in the woodwork rooms are still going strong though.

The pilot hole was 3mm drill bit from sutton, bought a heap of them packadged in the green blister pack from my local hardware bloke. Random selection from the bin had the first 2 blunt as a dogs nose, the 3rd one actually drilled the pilot hole, steel plate is 3mm, nothing special, not hardened, not bisalloy or grader blade. Hitachi 750w electric hand drill, Treflex in a spray can. My mill is out of action with a bearing change, hence the making of a c spanner, and the need to use the hand drill.

The old Hitachi drill has been used for this same purpose over the years to cut holes in a variety of materials using Starrit hole saws, and I understand that bits get blunt, just never expected to get them out of an unopened packet as blunt units or have them fracture like the one yesterday. But hey, what would I know, I'm still learning.

DD

I have noticed that the pilot drills in holesaw arbors have a very thin web and are quite hollowed out compared to the more common drill bits therefore making them more prone to breakage.
3mm is probably on the upper side of ideal for piloting a 1/4" drill bit, but I've seen certainly seen a lot worse than that done.