Thread: Drill bit advice needed

Hi Dean
Personally I would forget about the cheap ones.
I have a limited range of long shank bits from Suttons and as long as I dont use them in a hand drill they are fine.

Roger

Originally Posted by rogerbaker

Hi Dean
Personally I would forget about the cheap ones.
I have a limited range of long shank bits from Suttons and as long as I dont use them in a hand drill they are fine.

Roger

Thanks. What I need to do is have a look at some of these drills in person. Problem is that I rarely go anywhere that have them available. This is why I do a lot of this sort of research on the net. I can probably get them as cheap as the more expensive ones I linked to. Another problem is that when we go to the city with high hopes of everything we want to look at, the reality is that after about an hour we are ready to come home. That is about an hour after hitting the city limits. The list is usually curtailed serverely LOL. We are going again in about 2 weeks. I have a checkup with a specialist every 6 months.

Dean

Originally Posted by Oldneweng

I am guessing that DIN 388 is better than DIN 340.
Dean

Dean, I do not know what this DIN388 is.

But DIN 340 is simply a long series drill. DIN 1897 is a stub drill, DIN 338 is a jobber drill, DIN 1869/1(2,3) are extra long drills, longer than DIN 340. These DIN standards only describe the length of the whole drill and the fluted part. They do NOT describe in any way what quality the drill is, what material it is made of, what geometry, what coating etc. You can get a drill made out of a soft nail that still conforms to DIN.

If you are prepared to pay $16 for one 8mm drill, I would make sure it is a quality product made from the likes of Titex, Guhring, CleForge, Dormer etc. I would never pay that sort of money for a fantasy name drill. That said, I bought some long drills cheaply on eBay a few years ago, they were sold as "aircraft extension drills" and made of HSS-Co (Cobalt) and serve me very well, but there were only a few sizes like needed for imperial rivets. Chris

My local Bunnings has a large range of metric and imperial P&N long series drills. I didn't check where they are made, but assuming they are made in Oz, the prices seemed reasonable.

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

Dean, I do not know what this DIN388 is.

But DIN 340 is simply a long series drill. DIN 1897 is a stub drill, DIN 338 is a jobber drill, DIN 1869/1(2,3) are extra long drills, longer than DIN 340. These DIN standards only describe the length of the whole drill and the fluted part. They do NOT describe in any way what quality the drill is, what material it is made of, what geometry, what coating etc. You can get a drill made out of a soft nail that still conforms to DIN.

If you are prepared to pay $16 for one 8mm drill, I would make sure it is a quality product made from the likes of Titex, Guhring, CleForge, Dormer etc. I would never pay that sort of money for a fantasy name drill. That said, I bought some long drills cheaply on eBay a few years ago, they were sold as "aircraft extension drills" and made of HSS-Co (Cobalt) and serve me very well, but there were only a few sizes like needed for imperial rivets. Chris

Thankyou for that information. It is exactly what I wanted to know. The DIN388 is an interesting standard I think because when I googled "din388" and selected pages from the list all I got was references to drills that conformed to DIN338. Having read what you had to say has convinced me that the DIN388 is just a spelling mistake (sort of). The problem with mistakes such as these is that they are stored somewhere on the WWW in Perpetuity. A lot of them are probably from me lol.

The more expensive drills I linked to were quoted as being M2 HSS. Suitable for stainless steel and hardened alloy steels. The other ones did not quote anything specific. I guess it is another case of you get what you pay for. I need to find somewhere that sells these drills and check prices for myself. I bought some grub screws today in town and while I was there asked if they carry long series drills. They can get them in but don't have them in stock. I will keep checking everywhere that I think of when I am in different locations.

Dean

Originally Posted by jack620

My local Bunnings has a large range of metric and imperial P&N long series drills. I didn't check where they are made, but assuming they are made in Oz, the prices seemed reasonable.

Thanks for that reminder. I will check Bunnings and Masters when I go to Mt Gambier next weekend. Sometimes I forget about these outlets. We have fairly big stores of both there. I will also have a look on their websites in the meantime.

P&N is made by Sutton and I think that a lot of their drills and such are made in the factory in Hamilton Vic, about 125km from me. I may be wrong tho. I have never had a poor tool from P&N. My inherited tap and die set which is older than me and still complete and original is a P&N.

Dean

Hi Dean,
I only ever buy known brand name drills now, I have melted the ends off or broken too many cheapies in the past and just don't bother with them any more. I like dormer the best, but bordo's and aus made p&n are good too.