Thread: Milwaulkee Thunderweb Drill Bits

Originally Posted by Marc

Interesting thread.
I bought a set of drill bits coated yellow (cobalt? really?) from Aldi. I can not remember the price I paid for the box of 20 bits but it was less than I paid for a pair of so called boat shoes. Nice shoes I use to go to work, and not to go on my boat since I think on a boat you keep on, only what you would be able to swim with.
So my box of $30 or so drills turn out to be $1.50 per drill bit.
Are we seriously debating and exchanging words over $1.50 drill bits?
It would make way more sense to debate and exchange heavy industry related standards about my $40 (or so) boat shoes.
No it wouldn't, and neither does it to debate industry standards on such cheap drill bits made in Germany, Macedonia or Mongolia.

The drill bits I bought are of a very decent quality as far as I can determine, after drilling 10mm plate on my 3hp drill press I use with mercilessly downward pressure.
if a drill snaps and is too short to be sharpened again it ends up in the bin. If a bit is too soft and loses the edge more than once in the day, it ends up in the bin. When my shoes develop a hole from walking or a stain that does not polishes off, they end up in the bin.

I understand debating a bimetal $600 brick saw cutting blade, not a $1.50 drill bit.

But hey, that is just me.

Hello Marc,
You must be very hard on your drills. I've a set of 1/16" to 0.5" in 16th's, Goliath brand that are at least 40 years old and I've still got them all bar one. Ok I think it must have got mislaid at sometime. Some have been sharpened a time or three but I've yet to break one. The 1/16th has had the most hammer, drilling PCB's ! I don't think it has ever been sharpened.

Never sharpened? Wow, you must be very soft on your drill bits. I only recently bought a drill doctor from US. Still waiting on the transformer to be able to use it. My Aldi drill set is missing one, the 8mm one because the level 2 electrician apprentice who came to fit 3 phase for my shed "borrowed" it and did not return it. Nice eh! Yes, one generation makes good quality, the next imports rubbish the third takes what it can.
Back to generalizations!

As far as shoes, I do buy Italian shoes from time to time, they last a long time but cheap shoes have a place too. High quality is nice but you can not become a high quality fanatic and demand that everything is top quality. I am happy to have a fein magnetic drill but laugh at the one who "demands" everything Fein or Panasonic. It is unrealistic and pointless most of the time. You do with what you have at hand, what can be replaced quickly and effectively to get the job done. Of course in a museum or a show workshop that has hand tools polished and waxed, the purpose is a different one clearly not work nor performance.

Talking about quality...I was given a pair of Tiroler lederhosen when I was a kid. When they did not fit anymore they kicked around for a long time. One day the leader on my rowboat oars wore out and I decided to put the lederhosen to good use, so cut them out and fitted the leader to the oars. The oars were used almost every day for the next 20 years and were still going strong when the boat was stolen.

Yet again that is only my opinion. Drill bits are cheap disposable cutting tools not worth too much talking about...lederhosen on the other side ....

Originally Posted by Marc

Never sharpened? Wow, you must be very soft on your drill bits. I only recently bought a drill doctor from US. Still waiting on the transformer to be able to use it. My Aldi drill set is missing one, the 8mm one because the level 2 electrician apprentice who came to fit 3 phase for my shed "borrowed" it and did not return it. Nice eh! Yes, one generation makes good quality, the next imports rubbish the third takes what it can.
Back to generalizations!

I've never attempted to sharpen a 1/16" inch drill In fact, nowadays I'd be lucky to be able to see it if I dropped it somewhere !

Unfortunately I can only agree with your generalisations. Particularly since my fishing kit has gone missing out of the boot of my car whilst in for service !

Yet again that is only my opinion. Drill bits are cheap disposable cutting tools not worth too much talking about...lederhosen on the other side ....

The drill bits finally arrived today.

Firstly, where are they made?

ThunderWeb Drill Bit Package.jpg

It took a while to find it. Immediately above the chopped off date stamp running vertically. "Made in China". Is this what is referred to as "the small print"?

The 2 sets I now own, Thunderweb plain HSS and Thunderbolt HSS black oxide are both very similar in looks (except for the colour). Maybe identical. Both are stepped to 10mm diam shanks in the larger sizes. Both have the same grind and appear to be the same geometry re web etc. Both are listed as having extra thick tapered webs. The Thunderbolts have 3 flats ground on the shank for better grip in a drill chuck. Not so good in collets tho.

I test drove the 5mm drill from each set in 316 stainless. 5mm because that was the size closest to suit 540rpm which the drill press was set to. I felt that the Thunderweb did not do quite as good a job. It took a bit more pressure and it got hotter. I did not use anything on the bits for cutting. The disk left at the back of the work was purple in colour, while the Thunderbolt disk was only yellow. The Thunderbolt is not new and has been used previously, but probably only on ms. Neither drill bit showed any signs of damage at all after this test.
Dean

Rolled drills (HSS-R) are always black. But not all black drills are rolled, many fully ground drills are black too. There is a big price difference, and ground drills have much less runout. How to spot the difference is fortunately easy, one has to look at the beginning of the flutes:

HSS_R_G_1.jpgHSS_R_G_2.jpg

The top drill is an HSS-R (hot rolled), one can see where the rolls started to form the helix.

The bottom drill is a fully ground HSS-G in black finish.

Originally Posted by cba_melbourne

I just ordered a set of these:
http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Heller-19...item3f3488f091

They are 19 genuine German made Heller HSS-Co5 Cobalt drills, fully ground and with split point, uncoated. Heller is a less known German maker near Bremen. They seem to me good value at about $82 including postage from UK.

http://www.hellertools.com/taxonomy/term/6

The set arrived this Tuesday, 8 days after ordering from above UK seller. Total cost with postage was 82AU$. I just made a few pictures to compare what one can buy for that sort of money.



1.jpg1a.jpg

The plastic case is definitely more useful than the Sutton plastic cases... but I still like metal drill cases better.


2.jpg3.jpg4.jpg5.jpg6.jpg

These are four differnt 10.0mm drill bits. This is to compare the differences in tip grind.

Left is the new Heller HSS-E split point drill (5% Cobalt), new and unused
Second from left is a Sutton Viper HSS-G drill bit, split point, used maybe 5 times
Third from left is a Sutton HM3 HSS-G drill bit, new and unused just out of the box
Fourth from left is an about 10 years old Titex Plus HSS-G drill bit, much used but still with the original grind



7.jpg

This is the 3mm bit from the new Heller set. It is the smallest in the set to be split point. 2.5mm and smaller have a plain tip.
The smallest bit in the Sutton Viper set with split pint is the 3.5mm. Some cheaper sets I had a look at already stop grinding split points below 6mm.


8.jpg

The new Heller set is top row second from right, ready for use. I have not yet tried how they cut.



PS: Comparing this 19pc Heller set to a Sutton 17pc SM2 Cobalt set when on sale for $189, I would say you get more drills at less than half the price from Heller.
The grind quality of the Heller is indistinguishable from the Sutton Viper sets and the Sutton HM3 sets that I have.
The split points on the Heller and the Sutton Viper sets are very similar - the Vipers are maybe a tad more aggressive.
Only time will tell how good the Heller drills will last in anger.