drill bits - what is a quality brand

Tired of cheap drill bits. Any opinions on general use or metal bits?

HSS. Made in the USA.

They will last for many years if you treat them right. Use coolant.

I needed to drill some titanium a couple of years ago, I couldn't get even the best bits that I could find at the local hardware store to do a thing.
I mentioned the problem to a friend of mine who works in the Boeing tool department, he brought me a couple of bits that cut through the titanium like butter. I wish I knew what they were made of and where I could purchase some.

A lot of folks I have watched violate the number one rule. Speed kills !! Keep the speed and the heat to a minimum. Once you start pulling a chip..........don't stop. It will allow the piece to cool and work harden.

White17 pretty much covered it but I'll add that few people know how to sharpen a drill bit. They are just like a knife. You gotta keep it sharp. Dull bits cut slow and make heat. More heat means dulling faster. Couple that with people pushing harder because it's not cutting and you'll toast a bit in no time.

Good stuff

Get Cobalt bits

X2 on the cobalt bits

X3 on the cobalt bits

A bit spendy , but will drill through almost anything.

For drilling with a hand drill don't use the standard 118 deg. point drill , get 135 deg. split point drills in a good black oxide HHS or Cobalt if you can afford them.
Like was said, keep the heat down. At the very least use water to keep the bit cool if you don't have coolant or cutting oil.
For thicker pieces make sure you peck many times to clear chips and reapply cutting fluid. Be very careful on the break through. most people chip the outside corners on a new drill on a the first hole on the break through and then wonder why the drill is dull and they can't drill any more holes...

Talking of speed, as a general rule, the smaller the bit, the faster the speed.

More than a bit. But I agree, best you can get if you can afford them. However, not great in a hand drill. People tend to bust them off in a hand drill because most can't drill a hole without moving the drill. Just say'in.

would love to have this set but don't do enuff metal work to spend that kind of money on bits.

https://www.suncoasttools.com/crm/ItemPage.aspx?ItemNumber=40COMBHSCOJ90874++RM&VendorNumber=RMT

How much will they be the next time you need them ?

Unless you are doing alot of machine work or working mostly with steel or hard metals, HSS is fine for the average Joe in my opinion. The money would be better spent on a HSS set and a drill doctor (they work great) to sharpen them.

more i am sure lol they do have a made in usa set that is 1/16-1/2 by 1/64 that i just might order soon.
will have to be sure not to show em to my son tho.

Maybe carbide bits? We use them at work some, but they are easy to break.

Thanks for the info. Sounds like I am doing a few things incorrectly.

Do drill bit sharpeners work well?

My old man would and could sharpen drill bits till they barely stuck out of the drill, lol, I had a drill bit sharpener that the stones were installed at the factory backwards or upside down or something, that sharpened the bits on the reverse angle they should be, maybe it was built on a friday afternoon, before a holiday weekend....

but....the drill doctor is supposed to be good....

We had a drill doctor in our maintenance shop. It worked good for a while. Like everything else, the grinding stones inside eventually wore down and it didn't work right any more. We never fixed or replace it and just went back to sharpening bits by hand.

My advice:
Cobalt bits. Lubricant and coolant - even if its only WD40 or a spray bottle of water. Pecking is okay to clear chips, get some lubricant/coolant into the hole but don't let the bit slide on the material without cutting. When you bring the bit down, do so firmly and start it cutting right away. We say "peck, no dwell" to describe this. Run your bit slower than you think you should. Cutting steel with a drill bit requires X amount of work and creates X amount of heat. Cutting a lot of metal fast means a lot more heat generated in a shorter amount of time. Heat is conducted away from your cutting area but heat only moves through steel so fast. Cutting too fast means the heat can't get away fast enough and your material and bit will get too hot. Cut slowly and let the heat dissipate.

If you're drilling stainless, heat transfers even more slowly. Stainless is a terrible conductor of heat. In stainless you need to peck and lift to keep from cutting too much too fast. Cut a little and lift, cut a little and lift. If stainless gets hot, it hardens and becomes even harder to drill making the problem worse. And make sure you aren't letting the drill bit slide without cutting or that will heat up the material too. "peck, no dwell" really matters on stainless. I've seen guys burn up bit after bit on even thin stainless. But short, 1 second pecks and a couple of seconds to cool between pecks works. And, generous coolant. We've had one guy spraying a spray bottle of water into the hole while a second guy was drilling before. Water isn't the "right" coolant but it's much easier to clean up.

Maintenanceguy, Try water soluble oil (can't remember the brand) we would buy it by the gallon jug. It's blue in the jug but turns into a milky white/blue when you cut it with water. 80% water to 20% oil.. "Wet Tool" I think it was.

Carbide is great. But it doesn't like chatter. A mill with loose tolerances will F up carbide in the blink of an eye.

Your probably talking about( Rustlick ) cutting fluid, good stuff. Costly, but a little gos along long way.

I have a drill dr I picked up at a garage sale, works great! I don’t think I would have ever bought one new until I picked this one up... definitely worth the 100$ we sold them at a hardware store I worked at years back and I heard a lot of bad stuff about them. I haven’t had an issue yet and for me it beats the heck out of hand sharpening.

I worked in maintenance as a repairman and and also as a tool buyer. I've seen lots of brands and a wide price range. The very best I ever used for a reasonable price was Norseman. Made in the USA!!! http://www.norsemandrill.com/

I have some older Irwin cobalts, they have been great. Think I paid around 100$ for a set 1/16-1/2..that was about 20 years ago though.

I had that same set . Bought in 1986. Not sure if I have any of them left.

I'd like to pay a hundred bucks for the same set again

WL fuller for wood. Anything, mostly black oxide, for most metals as long as it's sharp and plenty of cutting oil is used. I use a drill doctor sharpener, pays for itself in a week.

White I just looked briefly and it looks like amazon is selling a set with an updated index for about 130$. Says 29 pc 1/16-1/2... wonder if they are the same quality? I have since bought a Hout index that includes wire gauge, letter/number and fractional and have been slowly filling it up. Hate to add an off topic comment but I’ve noticed decent taps/dies are hard to find these days...most of the stuff I have is older and just feels nicer. I had to replace a 1/4-20 and bought an Irwin. I dropped it on the concrete once and it broke in half!? I don’t know how many times I’ve dropped my older stuff and nothing happened. The hardware I bought it from replaced it no question but now I’m kinda sceered to put it in a hole...I’m just chasing threads so maybe I’m a little overreacting lol.

Thanks Wylee. It comes down to that old thing that I tout every chance I get. If you find a good product......buy more than one !!

Thanks for the info.