I took a 1" block of D2 tool steel- pretty tough stuff, and much tougher than anything around the house. I keep them around for 'bait' so others won't use my good stuff. I brought in a 5/16" drill bit from a cheap HF 29 piece set. I have to stick with my original premise- cheap drill bits are fine for occasional use. We all like the best, but some times good enough is better all around, bought a few HF sets, for cheap, one of the bits untwisted, LOL, and then some are so brittle that they snap at any thing wrong,īut I have a set of HF metric that I have had for nearly 20 years now and are good, (or as good as I get that the hard ware store),īuying bits are like buying any tool, cheap are usually lesser quality and expensive we hope are better.īut it is some what like buying wrenches, an sk, or snap on set will a active wrencher, life time, but a good store brand, will last 2/3 of a life time, was buying ACE brand tools until they bought or are selling craftsman, the ACE were good tools, and will out last me, (they at my age have a true, life time warranty, LOL), (wanted to try left hand bits, for bolt removal). The big problem with the chicom, is lack of uniformity of the hardening process, Many of the "premium" bits are very hard and brittle, they cut great, but do not use by hand or they will snap, Years ago, (when sears, was some thing), I bought a 235 piece set, with fractional numbered, and lettered, set, when enco was still enco, I bought a few larger sets, and then some individual bits up to about 2 inches, only two of the chicom bits need replacements, (but I really don't know if the premium bits would have survived the steel either), some times this salvage steel can be great or littered with hard spots, that will nearly take out most cutting tooling,įirst of all bits are consumables, there going to break or wear, and need replacement, I usually just buy a 1/16 to 1/4" replacement set, for the small bits, there about the only one that get broke, and are mostly broke with hand drilling, When one needs a large bit and the foreign one is $35, and the premium one is $135, and one only needs a few holes, it is hard to part with that extra money, but I will say one most likely will need to know how to sharpen drill bits, to use the lower cost units, Drill a few holes in pine and sheet metal? Who cares, use HF stuff. If may be a lot different than what we do. We don't know what kind of work the posters advocating chinese drill bets do. On the other hand, if the work you do only needs chinese drill bits, by all means, use them instead. If the work needs good outcome, I buy the best tools for that work that I can afford. Well worth it to be able to reliably do the job it needs to do. A good set of drill bits that will do the full range of stuff you need on job sites probably costs less than $150. That way, I don't have to worry about the tool not doing the job, and having to go back to the shop for another and delaying the work. If I was out in the field, going to different jobsites, trying to do a professional level job, I would have the best I could afford that would do the work. If I was working at home in my shop, no deadline, and have no real interest in the quality and outcome of the work, I'd use cheap tools. My mindset is a bit different on cheap tools. 0005" graduations in most cases less expensive that. I am sure that there are other suppliers out there that can do the same, just my personal preference, MSC is a great source for these, you can choose your quality level depending on your personal preference, from top quality, everyday production requirements to 1 time home shop use. You will find multiple number, letter and fractional sets, with maybe a handful of metrics. Personally, in my home shop as well as the shop I supply for the school, If you check prices buying individual drill bits, say to refill an index, you will find that you can buy fractional, letter and number drill bits to fill almost all of the metric sizes for a fraction of the cost of buying metric sized bits, and you will find that these will cover 99% of metric sizes. As a "professional" (as in this is how I have made my living for the last 30 years) machinist, I agree with not buying chinesium drill bits (or taps) from anywhere.
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