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Drill Bits

The Butcher

The Butcher

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Texas. In a van, down by the river!
I'm looking to buy some quality drill bits and was wondering what you guys suggest as far as material is concerned. They will be mostly multi-purpose bits, but I figure if I buy high quality bits intended for drilling metal then they will work on just about everything else.

HarborFreight.com has a 115 piece set of Titanium Nitride Coated bits for $39.99. They also offer a 115 piece set of Cobalt bits for $99.00. I assume Cobalt is the way to go in terms of strength, but are they worth 2.5 times as much as the Titanium Nitride bits? Or are both of these sets crap, and I should find another set somewhere else? Thanks.
 
Some Sears Craftman Titanium drill bits are good quality for a medium price. Back when I turned wrenches for a living, I bought my sets of Titanium drill bits from my Matco tool dealer. I was able to beat the hell out of them...day in, and day out, with out a problem. Be prepaired to spend about $100 for a 40 piece set of those.

I have a set of RYOBI Titanium bits I bought on sale for a decent price from Home Depot. They are OK for ocassional home use, but would probably not hold up for daily professional use. Stay away from Harbor frieght anything, which requires even a small amount of quality. I bought a set of drill bits from them that snapped like twigs.
 
1-ton said:
Stay away from Harbor frieght anything, which requires even a small amount of quality. I bought a set of drill bits from them that snapped like twigs.
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I kinda figured that might be the case. I don't mind spending $100, but I want quality if I am going to shell out that much $ for some bits. Most of the Craftsmen stuff I see on the Sears website is about $100 for sets of 29 bits. Is Cobalt any better or worse than Titanium? They have both, and they are about the same price. Thanks!
 
the last set of bits i bought were from ebay, paid $40 for 36 peice i think (1/32 up to 1/2 in 64ths) cobalt split point. some of the best bits i bought, the ones i use the most (1/4", 5/16", 7/16" and 1/2") are getting dull, but they have gone threw alot of use. i plan on buying a drill doctor to resharpen then. some of the smaller bits have broken, but only because of my stupidity.
 
Is Cobalt any better or worse than Titanium?
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Cobalt drill bits are the hardest steel bits there are. It goes in this order...softest to hardest (1) High speed, (2) Titanium, (3) Cobalt.
 
1-ton said:
Cobalt drill bits are the hardest steel bits there are. It goes in this order...softest to hardest (1) High speed, (2) Titanium, (3) Cobalt.
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Thanks 1-ton.

Big83, do you remember what brand the cobalt bits you bought were, and who you bought them from? $40 is about half the price that Sears is asking for the same number of their Craftsmen Cobalt bits. Thanks.
 
HF stuff is cheap... but for $30, I bought one of those titanium sets. Two, in fact ... if I break a bit, oh well. When it gets dull I put it in a pile to be sharpened on the Drill Doctor. I've not had anything that I needed cobalt or anything more nuclear for.

-- A
 
1-ton said:
Cobalt drill bits are the hardest steel bits there are. It goes in this order...softest to hardest (1) High speed, (2) Titanium, (3) Cobalt.
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"Titanium" drills are not made out of Titanium. they are Titanium coated High speed or Cobalt drills. usually HSS is used. we coat drills and endmills and cutting tools at my company. the best drills are cobalt drills for general purpose garage use. you can drill stainless with cobalt but you MUST use cutting fluid and drill very slow rpm's. HSS will not drill SS. HSS drills are fine if all you do is mostly wood and soft metals. they will drill steels too but the cutting edge dulls much easier then cobalt drills do.

then there is carbide drills, which are not recomeded for free hand drilling. they are for milling machines and lathes. they stay sharp much longer then the best cobalt does but they can break and or chip VERY easy. the drilling process is a drill chuck or collet holder holding the drill rigid in a machining center like a CNC mill or lathe or a conventional mill or lathe. there is no posibility of side to side movement like freehand drilling with a power drill. you can run 2 to 5 times the rpm with carbide over cobalt and a much faster feed rate because of the faster rpm. get a good set of cobalt drill for home. enough machining drill tech 101 for now. sorry so long i love talking machining, been a machinist for almost 15 yrs. its my cup of tea.
 
"Titanium" drills are not made out of Titanium. they are Titanium coated
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One question I have is: Is the difference between a quality Titanium drill bit and a cheap one...the thickness of the coating of Titanium, and (or) the drill bit material being coated?
 
1-ton said:
One question I have is: Is the difference between a quality Titanium drill bit and a cheap one...the thickness of the coating of Titanium, and (or) the drill bit material being coated?
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well it can be both, there are different types of Ti coatings that have different toughness factors and are applied in different thicknesses. also a colbalt drill will allways be more expensive then a HSS drill. another reason for the coatings is to add a factor of lubrisity or slickness to the drill to cut down the heat generated by the friction from the cutting action at the drills cutting edge or lips (yes they are called lips, drill lips)and diameter edge. this aids in the drill from over heating and the material from seing excessive heat. ofcourse a piece of material will still get very hot but without a ti type of coating you will in alot of cases expeirence galling from heat, where base material sticks to the drill lips which compounds the heat being generated. with any drill you should use cutting fluid but a ti coating its almost like having cutting fluid on the drill allready. coatings also make the surface of the tool tougher which adds resistence to tool wear.

speed or rpm is the biggest tool killer along with feed. too much rpm will cause the drill or tool to over heat causing premature tool wear, basically it gets dull. too much feed causes excessive heat and tool load again causing tool wear.
 
rdn2blazer said:
well it can be both, there are different types of Ti coatings that have different toughness factors and are applied in different thicknesses. also a colbalt drill will allways be more expensive then a HSS drill. another reason for the coatings is to add a factor of lubrisity or slickness to the drill to cut down the heat generated by the friction from the cutting action at the drills cutting edge or lips (yes they are called lips, drill lips)and diameter edge. this aids in the drill from over heating and the material from seing excessive heat. ofcourse a piece of material will still get very hot but without a ti type of coating you will in alot of cases expeirence galling from heat, where base material sticks to the drill lips which compounds the heat being generated. with any drill you should use cutting fluid but a ti coating its almost like having cutting fluid on the drill allready. coatings also make the surface of the tool tougher which adds resistence to tool wear.

speed or rpm is the biggest tool killer along with feed. too much rpm will cause the drill or tool to over heat causing premature tool wear, basically it gets dull. too much feed causes excessive heat and tool load again causing tool wear.
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Thanks for all of the info. Sounds like i need some Cobalt bits for my general garage stuff. Thanks to everyone who posted for their help!

One more question: Where can I get a Drill Dr. for sharpening my bits, and how much should I expect to pay? Thanks!
 
They are a good run of the mill set. Cobalt coated HSS drills. Here is what Yukon's site says.

[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]115 PCS COBALT DRILL BIT SET [/FONT] [FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Cobalt Alloy coated and high speed tempered. Superior durability over M2 high speed and Titanium coated drill bits. Cobalt will retain a sharper edge and will outlast a standard high speed drill bit by 15 times. 135-degree point design also prevents walking. Cobalt gives added heat resistance making them perfect for all drilling applications, especially cordless drills. 3/8-inch reduced shank to work in nearly any drill. Includes free laminated index guide. The perfect set containing all the drill sizes you will ever need. 60 wire gauge number size bits 1-60. 26 letter size bits A-Z. 29 Fractional Standard Size bits 1/16-to ½-inch in 64ths. 115 total bits in a rugged custom steel index case with built-in organizational folding storage.[/FONT]
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Muddytazz said:
They are a good run of the mill set. Cobalt coated HSS drills. Here is what Yukon's site says.
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Thanks Muddy. Sounds like a decent set, especially when you consider the price. I'm not a professional mechanic, so I would think that these would be able to hold up for a pretty long while.

I noticed that these are cobalt coated. I assume that when any of these manufacturers claim to have cobalt bits, they are refering to the coating on them, and not the acutual substance of the entire bit. The titanium bits are generally coated bits, so it would make sense that the Cobalt ones are as well. Anyone know if my logic is off?
 
If you sharpen drill bits the coating is removed. I don't waste any money on fancy bits or coatings. Learn to sharpen bits by hand with a bench grinder and even cheap bits will do wonders. I don't claim I do as good as a drill doctor by eye, but my bits do make nice long curly chips. Save the money and learn to sharpen bits by hand.
 
It's relatively easy to sharpen larger bits, say 1/2" and larger by hand on a bench grinder, but smaller bits are tou87gh to get the cutting geometry right. You will most likely end up with holes slightly oversize sharpening by hand. Not that it can't be done! I've watched an old timer hand sharpen 1/8" bits by hand and put a split point on them as well. They drilled mild steel like a hot knife thru butter. For what we do with our trucks, a slightly oversize hole is no problem. I am an amature machinist (emphasis on amature), model engineer, whatever you want to call it, and anything but a proprly sharpened drill bit won't work. I sharpen bits larger than 1/2" by hand, the rest go to the drill doctor.
 
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