A great product to NOT buy.

@woodchucker , if you're wallowing these things out that quickly, have you considered your drilling technique. Optimally you would use these for alignment, and have very little to no side pressure on them.
 
I have had good service from a similar, though not the same, product. Seems to me it would take some effort to wallow it out.

GsT
 
no, because I bought them that way. They are not hardened. That's why I used hardened drill bushings. so they were already wallowed. I just added to the problem. I always start the bit in the guide to avoid any problems. I have made drill guides out of wood for one to 4 or so holes... no problems. but in my mind, any of my guides that are being bought, should have hardened bushings...
 
If you are going to use this tool in a production facility then the expensive hardened versions will last a lot longer. Hard anodize is a LOT tougher than color or clear anodize. Hard anodize will always be dark grey to nearly black. The darker the grey the thicker and harder the coating. Not to be confused with Black anodize which is a very thin coating and dyed black same as the color coatings.
If you have ever tried to machine a part that was hard anodized you would quickly realize just how hard it is. Trying to mill it will almost instantly destroy any HSS cutter regardless of coating. It will also not take it long to wear out a carbide cutter. Of course once you make it through the hard anodize then you just have aluminum to cut through. If you have to drill thru hard anodize a really hard hit with a center punch will fracture the hard anodize enough for your drill to get thru the surface and into the aluminum. A bigger drill will be dulled quickly once the diameter is bigger than the area affected by the center punch. You need to be very aggressive initially to get the cutting edge under the hard anodize as quickly as possible.

As far as this specific tool is concerned, I can not tell from the pic if that is Type III hard anodized or or Type I dyed anodize. The color is about right for quality hard anodize, But then regular anodize can be dyed to match the same color.
 
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