Drill sets

Karl_T

Karl_T

H-M Supporter - Sustaining Member
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Say i need to get three drill sets. two each jobber length 1/16 to 1/2 by 64th.

One more with numbers and letter included. One example https://www.mscdirect.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product/details/01186709


i want made in USA quality but do not want to break the bank. Suggestions on where and what to buy?


Bonus question, i have never used the 135 split point drills. where do they excel? I might get one of the fractional sets in this.
 
135 split point drills tend to excel in all areas. We use them exclusively. In most cases they seem to be cobalt which is great for all materials. I have found the Harbor Freight cobalt sets seem to be pretty good for general use. I normally pick up a set when there is a good % off coupon available.
 
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Chicago Latrobe, and Viking/Norseman I bought when there was a sale that came up, all the way down to 61-80. I like the screw length on the machines, jobber is good if you have the Z room. I have drill hog for hand drills, it's hard to find the warranty address though.
 
Worth Watching.


I have 135 splits. Blu Mol.. they are just ok. They drill.. I like them in a hand drill, in my mill or drill press, I don't see a diff. BUT, watch the video.
 
I 2nd the HF Cobalt drill set, good drills. Do not ever buy HF hss drills unless they are for wood or plastic
 
Shootymacshootface said:
I 2nd the HF Cobalt drill set, good drills. Do not ever buy HF hss drills unless they are for wood or plastic
Click to expand...

The current HSS are crap, but 20 years ago, they were pretty good. My set still works well, has drilled more holes than I can count, and gives me many bits that I would not have had had I bought smaller sets. I have sets of USA made too, but most are bought used, so they are missing bits and pieces here and there.
 
Short length (Stub length or Screw Machine) drills are my Go-To now days and jobber length are the exception for when I need to drill deep holes [almost never].
 
Shootymacshootface said:
I 2nd the HF Cobalt drill set, good drills. Do not ever buy HF hss drills unless they are for wood or plastic
Click to expand...
There was a Youtube video out that had some cheap HF drill bits, he put a fresh, proper grind on thr bits and they worked well.
I agree with the cobalt 135. The only thing is, they can be brittle.
I tend to replace my broken bits from mcMaster, never let me down.
 
I don't really believe in spending the money to buy a name-brand set of drills, especially the letter or number sets. I kind of got by with a small set of decent drill bits that I picked up at a garage sale. 1/16 to 1/4 by 64ths, which is about a dozen drill bits. This is not very good for lathe work, so I acquired a 9/16" MT2 Nachi bit at another garage sale. The seller wanted $5, and I complained. He said big deal about it being chewed up; if I wanted it, I knew how much it was worth and I would be able to sharpen it in a minute. That bit is used for enlarging holes to get a boring bar to work. It is a great drill, despite it being an "import." Another garage sale supplied me with a numbered set with a lot of missing drills. Still good for tapping small to medium holes. For any missing bit, I could grind a spade drill or use a small homemade boring bar to get the correct hole size. Eventually, after enough piecemeal buys here and there, I pretty much have a full set. I was planning to fill in all the blanks from an online supplier, but the missing drills have been odd sizes. I can count the number of drills I had to make on one hand.

As for Harbor Freight drill bits, they seem to have gotten better. When I was a member of TechShop (a makerspace), they had only these drills in the tool cabinets. They were always dull, burned and chewed up. I had to sharpen the one I was planning to use nearly every time I selected one. Occasionally, I would sharpen two or three, and nobody would bother me. Got a lot of practice that way.
 
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