Suggestions for drills

Chicago latrobe and cleaveland drills are both made in the USA under the Greenfield tap umbrella (and of good quality) still but owned by a chinese company, the Top Eastern Group.

Norseman/viking brand drills are still made in the usa and of good quality.

Precision twist is brazilian know.

Hout is the only one making indexes anymore that are actually worth something

I don't know how some of you are recommending a harbor freight set. Purchasing guy at work bought them and the import msc 118 piece sets. Some drills were ok but some were dead soft and didn't make it thru one hole in tool steel. Maybe people here are only drilling aluminum.

and the indexes were absolute garbage as well. The mechanics and tool makers about revolted over it and it wasn't hard to convince upper management that the cost of poor quality drill bits were more than good quality ones in labor and production downtime.
 
mmcmdl said:
Drills ? I keep a set of split point cobalts in an index on the work bench . The other 30,000 or so reside in containers . ;)
Click to expand...
And probably another 30,000 somewhere you haven't looked yet!

Bruce
 
I have a 115 pc. TiN set from HF purchased close to 35 years ago. They've held up well, though this is really not useful info to you since you are buying what's out there now. I have no personal experience with them, but many report good results with the $115 HF 115 pc. cobalt drills. That might be your best value.

Not adding anything that hasn't already been said, I'm a tool hoarder (consider that in my perspective). I don't like being in a position where the project hits a snag because I don't have what I need. Granted, I'm not going to buy a Haas VM4 CNC mill because I might need to machine something 36" x 24" x 24". To me it boils down to budget and where you want to spend your money. I have American-made (mostly Cleveland) HSS 115 pc. sets at my drill press, main work bench and both of my lathes. Overkill of course. The two lathes set 4 feet from each other; I don't need two sets but could afford them so there they are. Loose bits are stored in Huot drill index cabinets. I also have an import set of metrics from around 1.5 mm - 12 mm, a set of LH fractional drill bits, some random solid carbide bits and a number of 1/16" - 1/4" Craftsman HSS sets in the plastic case.

My Bridgeport and Jet mills share a set of Import fractional stubby drills (great for mills). That set was around $45. I've replaced smoked bits in that set with Drill Hog stubbies. Usually buy 5 of a particular size at a time.

I also have a set of larger Cleveland's from 1/2" - 1" by 1/32"s with 1/2" shanks. Those were purchased from a closed shop 35 years ago for $50. Deal/steal of the century; I wouldn't but that set for retail, they fell into my lap. My projects involving those drills are usually just punching a hole on the lathe prior to boring a hole to size. A few large sizes off eBay would work too.

Most of my taps are in plastic bins by size which include jobber and stubby tap drills for each size. For me, the common ones are 6-32 (#36), 8-32 (#29), 10-24 (#25), 1/4-20 (#7) and 5/16-18 (#F). It's nice on the Bridgeport to throw a stubby tap drill in a drill chuck, drill the hole, then swap in the tap for power tapping. The stubby drills are about the same length as the appropriate tap so the knee stays put.

My Tormach mill has a set of 1/16-1/2" fractional and #1-#60 Norseman/Viking bits. Those sets were around $125 each as I recall. Very good drill bits. Most will never be used, but I could afford them so there they set.

Bruce
 
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