Drill bits

[matthewsx]

As soon as you buy a new set you’ll no doubt run into a deal from an old timer like I did.

Dozens of US made bits, so many that buying new ones seems unlikely in my lifetime.

I’ve gotten by with one set of good ones for a long time though. You can always go buy a specific size when needed and individual taps are often sold with the drill you need.

John

 

[snoopdog]

Drill Hog is the real deal, I'll probably never buy a "set" because of too many cabbaged over the years. But, if I were to buy a "set", that is where I would get them.

 

[Ultradog MN]

No particular problem with the message. I've got mainly Dormer now and the cheap drills I have left, are sizes I almost never use (weird how the cheap drills you end up with are the ones you don't use! ).

I've found though, in 30 years of internet use (going back to newsgroups), that one liner, hard-line 'advice' posts are generally of dubious value to people reading a thread and tend to reduce the s/n of that thread.

Eh, I'm not the boss of you though.

I suspect we are both here out a sense of altruism. Helping others is a part of our nature.
So if you find my advice bad or incorrect - by all means let me know.
However, if your complaint is that I am not nice enough to suit or you don't like my style of saying things please remember that I am not running for homecoming queen so always being agreeable is not real important to me.

 

[Cadillac]

+1 on drill dog.

 

[Provincial]

When I worked in a shop, time spent was the main incentive, so we ran drill bits at maximum speed. Doing work for myself, and supplying the consumables myself, time is not as important. Because of this, I run drill bits slower than I used to, and they last longer. Even cheap drill bits will last a long time if you run them slower and use cutting oil, but they must be sharpened properly. I try to run good bits at 75-80% rated speed, and unknown bits at 50% or less.

I look at drill bits less than 1/8" diameter as disposable, and not worth sharpening, except in a time pinch. Between 1/8" and 1/4", it depends on if I have spares, and if the bit is a high quality one, I tend to resharpen it. Over 1/4", I nearly always sharpen it if there is no major damage.

I learned to freehand sharpen bits at an early age because of poverty. I now have a couple of Drill Doctors (garage sale buys for less than the cost of a replacement wheel) to touch up small drills, and a Champ sharpener for large ones. I bought the Champ at an auction thirty years ago for $15.00.

https://www.travers.com/product/champ-chp-3s-drill-sharpening-machine-87-145-051

 

[SouthernChap]

I suspect we are both here out a sense of altruism. Helping others is a part of our nature.
So if you find my advice bad or incorrect - by all means let me know.
However, if your complaint is that I am not nice enough to suit or you don't like my style of saying things please remember that I am not running for homecoming queen so always being agreeable is not real important to me.

Well courtesy costs nothing but that wasn't actually what I was on about.

But let's not reduce the signal to noise ratio of this thread (necro'd from 2017 as it is) any more than it has been already.

 

[SouthernChap]

Thinking of a set of these to replace my larger bits that are pretty old and beat up, many of them are old hand-me-downs of unknown origin.
Silver & Demming, these will be for use in my mill
Are they really worth the price?

View attachment 478567

Well, you might be better off starting a new thread rather than necro'ing this very old one (I suspect some people aren't spotting your question and are responding to the OP's 2017 question )

However, as far as I am aware the Silver and Deming brand is now not a prestige brand of drills. They respond fine to a bit of sharpening after use but aren't going to be heirloom pieces.

People sometimes use the phrase "Silver and Deming" as a general term denoting reduced shank drills (also "blacksmith drills" is used for these type of drills, I think).

How often do you find yourself using larger dia. drills?

I have just two Dormer A170 drills (15mm and 18mm), that I bought individually when I needed them and I've pretty much only used them in my lathe's tailstock and only in brass. I bought Dormer because I wasn't buying a set and I could afford the individual drills at the time.

If you know you use larger dia. drills frequently, then you might be better off working out which sizes you definitely use most frequently and buy good quality brands (like Dormer for example) for those sizes.

If you really want to make sure you're covered for those other sizes perhaps get cheaper import brand drills in the other sizes you think might be useful but aren't sure about.

I know a set is nice to have, but often it's better to just get an individual, better quality piece of tooling that covers your needs.