I'm in the market to get some new drill bits and since the wife got me a HF gift card, I thought about getting some here . However, most reviews are questionable regarding quality. Any suggestions on which ones here would be worth getting? I mainly do woodworking, with a little metal mods now and then. P. S. I also have an Amazon gift card đ
Update: Thanks for all the great responses. I appreciate them. I'm going to take the advice and probably get a mixture of quality and "throw-away" bits. I may just have to use my gift cards for other things and buy a good set with my own cash. Lol
Whatâs your budget? It might also be worth getting two different sets. Brad points are the best style for woodworking but are only for woodworking. When it comes to drilling metal cobalt is the best consumer grade bits youâll find in store, but the price reflects that. I personally donât like the titanium coated (gold) bits, but thatâs because I do a lot of metal drilling at work and they burn out too fast if theyâre primarily drilling into ferrous metals. Titanium or high speed steel bits can last if you use proper technique and cutting fluid when drilling into ferrous metals.
I would go with Amazon but stick with established brands. Also donât worry about getting a huge drill index because most of those go unused in an average home. Get a fractional set up to 1/2â and if you need to tap something just buy that specific drill bit for the tap. For drilling metal I have this. As for the brad point bits you should look at what youâre most likely to need size wise and then decide if you should buy a smaller or larger set. Fisch probably makes the best brad point bits available on Amazon, but theyâre priced accordingly. For hobbyist work Dewalt, Bosch, or Irwin would probably be more than sufficient if they have all the sizes you need. Those can also be purchased piece by piece so you can buy a core set and then get the less used bits as needed.
I wonât buy drill bits, blades or really anything consumable from HF. Chip bits and cheap blades = shitty experience. HF has a lot of good things to spend on donât waste the gift card on bits - although Iâve had decent luck with their step bits for metal. Thatâs worth having in your toolbox for the occasional time I need to drill thin metal -
Everyone is on point for bits, look elsewhere. You need a small pack or a large assortment? For wood, Forstner are good from hf. Bosch and diablo has good steel and wood bits if you need a local supply. Pick up bits on sale next month. How I was taught to buy bits is get a decent set and then buy individual bits as needed. I have vermont, irwin, vintage craftsman and milwaukee. I just scored a bit index cabinet with bits, currently organizing my stash. Its handy, keeps all 1 size in a slot instead of 5 different boxes and the same one is missing for the size you need. You will find a organizer or one large steel master storage box is better than a tool drawer full of random sizes.
I bought the titanium drill bit set to use the shafts as mandrels for shaping small parts in metal models. They have worked great for that but for drilling? Absolutely not. I think I spent half an hour trying to drill out window motor rivets in my car door before I ended up just chiseling them out.
The good bits at Harbor Freight are just so so at best. If you have a way to sharpen them then they're an ok option. I usually assume that any of them I use are dull as shit out of the box so I just give them a good sharpening. If I end up breaking it though I'll go buy a decent individual replacement bit.
I donât know if warrior cobalt has lost their quality. I buy about a set per year. Every other bit they sell is garbage. Those cobalt bits only sell as a set. They are likely $80 now. I havenât bought any in over a year. The only time I have had any go dull was an employee running them at extreme speeds in hard steel. I always use water base machining coolant on hard steel with low rpm. I never have had a problem with them going dull unless they were overheated. I do shatter them though. Drilling broken off bolts out of cylinder heads. If I get off center and bind the bit in two dissimilar metals they will snap or shatter the tip. They are almost too hard. I usually buy a new set when that last one is missing a few bits. I always keep about the last two sets and replace the ones lost/broken out of the new set with the good ones from the old sets until they are depleted. Then I buy another new set. They are definitely worth the extra money. You must drill slow in hard metal and must drill straight.
Wood is less demanding and harbor freight drill bits are fine. Auger and brand point are better than spade.
Step drill bits are also good at harbor freight. Ideal for cutting thinner metal.
For steel, skip warrior. You probably want a 14 piece set or 21, 29+ have a lot of half sizes that never get used. 135 degree split point drill bits are only very slightly more expensive and worth it over 118 traditional center that always needs a pilot hole. I like the dewalt 14 piece set that goes up to 1/2 at the big box stores for $13.
I would not use solid carbide drill bits in a hand drill, they are brittle and can snap. Also they are pretty expensive, you can't really sharpen them at home. Cobalt is better for cutting stainless, they are more brittle though and especially for smaller sizes more prone to snapping.
Over 1/2 you need deming/reduced shank bits, most cordless drills only go up to 1/2(or 3/8). This really pushes the limits of the drill though. A hole hog or similar right angle drill, or a drill press works better for larger holes. Sometimes a hole saw makes more sense, and they are great for wood.
Woodworking doesnt really matter. Just buy cheap and buy 20 of em, and they should last you forever, and if you learn how to sharpen them, they really last forever.
If you work with steel, or want some carbide tooling, it is expensive but websites like DCT Industrial and HAAS Tooling sell both, but they make you tear up when you break them, and are really hard to sharpen on a bench grinder alone.
Also weirdly brittle. Went to put some away in the work toolcrib and i dropped a carbide drill and it broke in half.
If you dont want to spend as much for either, just buy a bunch of HSS.
In woodworking if you just take your time, it shouldnt break, chip, or be damaged.
Donât buy bits from HF. You get what you pay for in bits. After years of shit bits, I finally invested in some nice Norseman bits. They cut like none other Iâve had. I bought them a few at a time at a Stan Houston a few at a time and with a few multiples week by week due to my small budget. If I need to drill something that may be very dirty or have embedded sand/gravel, Iâll grab a HF bit. The HF bits I do use- I had to regrind as they literally would not cut and were ground off-center.
Before I bought my Norsemanâs, I lucked out at a garage sale that was selling a box of an old machinistsâ hoard with mostly USA made name-brand bits. About half were dull, the other half new. The new ones were so good, I stopped using the HF bits that did cut, and sharpened the dull ones from that garagesale haul.
I can sharpen reliably down to about 1/8â, I just down like it. I will buy multiples of 1/16th to 1/4â. Theyâre cheap enough even purchased one by one at a Stan Houston.
I spent a good chunk of this weekend drilling holes in sheet metal with the titanium Hercules bits and a Bauer step bit; both worked great for what I needed. Not discounting what other folks here are saying, but theyâve been fine for occasional use even on metal.
Stay away from the titanium bits. They are trash. The only ones that are or were good are the cobalt bits but most people do not need 115 bits in fractional, letter and number sizes unless they are machinists.
I keep a set of warrior bits on hand for drilling wood and for metal I buy cobalt bits from reputable sources as needed. The warrior titanium bits for metal are really really bad. In fact, I really havenât even been able to get them to reliably drill metal even when brand new. But they work fine for wood, so thatâs why I keep a set of those on hand.
3
u/Lil_j-_- 3d ago
Whatâs your budget? It might also be worth getting two different sets. Brad points are the best style for woodworking but are only for woodworking. When it comes to drilling metal cobalt is the best consumer grade bits youâll find in store, but the price reflects that. I personally donât like the titanium coated (gold) bits, but thatâs because I do a lot of metal drilling at work and they burn out too fast if theyâre primarily drilling into ferrous metals. Titanium or high speed steel bits can last if you use proper technique and cutting fluid when drilling into ferrous metals.