What brands of drill bits do you use?

[JackLeg]

Not exactly sure where to put this, but, what brand of drill bit have most of you found to be good quality for woodworking? I'm really interested in a quality set of brad point bits if I don't need a second mortgage! I have a good set of Forstner bits and some el cheapo metal bits. All input appreciated!

:notworthy::notworthy:

 

[JeffH]

Best I've tried or heard of are Colt bits, made in Germany. I have a couple; wish I had a whole collection.

http://colt-tools.com/

Pretty available, but I've had occasion to run into long backorders on uncommon sizes.

 

[ashley_phil]

i have a set of colts i inherited that are likely 30 years old and still do a great job.

i've been satisfied with a hitachi set i got at lowes several years ago.

 

[RandyJ]

I'll throw in another vote for Colt. Bought a set over 10 years ago. Still going strong (sharp).

 

[StephenK]

I'd love to have a set of these. They come highly recommended from people I trust, but I have no personal experience.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/Wood/page.aspx?p=42247&cat=1,180,42240

 

[Pop Golden]

​In all honesty I can not justify spending the money Colt bits cost. It's much too easy to mess up an expensive bit. I use Steelex brad points. If I destroy one so what! A complete set cost around $20. You can replace the smaller sizes as damaged. If you get to a point replace the set. I have a good set of Forstners in 1/16 in. increments. The Steelex bits have served me well over the years. I have a little of everything in the shop including spade bits, masonry bits, countersinking bets etc. But! for my run of the mill bits (the ones that set on the drill press) I buy a 1/16 to 1/2 set around $20 about every year and give the balance to someone who needs them.

Pop :widea:

 

[Phil S]

Fuller, Fisch or Colt. All good

 

[frankc4113]

For my work I use the 100 piece set of bits sold by Woodcraft. On sale they are $25 and good enough for the work that I do.

 

[Jeff]

I have a minimal set from Lee Valley; 7 bits, #07J0107. They're good.

http://www.leevalley.com/US/wood/Page.aspx?p=42247&cat=1,180,42240

 

[Jim M.]

+1 for the Woodcraft set. Jim

 

[ScottM]

another +1 for the Woodcraft set.

 

[aplpickr]

Colt maxi forstners! Expensive but worth every penny. Especially drilling endgrain on a lathe. Your time is the most valuable thing that you buy. Try drilling a 1"+ hole in a pepper grinder, you won't ever go back! You will throw your woodcraft's away. Because I am drilling in clean, virgin timber there is no problem of messing up an expensive bit!

 

[Willemjm]

If the OP asked specifically about brad point bits, in my experience I avoid them. I find the drilled dimension in wood to be both less accurate and less clean with more tear out. This applies to drilling for dowels, pen blanks, etc.

 

[Rick M]

I've been using the same Black & Decker brad point bits for 20 years, they still cut clean in most materials. Yeah, surprises me too.

 

[Sam Knight]

Just out of curiosity I bought a set of brad point bits from Harbor Freight (cue sighs, lol). They are terrible as most would have expected. The point does not even remotely stay centered in my lathe. I use brad points sometimes to drill out pen blanks on the lathe. I have not found a set yet I can recommend so I too am looking and appreciate this post. Good luck!

 

[Willemjm]

Just out of curiosity I bought a set of brad point bits from Harbor Freight (cue sighs, lol). They are terrible as most would have expected. The point does not even remotely stay centered in my lathe. I use brad points sometimes to drill out pen blanks on the lathe. I have not found a set yet I can recommend so I too am looking and appreciate this post. Good luck!

As per previous post, I don't like brad point bits. I have a complete set of Colt bits, up to 1/2". I get a much cleaner cut with a normal inexpensive twist drill bit. The shavings are not expelled as efficiently as with the brad point, however a little patience with a twist bit and the final result is much better.

For Forstner bits I prefer the affordable Freud drills and re sharpen them with a Dremel if they dull over time. Some of the cheaper bits one has to sharpen right of the box.

For spade bits, anything goes.

 

[nn4jw]

This month's Woodsmith Magazine (vol 39, no 229) has an article specifically about drill press issues and goes a little into matching drill press speeds to drill bit types and sizes. It was interesting to me to see that brad point bits should be run at higher rather than lower speeds to prevent tear out issues. Like 1500 rpms. I'm guilty of running my drill press pretty much at the same low speed regardless of bit type and size. I'll be looking for some charts online and correcting that. There's always something to learn and improve on. There's truth in the saying about blaming your tools.

 

[obxdiver]

My experience is mainly in a machine shop and don't have near the experience with wood a lot of you guys have. But a couple of observations:

"The shavings are not expelled as efficiently as with the brad point..."

When drilling materials that make a small chips like wood, don't try to plunge all the way in one shot. Drill a short way, back the drill up to clear the chips, and repeat until you punch through or reach the desired depth. You'll end up with a cleaner hole that is truer to size.

As to speeds, the general rule for carbon steel was to turn the speed up until you just reach the point where the flutes disappear, slower for harder materials, faster for softer. Anytime we worked with wood or plastic, it was crank the ol' Bridgeport up as fast as she'd go. Can't remember offhand what that was in RPM's, not nearly as fast as a router, but probably comparable to a drill press.

I couldn't tell you how well they work in wood, but Cleveland twist drills always seemed to be the most popular in machine shops.

 

[bob vaughan]

My first set of wood boring brad point bits were from Brookstone back in the day when most of the current boutique woodworking suppliers weren't even someone's pipe dream. They were horrible. I tried other brad point bits and found that Greenlee, Morris, and Forest City made some vaguely passable bits in common sizes, but they still weren't satisfactory. I wanted a full set of good brad points 1/2" and below. I finally gave up. There were no suppliers out there willing to spoon feed me my wants in drill bits.
I got a Norton A60-OBNA2 in 1/16" for my bench grinder for about $15.00 and proceeded to grind my own brad point bits from bits that had a metal-cutting shape. I haven't looked back since, and that was 35 years ago.

The short version is if you want bad wood boring bits, get off the shelf bits. If you want good, you'll have to make them your self with your bench grinder and that $15.00 wheel. Its not difficult to do if I can do it. All you have to do is TRY! No matter how badly you screw up your first ones, they'll still do fairly good in wood. You won't ever have to deal with those sorry holes in wood again.



One of my rigs with a magnifying glass mounted and good light.



Looking through the magnifying glass



A finished brad point bit.