Choosing a set of drill bits

First: Big shout out to my Drill Doctor. I had to drill three #19 holes in cast iron yesterday and all I had was my set of HF TiN drills. Had to sharpen the bit for each hole, but I did get through the job OK. Drill Doctor made quick work of it.
Second: Enough is enough already. I have had enough screwing around with garbage bits. I'm looking to buy my last set of drill bits. Generally the 115 piece sets (1/16 - 1/2, A-Z, 1-60) fit my needs. I'm not looking to break the bank, but I don't want to cheap out, either. So, I'm looking for suggestions. If you were looking for a complete set of drills, what would you buy?
-------------------------- I long ago (pre-China) bought relatively inexpensive sets from industrial suppliers and replaced the sizes that dulled too quickly from heavier use with Chicago-Latrobe. Mainly those were the numbered and fractional tap and shank sizes, in jobbers and screw machine lengths, with black oxide finish.
If you put the replaced and resharpened drills in another index and use them first the better bits aren't at risk from unexpectedly hard mystery metal, such as cast iron. Or the replacement tap size bits can go in a combined tap and drill index.

On 12/1/2019 8:59 AM, rangerssuck wrote:> First: Big shout out to my Drill Doctor. I had to drill three #19 holes in cast iron yesterday and all I had was my set of HF TiN drills. Had to sharpen the bit for each hole, but I did get through the job OK. Drill Doctor made quick work of it. with garbage bits. I'm looking to buy my last set of drill bits. Generally the 115 piece sets (1/16 - 1/2, A-Z, 1-60) fit my needs. I'm not looking to break the bank, but I don't want to cheap out, either. So, I'm looking for suggestions. If you were looking for a complete set of drills, what would you buy? I have several HF Sets and a few good quality sets. Hertel, Precision Twist, Chicago Latrobe, etc.
I've had questionable grinds out of the box on all of them except amazingly the HF drills. They may be only good for one hole, but they come out of the box sharp. My 3 facet hand grind tends to hold better than their grind though.
I've gotten to where I do something different now. I do try to maintain those sets for one off projects, but for sizes I use all the time like 7/21/D/F I buy multiples at a time from McMaster and have bins near my drill press for just those sizes. I do resharpen (mostly freehand), but I never want to have to stop mid project when I am finishing something up because of it. McMaster doesn't list the brands for their loose drills, but I've had good luck with them. I mostly buy stub length screw machine drills from them.
Before you say you can't hand grind a #19, I just hand ground a #21 not 20 minutes ago. I do keep a magnifier lamp over my grinder though. It helps a lot.

n cast iron yesterday and all I had was my set of HF TiN drills. Had to sha rpen the bit for each hole, but I did get through the job OK. Drill Doctor made quick work of it. garbage bits. I'm looking to buy my last set of drill bits. Generally the 1 15 piece sets (1/16 - 1/2, A-Z, 1-60) fit my needs. I'm not looking to brea k the bank, but I don't want to cheap out, either. So, I'm looking for sugg estions. If you were looking for a complete set of drills, what would you b uy?
I had a job that involved drilling through stainless electrical control pan els last month. Having been pissed off too many times by my crappy drills, I decided to take a look at some cobalt drills. After doing my research, I decided to take a shot on the Harbor Freight cobalt drills.
Holy crap, these are the real deal. A night & day difference from the "HSS" drills they sell. Rather than looking like a boy scout trying to start a f ire, these things just make holes. really easy to drill a half-inch hole (i n three steps) with a 20V Porter Cable.
I bought the less-expensive fractional set and a set of cobalt step drills (which also fly through stainless). I will be watching the sales and jumpin g on a 115 piece set soon. Just today, I had an HF HSS #21 drill bend(!) wh ile drilling on a drill press in 1/8" aluminum. Not doing this again.
Just thought this might be handy information for someone.

That one sounds like the drills a former boss bought off a wagon jobber years ago. Were supposed to be "the cat's ass" - when they guy came back to see how he liked them he told him he had gotten it wrong - - they were only good for drilling assholes in balsa-wood teddybears.

I've had decent luck with the cobalt drills from HF as well, but to be fair I've had ok luck with their cheaper drills as well.
That being said I bought some decent brand name drills for all the standard sizes and a modest metric set. Cleveland, Precision, etc. Some of them I found to be dishearteningly disappointing. Well, until I took them over to the grinder and reground them.

I've had decent luck with the cobalt drills from HF as well, but to be fair I've had ok luck with their cheaper drills as well.
==============================
In steel?

Yes. Although that's so broad its not really a question. 1018 isn't much harder than aluminum, and I'd challenge any steel drill to punch holes in harder alloys for very long without burning up. (I do have some carbide drills, but I mostly use them for aluminum.)
On a project making 304 stainless steel pens (multiples) a couple years ago I was able to drill out more bodies per sharpening with Precision than with HF drills, but out of the box the HF was sharp and the Precision Twist Drill just rubbed.
The HF would drill about 3 bodies (both halves) and the Precision would drill 6-10 (both halves) before needing to be resharpened. Yes, better drills are better, but a properly ground drill actually drills.
One thing I have noticed is its hard to resharpen small drills, and a lot of the small drills (from several brands) don't look all that sharp under the glass.

Last time I was in HF I picked up a couple packs of TiN coated small bits. Last evening, second son wanted a ball stud for a custom mount so I grabbed a ball bearing and held it at cherry red (as hot as the propane torch would get it) for a few minutes. After it cooled I put a dimple in it with a diamond burr then one of these bits went through it like cheese, then drilled to size and silver bazed in a section of bolt for a shank. Son was very pleased with the end product. Now that I know I can drill ball bearings, I will have to come up with more ideas.

Gerry on Tue, 26 May 2020 23:28:49 -0400 typed in rec.crafts.metalworking the following: For some reason, this reminded me of a Learning Experience. Was drilling very small holes with very small tolerances. Discovered that at this size, the TiN coating made the resulting holes "too big". One more thing to keep in mind.

Bob La Londe on Tue, 26 May 2020 12:02:56 -0700 typed > > I've had decent luck with the cobalt drills from HF as well, but to be As a friend says "Technique can matter more than tool quality."
In this case "cheap sharp drills are better than expensive dull ones."
OT3H, I've look at some Henry Taylor carving gouges, but they are shipped "blunt". As in "first you'll have to finish the bevel, then sharpen the edge, then hone it." Which I kind of sort of can do with chisels, but on curved gouges? Not sure I could do that without a lot of learning curve.

Its pretty much accepted that drills make over size holes. To remove material I drill. To make straight holes I bore. To make accurately sized holes I ream. However I've found even reamers do not make perfect holes. Material, temperature, and runout all have an affect. If I need a tight hole I'll use an under size reamer with the metal still hot from previous operations (if applicable), and then measure after it cools. Then I'll ream again if necessary.

I have slowly been replacing my bits with ones from DrillHog. The Ebay store is less expensive than on Amazon. They are claimed to be made in the US and have a lifetime warranty.
Paul

Is a warranty useful? I assume that it would cover breakage, but not anything else. I occasionally break bits, but they are almost always the small, inexpensive ones.

Lifetime Warranties can be useless, covering only the originally purchased (and short lived) item, but *not* its replacement. I learned that scam with some shitty headlights.

What lifetime? Often "the lifetime of the original installation" Translated as "untill it fails"? or the replacement is "not the original installation"? Better is "the lifetime of the original owner" Or "transferable to second owner with notice" Or "Will be replaced if it EVER breaks" Lifetime warranty against "failure of workmanship or materials" doesn't really cover much if they can get out of it by saying it was mis-used or claim "normal wear and tear"

Many years ago I bought a set of left-hand drills to try removing broken studs. The first drill I tried was a 7/32 and it snagged in the hole and twisted into a right hand! Junk.....

The shorter of:
a) The lifetime of ink on a slip of paper. b) Where's that receipt?
To receive a free replacement, the buyer was required to furnish the original sales receipt. You can only do that once.

And good luck if it was printed with a thermal printer - - -

Apparently, "Lifetime Warranties" are only in effect for the lifetime of the item covered, thus once it fails it is no longer covered. Navigation devices only get lifetime free maps only until a more advanced device is produced.