Drills
Turbo Mini Forums

so i need to get a drill set, a quick trip to machine mart revealed that we are quite a bit out of touch. titanium,hss and diamond.
tbh I've no idea what the best bet is.

im not shy to spend on quality but I'm not sure what would be the best to buy for occasional metal use, sometimes thing sheet and sometimes thicker.


Any ideas or recommendations

hand drill? hand drill will eventually kill any drill bit cheap or not, imo

i have got a decent set of hss fine on anything but stainless... now i have a decent pillar drill i will be investing is some cobolt steel ( on a recommendation)
i understand these are the dogs bollox

but imo its the un stability and movement / wabble in a hand held drill that blunts the drill bits
also dont use too many rpm, decent lube is a must when boring out a tight hole

just thought i have a good range of titanium bits too used only in the lathe and pillar drill had them ages and there lasting well,

Edited by Brett on 9th Oct, 2016.

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Possibly a useful vid:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7BbrjoftJA
[plus have a look at some of his others, absolutely brilliant]

As brett says, whatever you use won't last too long in a hand drill because you can't generate the feed pressure standard drill bits require.

A bench top pillar drill is one of the most used and most useful tools I have. Failing that a decent brand HSS will keep you going for a while.

http://www.turbominis.co.uk/forums/index.p...tid=469104&fr=0

For general use, i got this set a few years back which is still going strong. They do have their limitations and i do use some cobalt bits for the pillar drill when i've detailed work to do

http://www.screwfix.com/p/titan-hss-drill-...et-170pcs/59953

Edited by Rob Gavin on 9th Oct, 2016.

To be totally honest, learn how to sharpen bits properly, and it doesn't really matter what you buy for general car use, e.g. drilling holes, making brackets for things, drilling out sheared bolts etc.
All I would say is if buying something then forget B&Q/MM/Screwfix/Olistation, find an engineers merchant and buy yourself a set of something decent e.g. Dormer.

Edited by Tom Fenton on 10th Oct, 2016.

Olistation 😀😀

Yes i moved to the darkside

Instagram @jdm_brett

Yep. You need a set of bog standard but quality 'black' jobber drill bits. None of these fancy coatings and stuff.

You also need to know how to regrind them. Only really tiny bits are disposable. Different materials require different geometry which you can grind yourself.

Alloy steels can be better for stuff like stainless but you also need to use them properly. Correct geometry, coolant, correct feed pressure etc. Not much good for jobber use.

Ti coatings are largely a gimmic on drill bits. Its designed for use in a production environment where tooling is regularly changed before it dulls. The coating gives extra life before you need to change tools. Its next to useless for jobber use. Once it wears off its gone and often on drills it's just a thin layer for 'marketing purposes' anyway totally useless.

As above, lubrication, sharpening and low RPM to get the most out of whatever you choose.

Anything much smaller than 5mm is not practical to sharpen, so buy a pack of half decent 3 or 4mm bits for pilot holes. Get ones with a 'split point' then you don't need to use a centre punch - they don't wander. I agree with Tom to avoid the High St chains, except for small bits, these are great...

http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-ground-h...pack-of-5/26091

Only using low rpm is not correct. Use low rpm on a small bit and you will be disappointed with the results. There are charts all over the net to give an indication of the required speed for different size bits and different materials. In general, as the drill bit gets bigger, the speed lowers. You might need 1200rpm to put a 5mm bit through mild steel, but change to a 13mm bit and the speed needs to be more like 400rpm.

I think what he was getting at was battery drill only have two speeds, too fast and too slow

thanks for the replies,
Dormer seems to be reasonably priced locally so i will probably go with this brand.

as for use, will be using in a hand drill, pillar drill and possibly in my lathe.

ill need to be practicing the sharpening procedure though,

Can't go wrong with Dormer drills, out of any they are what I would choose. Ive had a set of Dormer drills for years and pretty much always get used drilling out laser cut holes in stainless which can be bloody hard! HSS are good for most things, carbon steel drills in my experience are pretty useless, apart from on aluminium.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fusion-Fabri..._homepage_panel

www.fusionfabs.co.uk



1/4mile in 13.2sec @ 111 terminal on 15psi