Forstner bits

I'm quite certain I'm talking about a Forstner bit, and even with the center point, I still had skate issues.

These are the ones I was using, straight from the Rockler store in Sandy Springs, GA:

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have they point. They are forstner bits.

Yet, I had skate issues when the main body dug in, all probably due to RPM speed. My Dewalt doesn't have a lot of inbetween (14.4V 1/2" chuck, older model. It's either not enough, or too much.)

That was my experience. I'll stick to using them in a drill press.. OR using them in a different drill.

Jason Buckler Marietta, GA

Reply to
Jason
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Takes a man to say that, Swingman. Pax.

I'll admit myself that I didn't know of Ben Forstner's later idea of a center point. I've never seen a Forstner with one large enough to keep it on center. I have sawtooth bits with large center points, but I wouldn't call those Forstners.

Of the Forstners that I have that do have the center points, they are handy in visually centering a spinning bit on a mark, but that's about it.

John Martin

Reply to
John Martin

"Jason" wrote

If they skate on you out of the box, what you're experiencing is mostly the result of poor quality. Not surprising as Rockler's hardware quality seems to have suffered since the advent of importing.

Next time you need a good Forstner of modern design (with the center spur), try the "Bormax" or "Famag" brands (you can now get both from WoodCraft):

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?FamilyId=778The "Bormax" are a bit pricier (no pun intended) but have served me and I've used a ton of forstner bits, particularly the 35mm variety for drilling cabinet door hinges. The one I have now has drilled a couple of hundred cabinet doors and will still cut you when handling it.

Famag was best of breed in a fairly recent FWW review.

Reply to
Swingman

I may be over-simplifying but I think the center point is there to provide a small reference pilot for true center if you need to extend a smaller diameter bit through for a bolt or dowel; at least that is what I have used it for over the last 40 years or so.

As a kid and while going to colege, I worked in a production shop that did a lot of turnings, they used forster bits to set up the ends of the stock for the tail piece.

I have always planned machining operations around that when working with wood. Not so often but also with plastics.

I think that a couple of the operations even used modified bits to trip the top of legs outer diameter to uniform sizes so they would fit into the corresponding hole that was bored to receive it.

BTW - new here since Verizon took away alt binaries pictures woodworking

Thanks for having me

Jay

Oh, I most definitely am. The Forstners I use are almost all by Connecticut Valley, BGI or PM - companies that have been making them for well over 100 years. Machine shanks and bit brace shanks. Some have small points that extend below the rim, some don't. On none of them does the center point extend more than about 1/16" below the rim. Of those that don't, some never did - it's not a re-sharpening mistake. The Forstner bits are meant to be guided by their rims, not their center points.

I even checked a couple of really big Forstners I have - 2-5/8" and

2-3/4", 3/4" shanks, about a foot long. Conn Valley, but they don't show them in their product list anymore. Original factory grinds. Each has a central point, but it's flat-topped and about 1/4" wide - it's certainly not intended to guide the bit.

With the brace bits, one trick is to turn them backward at first to get the rim to dig in slightly before you start to cut.

I've got no idea what was in Benjamin Forstner's original patents - all I know is that the companies that have been making them from the beginning have been making them without center points large enough to significantly guide them. They do help in getting them on the center mark, but that's about it. If you had a gimlet point, you wouldn't get a flat-bottomed hole, would you?

John Martin

Reply to
Jay R

(I'm just getting back into the swing of things, as it were), but the next time I need to do a bunch I'll invest in a couple of those.

Thanks!

Jason Buckler Marietta, GA

Reply to
Jason

Skating seems to be a probelm with many brands of cheap Forstner bits. Oddly enough, this is one area where price really does seem to follow quality. Connecticut Valley, Famag and a couple of others have pretty much traditional patterns, but don't skate--if they're kept sharp. Some who wants to pay 30 or 40 bucks for a 16 bit set, should expect poor to fair (if they're lucky) out-of-the-box performance that improves with sharpening, but never equals, or even comes close, to the performance of the high end bits.

Famag is new to me, but ConVaCo bits have been around since I started messing with wood back in the early '50s. Jeez. No wonder the kids seem to be aging.

Reply to
Charlie Self

"Charlie Self" wrote

IIRC, Famag is Austrian/German ... same inventive European engineering that is responsible for 99% of civilization's technological advances in the past few centuries.

Reply to
Swingman

Swingman wrote: > If they skate on you out of the box, what you're experiencing is mostly the

I picked up these Grizzly bits ($30 for 16 pc. set) after a magazine review. It may have been FWW but I can't remember.

I've no complaints about their performance, and the price is very reasonable.

Reply to
Woodie

I have a similar cheap set. For the sizes that you only drill with one or three hoes a year, they are good and it is handy to have those sizes around "just in case". But the 3/8" and 3/4" that I use a lot have long been replaced with better ones that hold up longer.

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

The link is to an Feb 26 1886 patent which Benjamin Forstner clearly felt was an improvement and DOES include a cutting-point. A quote is under. So you are both right

In the manufacture of in improved auger the slots b are formed by milling, thus facilitating the manufacture and lessening the expense which necessarily attended the manufacture of the bit made under my formerpatent. 1. In an auger, a circular peripheral cutting-edge formed of two parts, a a', each provided with a cutting-edge, e, inclined slots d, formed in opposite sides of the cutter, cutting-lips b,formed along the inclined slots, and a central cutting-point, e, joining the cutting-lips b, substantially as herein specified

Reply to
Jerome Meekings

(snipp> These are the ones I was using, straight from the Rockler store in Sandy

Um... Heh.. I made a booboo blunder. :)

Was working on something else this morning and had reason to drill a few holes. Chucked a bit in the dewalt and commenced drilling... and realized it was drilling quite well - and fast.

Turns out I had somehow changed the top speed switch from "1" to "2" and didn't notice. Hmm, I wonder. Fetched the aforementioned forstner bit, chucked it up, grabbed my scrap piece, and set the switch to "1".

Guess what? More speed control, and I was able to drill in quite well and with only a little effort I was halfway through the scrap. More importantly - no skating!

Morale of the story: user error on my part. So for precision holes freehand, I'll use a forstner in the drill (spade bits otherwise), but still prefer the drill press for 'em.

Jason Buckler (typing with horked thumb in splint is fun!) Marietta, GA

Reply to
Jason

I have these:

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work great for me, and are opn sale right now for 60$ (The other set here is 70

shelly

Reply to
sheldon.mandel

Wouldn't carbide be better than those for hardwoods?

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Reply to
Searcher7

Eh? No. I drill angled holes with forstners all the time.

-- Doug

Reply to
Douglas Johnson

It depends on your skill level and experience.

Many years ago I made rustic furniture. It was all made of planks held together with lag screws and large bolts. All had to have the pilot holes drilled and the head set beneath the surface.

I drilled hundreds of holes with a hand drill almost every day. I got very good at drilling straight holes. So good, I used to make a little drinking money betting people I could drill holes as straight as they could with all their fancy guides. (And I did it much faster too.)

I am certain that I lost some of that ability, but I can drill a pretty straight hole to this day. But I had lots and lots of practice. I ain't no woodworking natural or athlete. Just worked at it awhile. Like anything, if you do it enough, it looks easy and/or natural.

Reply to
Lee Michaels

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote: ...

No, that's one of the advantages of a Forstner--it is guided by the rim and can do things like angle cuts, one side off the edge of the material, etc., etc., that others can't do.

It does take a good quality bit which is both sharp and primarily runs perfectly true, however, and many of the inexpensive ones simply aren't finished well enough to do so...

--

Reply to
dpb

I second that and what Lee Michaels said in a previous post. I built a platerack last winter that used 60 1/2" holes for dowels. I don't own a drill press but used a Freud Forstner that drilled the holes nicely. As Lee said, it takes a bit of skill which needs to be developed, but once you do that, the holes came out as well as I wanted.

Tanus

Reply to
Tanus

these are!

Reply to
sheldon.mandel

It doesn't have to be straight to cut, as it will cut at any angle. And it will cut less than a full circle.

It will do both of those nicely in a drill press. In a hand-held drill, if the bit is not perpendicular to the work, and if the bit lacks a substantial center point as most Forstners do, it is susceptible to skating. The rim contacts the work on one side, and the bit tries to walk away on the rim. Once the hole is started, it's fine.

John Martin

Reply to
John Martin

Not according to the post: "Pre-sharpened high carbon steel bits".

I was going to pick some up.(They are not on sale anymore anyway).

Darren Harris Staten Island, New York.

Reply to
Searcher7

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