Self-aligning screw thread?

Aren't you supposed to give the drill a wiggle before you pull it out. Many do for some odd reason.

No. They do that to remove the burr at the bottom but then you get an hourglass shaped hole which results in a loss of thread depth at the top and the bottom. I suppose it thicker material it won't matter as much but in thin stock it will matter. phil k.

A cheap twist drill dulls quickly so then you have to push harder and then snap.

I like a quality HSS with cobalt twist drill, it stays sharp a lot longer so it cuts easier and faster.

Fine for larger ones, but thin drills for pilots, you can break any quality drill by simply being not too exact with the angle. Better to waste cheap ones.

Breakage has not been a problem for me.  I guess US people are more skilled with a hand drill.  ;-)

I'm talking about the thin 2-3mm pilots. A few degrees off the right angle and they just snap.

I think US people have more inertia so they can't move sideways so quickly. Just because there's a MacDonalds on every street doesn't mean you have to use all of them.

Are you really that ignorant? Americans are infamous the world over:

I won't let you near my 0.35 mm drills then... A couple of winters ago I decided to build a model boat and figured starting small was a good idea. Sweet Jesus, everything was tiny. I've built real boats faster. At least for me it was not a relaxing experience.

If it's plastic, fine, but drilling into hardwood with a 3mm pilot drill requires a steady hand, or several spare drill bits.

Maybe some people get off on writing the lord's prayer on a pinhead, but I'm not one of them. If I ever build another boat it wil lbe at least

Perhaps they've updated it because it now says '1/48 scale'.

If using very small drill bits I insert as much of the shank as I can into the chuck. This lessens the chance of one snapping. Cheap drill bits for fine work are money wastedd

Same thing, just to confuse people. 1/4" represents 1 foot or 12".

I like a model boat to be about 2 foot long, although even that can be fiddly.

How does that make a difference? You need a certain amount out of the chuck to go into the workpiece.

No, it means you lose less money when they inevitably fail.

What I really set out to build was the Amati Oseberg viking ship that's about 18". The kit is about $150 so I decided to perfect my single plank hull technique with a cheap $50 kit. Should have went big to start with.

You're American and didn't go big?!