Ya get what ya pay for

You'll probably find a good many of those bits are sharpened poorly as well. A bit that's sharp will eat its way through wood quickly, a dull one just kinda pushes its way through it.

Learning to sharpen or buying a drill doctor will help in both reducing breakage and poorly sharpened bits.

Puckdropper

On 5/7/2019 12:13 PM, Puckdropper wrote: > Gramps' shop wrote: > >> A couple of years ago I bought a box of about 100 drill bits in various sizes for a few bucks. The box was branded ?Skil.? I almost exclusively use my Dewalt brand brad point bits but I needed to drill some 2-inch deep 7/64 holes so I grabbed my bargain bits. First one broke, then second one broke. Fortunately the location of the holes was not critical. Also fortunate that the break was beneath the surface. > > You'll probably find a good many of those bits are sharpened poorly as > well. A bit that's sharp will eat its way through wood quickly, a dull > one just kinda pushes its way through it. > > Learning to sharpen or buying a drill doctor will help in both reducing > breakage and poorly sharpened bits. > > Puckdropper >

Heck. Learning to sharpen bits free hand (1/8 is about the smallest I am comfortable with) properly will save you a ton of headaches even if you don't have a drill doctor or you are using bits to large for a drill doctor.

I wish I had learned it when I was younger and I still had Superman vision, but having learned it a little older I just use a magnifier lamp over my bench grinder. Under 1/8 inch is iffy, but I have done it a couple times on a finer grit wheel in a pinch down to 1/16.

I can see a problem with 7/64 going 2 inches deep into some tough grainy hardwood, like elm. I can imagine having to drill slow & careful and clearing the drill flutes a few times for each hole .. .. maybe I'm accustomed to cheapo bits ? :-) or have too much time on my hands .. John T.

Yes. I always used a jig that used the side of the grinder wheel. That worked well but I always wanted to do it free hand. Watched a bunch of youtube videos on just that, and saw multiple techniques. One, the simplest, caught my eye. Took about 1/2 hour practice to get it right, and wow, what a treat. Super fast, pretty easy, once I get rolling.

Ditto. I've been meaning to get a magnifier lamp, that would be the ticket, for lots of stuff. Never quite decided which one to get.

FWIW it depends on the angle of the grind on the twist drill bits. A very sharp bit with a low bevel will feed slowly.

My experience is that you seldom get what you pay for. Mostly I'm surprised if I get half of my money's worth.

That's typical of a scot.

So it might be a wash if you are paid double what you are worth. ;~)

Make that Scot-Swede-German-Irish-French if you please...

So basically an euro mutt?

Yep...