Drill bits
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Welcome! / Forums / General Woodworking Discussions / Drill bits
Any suggestions on good quality hand drill bits? I’m a newbie to woodwork and any advice would be very much appreciated.
Brad points are good, as far as which brand goes I have no idea. I’ve been using HSS Brad points that lee valley sells for my cordless drill and they work well. I just bought them individually and have 4 sizes, 1/8, 1/4, 3/8 and 1/2. Anything over 1/2 I go with my auger bits.
thanks for the recommendation, I’ll check them out. Most of the time I use my brace and bits but for smaller stuff I like the hand drill.
There are slight differences in the shape of the wings on different brad points as well as how well the point is shaped. I’ve had better luck with “Colt” brand bits being sharp and working well rather than being a brad-point shaped object. Mostly I’ve bought them individually, using the 1/4″, 3/8″ and 1/2″ sizes the most.
Here is a fun article on making your own brad points from retired split point or vanilla twist bits.
http://www.wkfinetools.com/contrib/pScott/art/grindingBits/grindingBits-01.asp
Haven’t tried it but it might be interesting to try on a larger bit.