try and do as much of your drilling with the drill press. handheld drills dull bits a lot faster. had good luck so far with my drill dr as well.
http://championcuttingtool.com/brute-platinum.html best you can buy you get what you pay for http://www.amazon.com/Champion-TWISTER-XL5-Platinum-Twister-Resistant/dp/B000OBF528
I am always in awe of the guy that can take a dull drill bit over to his grinder and put a perfect cutting surface on it in just a few seconds. I have tried many times and they turn out duller than when I started. HRP
High speed cobalt drills. You can get them from real tool suppliers who supply machine shops. As for grinding them to sharpen, it is all in the angles. Spend a couple of days as a machinist's apprentice getting yelled at by some grumpy old journeyman. You will learn it is all in the angles. Think in terms of a wood chisel. If the edge isn't sharp it doesn't cut. If the back of the web rubs it doesn't cut. Simple.
Pipe threading oil works best for me when lubricating a drill. Maybe more sulphur in it? Also use it generously for hole cutting in dashes and frames, like for gauges and master cylinder mounts.
Oh hell, here we go and I know that I will get my arse handed to me but I must point out that I believe you all are talking about drills and not bits. A drill bit is an ad on part of drill. We ordinarily put a drill in a drill motor and produce a hole. The drill is in a box from China or somewhere else and the drill motor is the thing that turns it. I do this with respect to an old friend who was schooled by a German machinist and schooled me. Please excuse for trying to teach but I feel that I should pass it on.
I was a production and toolroom machinist for 30 years, I was always getting fabricators bringing their ugly attempts at drill bit sharpening to the toolroom to fix. I'd ask them where their drill sharpening gage was and I'd just get a blank stare, so I would just tell them to do us both a favor and bring it in for sharpening, it's takes a lot less time. If you're not holding one of these in your hand, you're just guessing.
Another fan of Drill Dr. Between all the surplus aerospace bits I've gotten from salvage and the Drill Dr., shouldn't need to buy any more in my lifetime.
Had a machinist show me how to sharpen a drill for drilling stainless steel and have ground them that way ever since even if it was just for mild steel bit stays cooler and hang on it grabs
When I was a Toolmaker Apprentice, I spent a lot of time learning speeds, and feeds. To fast of speed and it will fail no mater what.
I worked in a shop for 30 years. One of my buddies, Gene (RIP) used to get pissed when I called it a drill. He'd say it's not a drill it's a drill motor! I'd come back with, a drill motor is the thing inside the drill that makes it go. Boy, that always ticked him off further.
A lot of talk about fast speed dull drill bit. A rule of thumb is smaller drill bit faster speed, larger drill bit much slower speed, also PLENTY OF LUBE between bit and work piece! I used this method for years and have had very good results. Just my 2 cents.
Bad Dog bits if you can find them. They pedal them at trade shows. Shop owner I know was crowing about Bad Dog bits slicing through stainless effortlessly. I had a millwright show me how to sharpen bits on bench grinder. There is a technique
Since my eyesight (as well as just about everything else) isn't what it used to be, I am thinking about a Drill Doctor. Is the 750X worth the extra money? are the new ones better than the older models? If not, would you buy a used one? My experience is that when you get machinery that tries to cover too great a range some of the accuracy can get lost. I don't want to sacrifice the precision on the small ones to get the ones from 1/2" - 3/4". I have drills up to 2" so I would still have to hand sharpen everything bigger than 3/4".
like others said u want the cobalt drills. if the drills are frying on you run them slower rpm. also if you regrind them watch the center web if it gets to wide you will have a hell of a time getting it to drill by hand,or just drill a small starter hole. or grind the web out.(look at a new drill to compare)also a little flatter point for the hard stuff. most cobalt drills are at a 135 point already the others are 118 degrees. check this link out http://www.mmsonline.com/articles/choose-the-best-drill-point-geometry
When I ran the toolroom, I tore down the big drill bit sharpener to replace a part, but it was no longer available, so we had to have one made. I was not a happy camper for a week or so because that meant every bit had to be sharpened by hand, even a 3 in. one.
My brother is real good at sharpening drill bits by hand. Get it wrong and you drill triangular-shaped holes and often way over size. I just need more practice at it. If you have a local MSC that has a showroom, often they have discontinued endmills, drills, etc on sale. That's where a lot of my stuff came from.
Cle-Line bits and Mystic Metal Mover lubricant. The bits are a lifetime investment. Bought a set for my Grandson because someone at Home Depot online had screwed up. 29 piece set for $164.00, normally north of $250. the last bits he will ever need to buy.
I still have my drill index set that I bought over 40 years ago when I started my toolmaker apprenticeship. Either learn to sharpen by hand or buy a drill doctor. When you use drill as much as we used to you learn to sharpen them hand to save time. I have seen lots of drill bits at tool auctions go dirt cheap. Like someone else said earlier high speed steel is what you want.
The drill dr. shines not so much that it gets the angles right but because the drill is centered, to me that's the hard part. dave
39 years owning a machine shop will teach you that speed and feed is everything to a cutting tool. JC
Same here. I spent a year training under a good old school machinist, and one of his favorite sayings was, "speeds n feeds". I'll never forget that. It applies to drilling holes just as it does lathe or mill work.
Ya'll are gonna hate me. I wanted a drill press. I found one at a gent's pre-estate sale. 1958 South Bend biggass drill press. He was a Navy Machinist Mate, from 1936 to 1955. BTW, 1943 to 1948 on a submarine repair ship and occasional crew replacement. But that's another story. He wanted $150.00 and at that it was a bargain. I looked, talked and won. He asked how bad I wanted it and I said I didn't have all of the money but if there was anything he needed done, I'd be glad to help/do it. He wants a 1.75 of Beam and we'd talk. I was right back. He said if I could get it in the back of the truck, $50.00 would be fine. I did it, it was about all I could do. Then he comes around the corner with a wooden crate full of '50s drill bits. I had to hoist them up too. Then we had another drink, or 5, and the wife drove home. It took the cherry picker to get it on the bench. I wont ever lift that sucker again.
There's nothing like a little real world knowledge. Here's what I posted on the "'32-'53 Flathead" site about a year ago. : "I have done a bit more research on drill bits. What Doug said about titanium coated bits is the same as what I've found; they are good until they need to be sharpened (or the coating wears off), and the you have just another HSS bit even if you do sharpen it. I've looked a little harder at cobalt bits, and to me, they look like the answer. Cobalt bits come in 4 types; coated, M32, M45, and M56. The coated bits have the same problems as the coated titanium bits as they are just coated. I don't think we have to concern ourselves with M56 bits as the are very hard and brittle, expensive, and difficult to find. I believe they would be overkill in our garages. This leaves M32 and M45. These are both cobalt/steel alloys, so they can be sharpened and not lose their hardness and heat resistant qualities. The M32 bits are 5% cobalt, while the M45 bits are 8% cobalt. The M45's, having a higher percentage of cobalt are a little harder and more heat resistant than M32's. This also makes them more brittle and prone to breakage. Cobalt bits usually have shallower flutes and a more robust shafts than regular bits, which makes clearing chips a little more difficult. Also, they work best when used in an environment of controlled speed and pressure (think drill press). Moderators : Delete the following if deemed too commercial. After looking around, I am going to buy a set of USA made M45's by Chicago Latrobe from Amazon. They are spilt point 135 degree bits. All of their sets have stellar reviews (21 reviews with 19 5's and 2 4's in one case). Their set of bits from 1/16 to 1/2 in 64's increment is $169.50. This is a lot of dough, but if it's the last set I buy, it'll be worth it. More than one reviewer said you'll probably wear 'em out before you break 'em."
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