Best drill bits for metal and stainless steel?

[zsoltimatrix]

Hi guys,


I am sick of buying cheap or expensive drill bits which only last for a couple of drills. What do you think which exact make or model is the best and lasts longest?

 

[pennywise]

RUKO by far the best I've ever used.

 

[johnboy6083]

if you use cutting compound, it will greatly increase the life of your drill bits.
Making sure you are drilling at the correct angle too!

 

[zsoltimatrix]

What about the cobalt drill bits? They should be stronger than HSS?

 

[netblindpaul]

With drills you get what you pay for if you want good life for Stainlessd Steel, you need the correct grade along with a suitable helix & point angle.
This will be diferent for mild steel also.
You can get solid tungsten carbide if you want to spend the money!!!

 

[Guest123]

Dewalt bits are my preference, never had any issues with them.

 

[rocker]

Seconding lenny, I use dewalt xtreme metal bits (on his advice) and they are the mutt's. Watch they don't bite ya, cos they sharp and they stay sharp!

 

[Craigie]

as said above dewalt bimetal are the dogs

 

[BertUK]

pirhana drill bits are by far the best ive used.

 

[Rikki Barrett]

There not that hard to resharpen with a 4 1/2" grinder or bench grinder, you can choose your cutting angle for different materials. Had the same drill bits for years!

 

[mogga]

Pihranna cobalts for stainless steel they have a pilot point built in their HSS arent bad either other than that Dewalt Extreme watch big orange shed n screwitup for special offers

 

[PC Electrics]

I have a set of Erbauer titanium from Screwfix (I would link, but don't want to incur the wrath of the mods).

It is vital to lubricate any drill bit when drilling metal. You can buy proper cutting oil, but any lube will do, a drop of 3in1 or WD40. It keeps the tip cool too and prevents the sharp edges burning out.

 

[MarkieSparkie]

On hard to drill materials like stainless and tungsten steels its best done with a drill press or pillar drill (hand held drilling is more likely to wear or break drill the bits) with the work piece firmly clamped.
Matching the rotational speed and feed to size of bit and the material to be drilled is equally important as most drill wear is caused by excessive speed and/or feed.
A quality cutting lubricant (Rocol RTD is the industry standard) is required to reduce cutting edge friction and to aid cooling.
WD40 is OK as an emergency cooling agent but its thin film has very poor anti-friction properties for this task.
When using standard HSS jobber twist drills it is important to mark the centre point with a punch to stop drill wander, then drill a lead-in for the twist drill with a Slocombe centre drill of the appropriate size, followed by the twist drill in the normal way.

 

[pmac10]

HSS will work fine if your drilling properly and at the correct speed with a lubricant but i would prefer cobalt (at a much slower speed with eye protection, trust me), don,t know how accurate you need to be, but it is impossible to manually sharpen drill bits at the correct angle to maintain accuracy.

 

[4louvain]

Dewalt bits are my preference, never had any issues with them.

I have always gone for Dewalt too, recently tried 'HARD Drill Bits' got them online with the cutting paste they sell and would be happy to recommend them, they were not cheap but am happy with them.

 

[amlu]

i been using cobalt drill bits from toolstation, not that expensive. always spraying some wd40 on them when drilling in hard materials.

 

[davethsparky]

Just sharpen them to the right point for the material, no use trying to drill through stainless with a bit which been ground for plastic.

With practice you can sharpen drill bits accurately by hand, the same as any cutting edge can be.

 

[dan86]

i use cobalt bits and they're fantastic.
for my older cheaper ones, I sharpen on my bench grinder when need be

 

[i=p/u]

I throw them away when done.. But don't buy from electric shop, good engineering counter ...,

lift engineers always have good bits..

 

[chrisjacob]

Hello, There i used carbide drill bit,mining drill bit,twisted drill bits. And one more i want to tell you all one of wood working carbide drill. I hope information is useful for you.