Hi folks,
As I was trying to flog my drill through a mere sixteenth of mild steel, thinking I could have knocked a nail through it in half the time, last night, I began to mourn the dearth of decent drill bits in the market these days. This was a fresh bit out of a set I had barely used, that I was "saving" for when it mattered.
The only decent bits I've got are over 10 years old, the remnants of fairly inexpensive sets, but even the blunt ones of those seem better than the fresh ones of any I've bought since.
It's not just that they don't cut very fast, or at all, or clear chips, or stay on center, or start in the work without a divot struck with the 10lb hammer on a "full military power" swing... it's that also, there is no differentiation any more between cheap, middling, better, good, and very good... though the ultimate and highly spendy ones, remain ultimate and highly spendy. I mean whatever you buy in a set from $5 to $100 seems to be the same crap made for 2 cents per... and you know where.
So, does anyone know of any brands that are easy to find in hardware stores that are still good value?? and obviously not made "you know where"
Please refer to recent purchases only, hell I've got black and decker bits that are good (about 17 years old) so knowing about your old faithful set, that has long since been cheaped out, is not very helpful.
Keep thinking I ought to get a sharpening jig, but was taken aback by the price of the drill doctor, and it looks like a kind of cheap plastic thing made for doing something non critical like buffing nails or something... my dad had a sharpener back in the day, that was manually operated, though I've completely forgotten any detail of it, only he ever used it, but it LOOKED like it was fairly straightforward to use and gave excellent results.... and I've never seen one like it... I thought there were some in the market 10 years or so ago, before I knew I needed one, when $20 still got me a decent set of bits, and $10 ones that worked for one or two jobs at least. However, they are since unobtainium of course.
Well any ideas? I'm getting fed up of not being able to drill anything unless I can come across one of my remaining ancient bits that happens to be the right size.
thanks in advance,
RoadWarrior222
_________________ traynee rockit serjun
DD#1 '95 Ford Escort Wagon 1.9 Auto, self PnPed stage 2-3ish head, 11ish CR, Airhog panel filter, awaiting headers and intake mods. ~110-120 BDHP DD#2 '88 Plymouth Voyager, 3.0 Auto, shift kitted, alloys, walker exhaust, timing advance. Awaiting PnP heads. ~150 BDHP
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