Drill bits

[Jim Nilsen]

The best thing about a drill doctor is that you can make any bit a split point bit. I have sharpened thousands of bits on one wheel. Sometimes there are some bits that need to be rotated clockwise in the holder to get the right edge. I have had drill bits that were new and wouldn't drill very well and then you sharpen it and realize that it wasn't the steel that was bad , it just wasn't sharpened right. It only takes 1 minute to have a good drill bit again in most cases.

We used to use the Triumph bits at work and had good luck with them.
You can find some nice indexes at Mc Master-Carr from cheap to expensive. They sell Drill Doctors too I believe, Get the next to the best one and you will always be happy with it.

[Northeast Rod Run]

If you look in a machinist supply catalog (MSC is a good one), you will see plenty of good ones (Made in USA, Cleveland Twist Drill, Guhring, Chicago Latrobe, etc). From here you can step-up to cobalt or carbide. Hell, even their cheap import ones are better than most anything you will get from Snap-On or Mac. This is where most machine shops get their supplies from and it's not worth us messing around with inferior drills.

Even when you see "titanium coated" drills out in the regular stores, those are usually inferior drills with the cheapest and thinnest coatings possible. You can usually even notice how uneven and poorly coated those drills are compared to if you saw a high quality drill. A lot the same "usual" places that sell the cobalt and carbide drills usually sell cheaper ones also. They might seem pretty good to you, but there are many different grades and mixes of those materials in the drills, and again, if you buy from a real industrial supplier instead of a tool supplier (Snap-On, Mac, etc) you will see the big difference

While we're on almost the subject, how about taps?

Greenfield, Guhring and OSG are great taps and the tool guys stuff can't compare. Their stuff is much more powder based than the ones I mentioned. I just had to go bail out one of my mechanic friends a week ago becaus ehe was trying to tap out a hardened bolt cutter (I still don't understand why he was doing it). He broke too many Snap-On taps so I went to his shop with just a couple of beat-up Greenfield taps and took care of it for him. He now understands why I always tell him the his taps are crap and I wouldn't tap a piece of wood with them

[Kamikaze Sy]

Cobalt bits and the Drill Doctor are the only way to go!

Time savers and a little bit of cutting lube will help keep the bits from burning up!

I have the older pro model Drill Doctor, (came with a VHS tape!), and it has yet to fail me!

[BulldawgMusclecars]

I bought a set from my local Kimball-Midwest rep, and have been pretty impressed with them. They weren't cheap, but after 6 months of daily shop use I haven't broken one, and they are all still sharp.