HF drill bit prices to good?

[louis mason]

has anybody actually bought & used these type of HF drill bits? I need a wide variety of drill sizes and i was looking at this 60-piece TITANIUM NITRIDE COATED NUMBERED DRILL BIT SET from HF made out of Composition: M2, TiN coated for $9.99:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34627

my question is.... does anybody know if HF tools are totally crap? i'm sorry to be so direct, but i have always thought that you get what you pay for- but boy is this drill set priced cheap. the closest DeWalt set costs $49.00.

is titanium coating for drill bits standard? i don't seem to see carbide bits like with my router- so maybe thats the hardest drill bit material used?

thanks louis

[jziegler]

has anybody actually bought & used these type of HF drill bits? I need a wide variety of drill sizes and i was looking at this 60-piece TITANIUM NITRIDE COATED NUMBERED DRILL BIT SET from HF made out of Composition: M2, TiN coated for $9.99:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=34627

my question is.... does anybody know if HF tools are totally crap? i'm sorry to be so direct, but i have always thought that you get what you pay for- but boy is this drill set priced cheap. the closest DeWalt set costs $49.00.

is titanium coating for drill bits standard? i don't seem to see carbide bits like with my router- so maybe thats the hardest drill bit material used?

thanks louis

At that price, it becames a how can you go wrong type of thing. While I don't have that set, I do have a couple of other HF drill bit sets. I have the brad point set and the Forstner 7pc set. Are they the greatest bits in the world? no. Do they work well for the price? Certainly. With the brad points, a few aren't dead on straight. One in particular was off a good bit. But, given the chace to do it over, I'd still buy them. I would expect the standard twist bits to be pretty similar.

Jim

[LarryG]

They'll make a hole.

It may not be a round hole. It may not be a correctly sized hole. But it'll be a hole.

In all seriousness: Harbor Freight sells a lot of bargain-priced gems but I would categorize their in-house DrillMaster brand as barely adequate. I own a set of their brad points, plain Forstner bits, and TiN-coated Forstner bits. All of these will do the job, after a fashion, if you absolutely cannot afford something better. Off-center points and runout is common. They're okay, but only just.

In short, if you need bits and cannot stretch your budget any further, they're decent for the money. But if you're asking whether you can beat the system and get bits comparable to the name brands at HF's bargain-basement prices ... no.

[LCHIEN]

echoing Larry's thoughts above. They're servicable and cheap. I find the sizes are on.
You can try for $10 and not really lose much. Some of my brad points are a little off center.
The regular twist bits can be quickly resharpened if the centers are not perfect (I have a drill doctor).
Good bang for the buck, anyway.
Re: titanium coating. Carbide bits are very expensive, they either have to be made of solid tungsten carbide or have Carbide inserts along the cutting edge. TiN coatings are relatively much, much cheaper to apply than carbide inserts. It's a chemical coating that reduces friction; friction is usually the worst enemy of drill bits, they overheat and lose temper causing them to dull rapidly. My solid carbide router bits 1/4" cost around $12-15 or so each so that's about what a 1/4" carbide drill bit will cost.

[just4funsies]

Saw blades, router bits, drill bits... It rarely makes sense to scrimp on the quality of these items, as 95% of the tool performance is in the cutter. I'm as frugal (OK, cheap) as the next guy, but I still value quality, performance and safety before anything else. I would steer clear of HF for this kind of stuff.

[louis mason]

OK, thanks for the advice so far. what about this set Yukon Tool YT115CD 115-Piece Cobalt Drill Bit Set from Amazon:

any better- or about the same quality?

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=228013


louis

[wassaw998]

Saw blades, router bits, drill bits... It rarely makes sense to scrimp on the quality of these items, as 95% of the tool performance is in the cutter. I'm as frugal (OK, cheap) as the next guy, but I still value quality, performance and safety before anything else. I would steer clear of HF for this kind of stuff.

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=38543

I have been using the linked HF blade on my Jet TS for a while now and gotta admit I am quite impressed. It was recommended by a member here and I've read a lot of various posts indicating that is a fairly nice blade. For $10 on sale, maybe worth a shot if your TS can handle a full kerf blade.

I also have this one:

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...emnumber=44565

But have not put it on my saw to test drive it yet, but have read of folks saying it is also a very nice TS blade. Sometimes the stuff you find at HF will fool you I guess. I tend to consider the "lifetime carbide" flagged items as being worth some consideration since I've had such of a good exp. with the above blade, but like I said, easy to be fooled by HF stuff in either direction !

As to drill bits, I got one of those big sets from Costco a while back and have been pretty happy with it. Its not like super quality, but drills round holes for me.

[steve-u]

As others have mentioned for the price it would be worth a try as you won't be out much if disappointed. However I would suggest that you have a basic set of quality bits also. I bought a 13 piece set from Milwaukee at Amazon when they were like $22 and they work real well. Sometimes Loewes has blow out pricing on Hitachi drill bit sets. I don't know how good they are but I bet they are pretty decent. --- Steve

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...lance&n=228013

[leehljp]

I have this set:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/cta...temnumber=1611

I am amazed at the sharpness of my set. In my experience, I know that getting good sets are sometimes chancy. But I bought the above set for wood only and will not use them on metal other than occasional aluminum.

Also, I relegate these to the world of pen turning where miniscule size differences are desirable. I have bought single bits for $10.00 that just don't seem to be the right size although they are advertised for certain pens and pen tubes. I know that the larger size bits are to allow for expansion/contraction of the wood around the tube, but some have just been too large.

Soooo . . I bought the above set and am very happy with the results and the variety of sizes. Color me Happy with those!

[ExYankee]

I think thatthere is a plant somewhere in China that makes a clear yellow spray on coating call "Titanium Coating" cuz, all the cheapo bits I buy turn silver gray after a few good uses.
I have a piece or two of "real' TiN tools and they keep their edge and appearance. I also have the big set of black HF twist drills and find them good to use and true sized.
So when the odd occasion calls for a "F" drill I got one!. So After 6 mo only one slot is empty from breakage.

[bigsteel15]

We sometimes use TiN coated bits on our CNC drill for drilling holes in steel.
An example is 1/4" & 5/16" holes in 1" thick carbon steel plate. We were getting anywhere up to 1000 holes from each bit. That is awesome performance for drill bits. I think we were paying around $5 each for them.
Solid carbide where going to run around 50-60 each and are just as disposable and won't last that much longer to make the difference.

[Pappy]

My 2 cents...

This is a case of you get what you pay for. They will work but if you put themto use on any steel, they will burn up fast. Same thing with most TIN and Cobalt coated bits. Second or third time you use them, or the first time you try to sharpen them, you have a fancy colored HSS steel bit.

[ted van halen]

I had a 19 pc HF set I bought for 5-6 bucks. I should have just stayed home & tossed a 5 into the toilet & flushed it. I at least would not have wasted the gas. I sharpened 'em on a DD. Still don't drill round.

I saw someone's sig line that said "measure w/ a micrometer, mark w/ a crayon & cut w/ an axe". I present to you that "measure w/ a micrometer, mark w/ a crayon & drill w/ a HF bit" would be just as appropriate.

I've got an 11 or 12 piece Tin coated Bosch set I've been using for well over a year in ferrous, non-ferrous, wood, plastic, you name it. They're still yellow & still sharp as the day I bought 'em.

My $5.02 on HF cutting tools in general, save yours.

Ted

[LCHIEN]

I think thatthere is a plant somewhere in China that makes a clear yellow spray on coating call "Titanium Coating" cuz, all the cheapo bits I buy turn silver gray after a few good uses.
I have a piece or two of "real' TiN tools and they keep their edge and appearance. I also have the big set of black HF twist drills and find them good to use and true sized.
So when the odd occasion calls for a "F" drill I got one!. So After 6 mo only one slot is empty from breakage.

As with all coatings, you can apply different thicknesses and with different adhesion characteristics. The cheap producers use thiner coatings and the better manufacturers use thcicker caotings that stick better and last longer.