Forstner bit sets

[LCHIEN]

Amazon Price Tracking site all time prices and last month charts

https://3cmls.co/US/B0002TUFYK

Just a week ago it was $184.69 at Amazon! Now $212 or 225 (I get both)

It's like they saw me coming.

Walmart will ship it free for $205.



Wait and see???

[LCHIEN]

How does Amazon set prices? Do they look at how many people have it in their cart or count the number of item hits in search and jack up the price when the number increases?

I read there dynamic pricing and one metric is a "conversion factor" which is the ratio of the purchases to the hits. If the conversion is low - small sales compared to hits - then they think its overpriced and drop the price. Demand and inventory may also be a factor.

Clearly this is a very dynamic priced item!

[d_meister]

Have you considered the Rockler set? It's oversold, but available to reserve at the sale price of $89:

https://www.rockler.com/16-pc-forstner-bit-set?sid=V255423&utm_medium=email&utm_source=batch&utm_campaign=20230727_B_D_Garage-Sale-Ends-Today-AM&mcID=922%3A64b9a4e8601fbf347f036ff0%3Aot%3A5ddea17d3541921a14f8686a%3A1&linkID=

[leehljp]

I ran a quick comparison test...
1-1/8" Freud brand new vs my Drill Master (Harbor Freight) set's 1-1/8" bit that's maybe 20 years old.

I just did a real quick test in a piece of scrap pine, two holes with each. Shown above.

I can't really see any difference in the holes quality wise, in the bottom or the side or the entry. I did not check for splintering on the exit which I should have.
The middle two holes are the Freud which you can really only tell by the sharper corner left by the spurs. The Drill Master actually leaves a flatter bottom as its spurs dont' cut so deep. I am impressed that the quality of the holes is pretty close. Maybe the longer spurs prevent tearout on exit.

What is a big difference is the cutting effort. Applying what I thought was a reasonable and similar amount of pressure on the quill handles, the Freud cut the hole in about 6 seconds while the Drill Master took about 16 seconds! That's a major difference in sharpness!

Is it because the Freud is brand new and the Drill Master 20 years old and well used? I mean the set gets used a lot but not like hundreds of holes off each individual bit.

But just the fact that the Freud cuts so much better makes me think its time for a new set..

I am not always clear in articulating the point and Loring mentioned my point with Freud Forstners and "cutting effort". I have focused on sharpness when the main point should have been "cutting effort". That is what I really noticed. While I can't remember specifically, but the HF and similar quality bits cut fair when new,it is in my memory that it still needed more pressure that I had to apply with the Freud. Immediately after using them, the ease jumped out at me. I never had that with a new HF. Four to Five years later, the freud still cuts like it is new and with little effort.

Someone here wrote or quoted a few years ago (something along these lines): Buy mediocre several times or Buy Quality once!

[dbhost]

Well, they are no longer MLCS, but the overwhelming majority of my router bits and all of my forstner bits came from MLCS and I couldn't be happier with how clean they cut...

[nicer20]

Have you considered the Rockler set? It's oversold, but available to reserve at the sale price of $89:
https://www.rockler.com/16-pc-forstn...6a%3A1&linkID=

$89???

It comes up as $164.99 for me.

[d_meister]

$89???

It comes up as $164.99 for me.

It does for me, now. I found it looking through the deals from the Garage Sale flyer email. Maybe a typo or they got overwhelmed by orders and caught on.
This is the splash page for the customer favorites sale. https://www.rockler.com/shop?w&sid=V...er:sli_mapp:No
We'll see if it works after I post. The link won't work from the post preview or the post composition field.

[d_meister]

The link works, but they've changed the price to $135.99. It shows "You used coupon code "V255423"." at the top of the page, which was applied when I followed the link from the email. I now wish that I had ordered one when it was $89!
If it sounds too good to be true....
I have two Rockler sets up to 1". One is the in-between 1/16th set, as well as the Harbor Freight >1" set. The HF is hardly used because of the tear-out and rough bottoms.
The Rockler ones work fine.