Harbour freight drill bits

I have been buying their inexpensive 29 piece set but don't last very long. Do they make a better set ? Des somebody else sell an inexpensive set of good drill bits ? Thanks
 
Quality and inexpensive dont't belong in the same sentence. Most Harbor Freight is made in CHINA. I have never seen a good drill
bit from China. I have some American made bits that are used almost every day in my shop, that are 40 to 50 years old. IF you buy
from Harbor Freight you get what you pay for. IF you want quality you will pay dearly. A really good 1/4 in bit will be over 5
bucks for 1 bit. A good 1 inch will be close to 40.00.
 
So true. When I have a drilling job that needs to get completed with out a problem I use the drill index box labeled made in USA. For everyday use I use HF bits that are on sale for $9.99 they break/needs sharpening all the time but save my good bits.
 
Only problem is price doesn’t always mean quality, don’t mind paying higher price for good drill bit but paying higher
price for cheap bit bothers me, Price doesn’t always mean quality, how do u know???
 

I use middle of the road bits and use my Drill-Doctor to sharpen them before they get only a little dull.
 
Check on-line for MSC Industrial Company, do a search on their website for 29 pics SAE Made in USA bit
sets. I bought an 8 pcs Silver & Deming set month or two ago made by Triumph Twist drill. Paid a $100
over the price on imported Chinese junk but I might need to use them again.
 
Just like any other machining process, drilling requires the proper use of the drills.

If you are working with metal, and have the proper equipment, as in a metal drill press or a mill, lathe, or some other way to hold the drill straight and control the speed and feed, then investing in good and proper drill bits is worthwhile.

But for hand drilling, something mid range will do just as well, and no big loss when they get broken or burn up.

Chinese drills, hard to say. They may be total junk, but they could also be a real bargain, just depends on what the seller ordered. As cheap as they are, probably be worth trying a set and see what you get. About the only way to tell.
 
I bought one really good set from HF and one set that will not stay sharp if you are drilling butter. If you look you will see three or four stock numbers for the same item. Different factories making look a like stuff. I was told by the local store manager that their new Hercules line is much bette.
 
The sooner we help Our President get USA away from trading with The ASIAN toilet
rims cheap trash the better off America will be., Dont tell me That China cant build
good tools THEY CAN , And THEY DO , BUT , They Will not send it to USA ,. They only
ship their junk here So as to Frustrate those that think they can make their own
repairs.
 
China will build whatever we spec out. Rockwell hardness of 50 +/- 2.o or +/- 20.0 is the real problem. Looks the same, til you spin it on real metal.
 
Good cutting oil helps them a lot otherwise figure on them
cutting them one or two holes depending what you are drilling
with them . I’ve bought the 9$ bits and sets that cost 179$
USA bits and not much difference in quality but hey you get a
little American flag on the box for your 170 extra dollars
 
Not sure anybody sells what you described, "inexpensive good". Inexpensive is a relative term so I’m not sure if you mean cheap or mid-priced. The link below is what I use. Cost more than some sets, cost less than some sets but the set works well and bits can be replaced one at a time at the local Fastenal store.
Fastenal
 
Re "Different factories making look a like stuff"

A bloke I know that deals with China reckons you have to visit frequently to check otherwise what you get will be coming out from the second or third door of the same plant
 
Get a Drill Doctor and keep them sharp. Forget trying to sharpen anything smaller than 3/16. I have found that HF drill bits are sharpened
off center.
 
I buy thousands of smaller bearings a year that come from China. The importer I buy from told me they have to have their own quality control people in the factories they buy from to get the proper speced bearings. Over the last 10 or so years I have not had a problem with them. One of my customers used to install their own bearings but the China bearings they were getting were giving them fits so they started to have me install the bearings. It is a correct statement that China can manufacture high quality products if held to the higher standards. You can bet they do not manufacture low quality products for their own military.
 
Don't say our president. Maybe your president. All he care about is dividing the country and keeping his fat, lazy a__ out of jail.
 
Well if ya want GOOD then ya have to pay the price . I personally have two drill index's . one is in my service truck and that is the GOOD set that are made here in the good old USA and made at a small local company about ten miles west of me, the other set is a JUNK set that only drills WOOD . The good drill bits come from Ohio Twist drill. Those will do a lot of drilling before they need touched up. They use to resharpen them for free but like all good things must come to and end.
 
An acquaintance of mine has to turn every sentence into a political statement. He's also got a very low IQ and the butt of all coffee shop jokes.
Perhaps you two should meet. I bet you would have the same subject to talk about.....for 10 hours a day and show nothing for it in the end.
 
For what it is worth, I see a lot of folks beating the drum for the Drill Doctor.

As drill sharpeners go, they are probably one of the better ones out there, BUT...

Unless you keep the chuck religiously clean of contamination of any kind, they will soon lose their ability to do a quality job of sharpening a drill bit. I say this from first hand experience.

As far as sharpening bits smaller than 3/16", what is up with that? I routinely sharpen 1/8" bits and even a bit smaller. Usually, I do it by hand since I will have it sharpened faster by hand than I can set it up in the drill doctor
 
I have yet to see Chinese drill bits that are better than basic homeowner grade. Like other posts stated, the importer on this
end gets the quality they pay for.

Once though, out of curiousity, I bought a small set of bits in a plastic container from HF just to see how bad they were. The
intent was to keep them in the house for hanging pictures etc. Literally half of them were sharpened in such a way that they
wouldn't have cut at all and had to be sharpened before they could be usable.

At work, the company has over the years bought numerous drill indexes from MSC in their Hertel house brand. So far they've been
American made and are pretty good quality. Not the finest quality but excellent performance vs. cost. They have various set
sizes and you may find one that fits your needs and budget.

For sharpening I use the bench grinder. The drill doctor type tools seem to produce a wide variety of results some of which look
pretty but aren't right. Someone at work resharpened a bunch of bits at the shop and they didn't have near enough relief behind
the cutting edge. Maybe a setup issue but I never bothered to find out. I just touch them up on the grinder as I need and go.
 
Harbor Freight has three different "grades" of drill bits now, the Warrior, Bauer, and Hercules.

You are probably using the Warrior brand bits, which are the cheapest. The Bauer is supposedly better, and Hercules is much better.

Youtube creator "Project Farm" did an independent test of several brands of bits from cheap to expensive, and the Bauer and Hercules brands did quite well as I recall.

My favorite cheap brand is/was the Skil brand from Lowes. During the Lowes black friday sales they used to have 29 piece sets for $19.99. For $20 you couldn't beat them.
 
Will they really outlast 12.5 sets of the ten dollar ones even if they the cheap set only drills two holes per bit ? I doubt it maybe If you made your living drilling holes
 

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