Cheap Drill bits

Gliden07

Gliden07

Well-Known Member
I was at Harbor Frieght today they had packages of 7 drill bits in common sizes that I use for making my knives. 1/8" and 1/4" they had others but I didn't think to look at those because I needed the 2 sizes I listed! Anyway if I remember the 2 packages of bits were around $11 with tax! I was getting ready to go to Fastenall to get these exact sizes. I'm sure they would have been at the very least double price if not triple! Obviously I'm not sure on quality yet but, they look decent?
 

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A friend turned me on to buying plain tool steel Harbor Freight bits by the dozen in the smaller sizes that my fancy Darex sharpener couldn't handle re-sharpening consistently. I use them for 1 to 6 holes and toss them as soon as I notice the dulling. They make great try pins. Anything over 3/16 I buy screw-machine length and resharpen myself.
 
Mike, those Darex sharpeners are amazing looking. Nice price, but bet they are more precise then the Drill Docs.
 
KenH said:
Mike, those Darex sharpeners are amazing looking. Nice price, but bet they are more precise then the Drill Docs.
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Mine is ancient, Ken. I bet I've had it 30 years. The one I have was meant to be on the toolroom floor. You got the baseplate, jig, hardware, stone, and supplied your own bench grinder. :) If you google them again, I had the old, gold unit. I found that I couldn't get good, consistent indexing on small bits to cut the sweep correctly, but you get 3/16" up to 3/4" and the sharp they put on a bit and the centered cut are a joy.
 
MTBob said:
Thanks for mentioning the Darex sharpener. Wow, that's a "real" machine - in contrast to the mostly plastic Drill Doctor that I have. I rarely use the D.D. and much prefer hand grinding anything over 3/16"
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I haven't had much luck with Drill Dr!
 
yeah, i've got the drill doc and the exact same experience! Now I just sharpen by hand on my 2x72 and get better results.

Drill doc now sits on the floor getting covered in grinder dust....
 
In my experience it’s by far more cost effective to just buy new drills for anything under 3/8 or so. If you aren’t too worried about your time the smaller drills can be sharpened but for the cost of new ones vs potential issues with badly sharpened drills it isn’t worth it most of the time.

I have used a $4000+ Darex drill sharpener a lot and while it can work really well it is still very touchy and takes a certain amount of “feel” to get it to do a really good job sharpening a drill. Most people that use it struggle to make it work right. I can only imagine the cheaper drill sharpeners are worse yet.
 
Contender Machine said:
In my experience it’s by far more cost effective to just buy new drills for anything under 3/8 or so. If you aren’t too worried about your time the smaller drills can be sharpened but for the cost of new ones vs potential issues with badly sharpened drills it isn’t worth it most of the time.

I have used a $4000+ Darex drill sharpener a lot and while it can work really well it is still very touchy and takes a certain amount of “feel” to get it to do a really good job sharpening a drill. Most people that use it struggle to make it work right. I can only imagine the cheaper drill sharpeners are worse yet.
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I agree, Darren, the Darex can be tricky if you don't learn and pay attention. But, then, most machine tools are that way. With the old unit I own (much less than $4k, I promise. LOL), it is ALL about getting that drill indexed properly in the manual jig. And, yes, it is a "feel" thing that only experience with the machine will render. Get that right, though, and the drills are as good as factory and sometimes better.

You do this for a living, though, and far more than I ever have, so I'll take my success as fortunate that I stumbled on how to do it right by trial and error. I had to do something, though, and the two guys who taught me what little machine work I know were adamant about not sharpening drills by hand, so I bought the machine. They used some fancy cutter grinder for all that.

On a side note, thinking of Al and Harry sorta makes me a little wistful. These were old-school manual machinists, the two "research machinists" that designed and built stuff for my Big Pharma company's R&D program. Both had engineering degrees from night school, the old school way for vo-tech guys. If they said it about tool work, I believed it. And yet, when I made them each a knife they marveled at that shiny, hand-held crafting where about the only time it saw workholding was to drill holes. And it ended up getting me a job offer from Maintenance to be their stainless polisher for the manufacturing facilities. :) While I always preferred the company of the maintenance guys and factory workers to fancy asses with ties, I stuck with the chemistry bench. More bux!
Thanks for making me think of those two. It's been like 30 years or more they're gone.

Happy New Year, Darren. Hope 2024 is banner for Contender!
 
OK, I'll offer another view (rant) on HF. The question posed in this posting says it all - HF has "CHEAP" stuff, all of it. It is a First Cost store, nearly every thing is second rate quality. If has wires connected to it, or has a machined surface, it is designed to fail.
I view most tools as an investment to be used successfully for a long time. HF's tools should be considered an EXPENSE since they will likely last a short time, or fail to preform the intended job.
And, yes, there are exceptions, but I prefer to not spend money on crappy quality.
(Confession-I do buy HF blast media, it's hard to screw that up!)
 
MTBob said:
I prefer to not spend money on crappy quality.
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This is my way of life also. Over the years there has been very few items from HF that have found their way into my shop. I have bought castors and the little segmented razor knives though.
 
MTBob said:
OK, I'll offer another view (rant) on HF. The question posed in this posting says it all - HF has "CHEAP" stuff, all of it. It is a First Cost store, nearly every thing is second rate quality. If has wires connected to it, or has a machined surface, it is designed to fail.
I view most tools as an investment to be used successfully for a long time. HF's tools should be considered an EXPENSE since they will likely last a short time, or fail to preform the intended job.
And, yes, there are exceptions, but I prefer to not spend money on crappy quality.
(Confession-I do buy HF blast media, it's hard to screw that up!)
Click to expand...
Depends on my intended use. Generally I buy well known brands with high customer satisfaction. But I just purchase a HF tumbler with extended warranty- should last my lifetime.
 
I don't see a lot of difference buying Harbor Freight or purchasing "import" from a supply house like MSC. Some of their stuff is good, some sucks. Caveat emptor. Cheap is cheap, one has to expect lower quality. A H&R rifle isn't a Weatherby, so to speak, and shouldn't be expected to be. Having a store local allows one to at least look and handle before purchase.

I bought several full-sized files with handles from there because I wanted to see just how crappy a $2.99 file is. Not so bad at all, and the fact they are returnable for new when dull makes them a decent buy, eh, since they cut clean? A lot of crap at HF, but not all. Another example would be my big yellow rollaway my micromill sits on - MUCH better built than the ancient Craftsman top and bottom next to it and about the same money as 40 years ago for the Sears stuff. And what's more important, the store is HERE in town while Sears and everyone else abandoned us as the demographic changed. And guess where Sears got their stuff, anyway, the last years?

Difficult question.
 
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MTBob said:
OK, I'll offer another view (rant) on HF. The question posed in this posting says it all - HF has "CHEAP" stuff, all of it. It is a First Cost store, nearly every thing is second rate quality. If has wires connected to it, or has a machined surface, it is designed to fail.
I view most tools as an investment to be used successfully for a long time. HF's tools should be considered an EXPENSE since they will likely last a short time, or fail to preform the intended job.
And, yes, there are exceptions, but I prefer to not spend money on crappy quality.
(Confession-I do buy HF blast media, it's hard to screw that up!)
Click to expand...
I agree to most of what you posted. But I bought Drill bits and as far as I'm concerned they are a consumable item so I will be buying more soon. If they work decent maybe from them, if not I can always go to Fastenall and spend more! But I was there they were on sale I needed them so I bought them. Harbor Freight has upped their game as far as hand tools go. Many YouTube mechanics use them and swear by them. I would love to be able to buy Snap-On or Mac but as a hobbyist cost is a huge factor! 4 to 5 times the cost of a wrench so I can change my oil makes no sense! Unfortunately Sears/Craftsman is pretty much gone there are no middle of the road tools anymore. Their all made in China!
 
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MTBob said:
OK, I'll offer another view (rant) on HF. The question posed in this posting says it all - HF has "CHEAP" stuff, all of it. It is a First Cost store, nearly every thing is second rate quality. If has wires connected to it, or has a machined surface, it is designed to fail.
I view most tools as an investment to be used successfully for a long time. HF's tools should be considered an EXPENSE since they will likely last a short time, or fail to preform the intended job.
And, yes, there are exceptions, but I prefer to not spend money on crappy quality.
(Confession-I do buy HF blast media, it's hard to screw that up!)
Click to expand...

HF items are a toss-up. I bought a horizontal bandsaw there and it worked quite well for years. I sold it online and even got some of my money back. I also bought two large tool storage units there that are quite nice.

On the other hand, I've wasted some money on things. Most notable a Jigsaw...

I still find it fun to go in an peruse the shelfs.
 
Happy New Year Fitzo I hope you’re doing well!

It all depends on your intended purpose and what you need out of a tool that should determine the quality of tool you buy. When it comes to drills I have some small HSS drills that cost less than $2 each. I also run small carbide drills that cost $80 a piece. The $80 drills are much cheaper when you put into perspective the way they are getting used. Punching accurate holes repeatedly into $200 stainless steel parts with the the $2 drills is next to impossible and costs a lot when they fail. At the same time that $80 drill in a little drill press will likely break the first time you try to use it where as the $2 drill would work fine.

So I buy name brand and I buy cheap “junk” just depends on the intended use.
 
I have have some anecdotal data points on those exact Harbor Freight Warrior brand that often goes on sale: 3/32" only used on annealed 8670 specifically in slip joint making process.

I broke 3 relatively quickly if not on their first use. Then stopped using them.
 
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