Brad point bits-carbide or HSS

tcbaldmtn | Posted in Power Tools and Machinery on March 7, 2003 05:58am

Buying my first set of brad point bits. My wife gave me the OK to spend around $150 on the bits. Should I get the 7 piece carbide and fill in the rest with HSS? Or should I buy a larger set of HHS. Lee Valley has a 28 pcs HSS set available. Do I really need all those bits? I don’t want to buy cheap three of four times, I’d rather buy them once. What’s the difference between the 7 pcs carbide set from Lee Valley for $78, and the Woodcraft set at $44 ?

Replies

PlaneWood | Mar 07, 2003 06:18pm | #1
Firewood -

Well, frankly, I have quit using my brad point bits. Instead I keep my regular drill bits very sharp and use those. They produce less tearout on exit and I can resharpen them (which I can't do with the brad points). 95% of my use is with a drill press or horizontal borer running at about 1800 rpm.

Instead, why not spend the money on a good set of HSS Forstner bits?

PlaneWood by Mike_in_Katy
PlaneWood
HowardAcheson | Mar 07, 2003 08:35pm | #2
Can't imagine needing carbide drill bits for wood. My HSS brad points are probably 10 or more years old. When one breaks or gets damaged, you can always buy a new one.
Andrew | Mar 07, 2003 10:29pm | #3
Carbide on drill bit's has done the same thing that it did when people started making carbide tipped saw blades. I only have a few of them in frequently used sizes that I bought at lee valley, but I really like them. The main benefit is they last a really long time, but I also like that you can run them at faster rpm's and not worry about overheating the bit. They drill extremely accurate holes (+-.001") too. I don't think you could go wrong buying the carbide bits and then filling in the rest of your collection as you need them. Don't bother buying a big set of bits, as you probably won't end up using half of them, just buy the odd sizes as you need them. I'd also include some forstner bits in there, you'll find they come in handy.
AlanTurner | Mar 07, 2003 10:31pm | #4
Each to his own, but on the more expensive bits, I tend to not buy sets since I find that I use one or two, but not all. I do however have a rather full set, (by 64ths, to 1.2") of regular twist bits which is a handy set.

Edited 3/7/2003 2:55:22 PM ET by s4s
jako17 | Mar 08, 2003 03:04am | #5
The one point<g> that you might bear in mind is that the carbide brad point have narrow shanks which can be a problem if using them in a guide that relies on the shank being the same diameter as the point ie some shelf pin jigs