Eugene,
Personally, I stay away from almost anything sold by NH or HF except for
the rare US- or European-made items (and then you have to be careful on
the price -- these companies are not always a bargain source of the few
top-notch items they carry). The foreign drills are probably less than
half as good as a quality US-made set, so it may well be worth it to pay
twice as much.
I've been told that the titanium coating is a waste of money -- it wears
quickly when overheated and is gone (from the tip, anyway) once you
resharpen the drill. The cobalt drills, on the other hand, are a cobalt
alloy so they can be resharpened indefinitely. Plus, I have had a
cobalt bit go through difficult material (broken-off screw extractor --
aaarrgh) that demolished a titanium-coated bit. Having said that, if
you expect only moderate home use, why not get a very good set of plain
old HSS bits. to be supplemented by the occasional cobalt bit as
required by circumstances and cheesy screw extractors. HSS is more than
good enough to drill through most metals.
The drill sharpener brand was probably the Darex Drill Doctor. I don't
have one but have never heard anything bad about them.
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From: Eugene Abbondelo
To: shop-talk@autox.team.net
Subject: Need Drill Index Recommendations
Date: Tuesday, August 11, 1998 10:43AM
Fellow listmembers:
I'm interested in getting a complete drill index (fractions, #1-60, A-Z)
as advertised in Northern Hydraulics, Harbor Freight, etc. Are these
indexes any good? No name brands are mentioned, and the U.S. made are
about 2x the cost. How about titanium versus cobalt. These would be for
a
home workshop and only moderate use. Any recommendations? Also, a
recent discussion on the list about drill sharpeners recommend 1
particular brand. Can anyone tell me what it was, as I lost the
original
messages. Thanks.
Eugene Abbondelo (eabb@loc.gov)
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