How To Select The Drill Bits
There are many different kinds of drill bit cutting tools wholesale, and each is designed to excel at a specific type of task. Apart from determining which style is best suited for your work, you should be aware of the quality of the bit, which can affect not only the hole itself (concentricity, smoothness, etc), the working life of the bit, and whether it will even cut the material you are working on. Higher quality drill bits will typically be more expensive than lower quality bits. Two general factors affect overall drill quality:
How to select the best drill bits
The general quality of the steel (hardness, alloy content)
The machining of the grooves (if any) and the cutting edges
The roundness of the bit (it should be perfectly round)
Quality concerns aside, you should, whenever possible, use a drill bit suited for the work you are doing. For example, despite the fact that most people use them for this purpose all the time, standard twist bits are not designed for drilling screw holes; taper point bits are, and they do a much better job since they leave enough material on the sides of the hole to allow all the screw threads to bite.
“The Last comes first,” as we shoemakers say. For the uninitiated, lasts are the forms that one makes the shoes or boots on. A representation of your feet – sort of – including style lines, heel height, toe shape, attitude. The most essential and trickiest part of the whole job. In my line of work, it all starts here. The shoes can be lovely, but if they don’t fit properly, they won’t last, they might cause hurt and can damage the feet. As the lasts are made or adapted to the specifications of each individual client, they are beautiful in their uniqueness of lines, curves, and character. Each last has its own story to tell. It is a hard-earned skill to understand how measurements, tracing, and movement plays together. Once again, experience through trial and error, learning from skilled craftsmen, and not giving up marks a successful maker.
how to select drill bits
Take the following into account when selecting any bit:
The size of the hole to be drilled
The size of the shank (which should be as large as possible but also fit your drill)
Whether or not you need a flat bottom hole
What your rate of entry will be (for fast production work, the high angle flutes on a brad point drill will deliver a cleaner hole)
Your tolerance for fuzziness at the edge of the hole
The direction of the hole (with the grain, angled cross-grain, etc.)
The type of wood you are drilling into (for example, a lightly larger drill should be used for pilot screw holes in hardwood as opposed to softwoods).
The drill bit descriptions in our catalog can help you to decide whether a particular bit will work for the application you have in mind. Whatever bit you ultimately choose, let the tool do the work for you. If you have to use excessive pressure to cut, then the bit is dull and should be re-sharpened or replaced right away.