Drill bits selection is a prevalent issue for users, suppliers, and distributors. It’s a very common to struggle with choosing the right tool for a specific application. It is because little mistakes such as wrong drill bit size, material, length, and even design can make all the difference.
Most ready-made drill bits available in the market end up not fitting for the intended applications, causing a waste of money, time, and energy.
Table of Contents
- Why Drill Bits are Important Choose the Right Drill Bits for Your Application
- Tips for Choosing the Right Drill Bits for Your Application
- 1.Decide the Drill Bits Materials for Specific Application
- 2.Determine the Flute Design Features of Preference
- 3.Understand the Coating Type to Use
- 4.Identify the Drill Point Angles
- 5.Go for the Right Drill Point Length
- 6.Know Whether to Go for Ready-made or Customized Drill Bits
- 7. HSS Vs. Cobalt Drill Bits
- 8. What is the best drill bit of material?
- Conclusion
Figure 1: A workman drilling holes into a surface with a drill bit
Thus, we have created this article to guide you through drill bits selection processes. How about the performance of HSS vs. cobalt?
Find out the answers to all your itching questions below!
Why Drill Bits are Important Choose the Right Drill Bits for Your Application
One of the challenges many small and medium-sized saw blade suppliers, distributors, and end-users of drilling and cutting tools face is choosing the right tools. To fabricators, machinists, and operators, drill bits are indispensable and versatile everyday-tool in the workshop.
When you get it right, drill bits can improve your productivity, save you stress and give you quality finishes on your project. Whether you are working on wood, concrete metal, or steel, choosing the right drill bits can optimize your performance.
However, when you get it wrong, it will hinder your production and pose a threat to your workpiece. Also, the frequent replacement of drill bits and other tools come at a cost; it leads to loss of time, energy, and money.
Figure 2: Varieties of drill bits
Rather than leaving everything to chances, knowing how to choose the right drill bits for your application can save you a lot of stress.
Tips for Choosing the Right Drill Bits for Your Application
These are the six tips that can help you to choose the right drill bits:
1.Decide the Drill Bits Materials for Specific Application
Drill bits come in various materials. These tools are not one-size-fits-all. The material you choose largely depends on the type of application. While some materials are perfect fits for wood, others are ideal for metals and hardened steel. We will examine the different materials below and what applications they are suitable for:
• Carbon Steels
They come in two perks, low and high carbon steel. Each serves a different purpose. Soft low carbon is ideal for soft materials such as plastic and wood. It’s is highly affordable in comparison to high-carbon steel and other drill bit materials. However, it requires frequent maintenance to extend its durability due to its bad tempers.
Figure 3: Drill bits for wood
High carbon steel, on the other hand, works on hard surfaces such as strong woods and metals. It has better tempers and requires less maintenance. However, it’s a bit more expensive than low carbon steel.
• High-Speed Steel (HSS)
We have discussed in-depth on high-speed steel in our previous post. You can check it here (insert hyperlink) to get more details. Its fabricators, diamond cutting companies, distributors, and suppliers’ choice. It’s structural integrity, red-hardness, resistance to heat, at an optimized performance at high speed make it users’ choice. It’s suitable for multiple kinds of drilling, whether for metal, wood, or steel. With a coating like titanium nitride, HSS performs at an optimal level with an extended lifespan.
• Cobalt (HSCO)
It’s a variation of HSS with a higher concentration of cobalt, usually 5-8% more. Although it’s more brittle in comparison to HSS, it offers more hardness. Thus, it’s suitable for harder metals, steel, and stainless steel. It’s a high-end drill bit material but has a more extended durability.
• Carbide (Carb)
Many consider carbide as the most brittle and the hardest drill bit materials available. It’s suitable for industrial uses involving abrasive materials, irons, hard steel, and nonferrous heavy metal. It possesses a slight advantage over HSS and Cobalt in that it functions efficiently at higher speed and absorbs more heat.
• Diamond drill bits
If you are working on non-wood surfaces such as tile, marble, stone, ceramic, porcelain, or glass, diamond drill bits are your best bet. They derive their additional cutting power from the integration of little pieces of diamond power as their base material. They are relatively expensive as they serve specific purposes.
2.Determine the Flute Design Features of Preference
The functions of flute designs vary from cheap removal to a passage for cutting fluid to touch the cutting surfaces. Flute designs are that grooves on the body of the drill that penetrate the surface you are working on. The flute comes in different types, but these are the ones that are common at the moment:
Standard flute design: The most in use with a circular cross-section
Straight flute: It’s suitable for use when the rigidity of the drill is more critical than the evacuation of the chips. Also, it’s ideal for short chipping material, and here spinning workpiece is in use rather than the drilling.
Parabolic flute design: This has many superior features such as smooth cheap evacuation, short cycle times, high feed rate, and low peck cycle. It works with open geometry and a fast spiral.
You don’t have to worry about how to get the design of your choice. With NC Cutting tools customization for designs, you only need to state what you, and you will have it!
3.Understand the Coating Type to Use
The type of coating you use will determine the protection of your drill bits against rust during exposure to moisture. Also, the coating reduces friction and lessens wears and tears. We apply coating via thermal spray coating, and they come in different forms. Notable ones include:
• Cobalt
Cobalt is widely acceptable for works involving high temperatures. Sometimes, when high-speed steel fails to penetrate a hard metal like stainless steel, you can add cobalt to it. It’s perfect for use where the material requires an intense level of heat. However, the only downside of cobalt coating is that it’s a bit brittle.
• Titanium
Titanium coating adds to the level of resistance to heat and corrosion to drill bits. It’s very strong and light at the same time. It extends the durability of drill bits, and it’s useful across a wide range of uses. Metals, plastic, woods, iron, and steel are some of the materials where titanium coating is of great use.
You can check other coatings types.
Figure 4: Drill bits with titanium cutting, used in cutting aluminum
Here is a video of titanium-coated drill bits at work:
• TiCN (Titanium Carbonitride)
One of the strongest and wear-resistant coatings in use. TiCN is blue-gray, and it’s suitable for use in drill bits for cast iron, aluminum, and stainless steel.
• Zirconium
It’s one of the less glamorous coatings for drill bits. However, it works significantly on drill bits involving materials with characteristic brittleness like steel. We often use zirconium nitride to improve its strength for more precise drilling as its effectiveness reduces significantly with friction.
• Black Oxide
You can only use black oxide for coating on nonferrous materials like brad tip. Like other coatings, it reduces corrosion and lowers friction
4.Identify the Drill Point Angles
Point angles in drill bits exist in several forms. However, over the years, angles 118° and 135° have become dominant. For use in soft materials such as aluminum and wood, you should consider going for angle 118°. It possesses sharper tip with a smaller chisel than angle 135°. But, if you are working on hard materials like stainless steel, angle 135° may be your best bet. It’s flatter, has more pitch, and a longer chisel than angle 118°.
5.Go for the Right Drill Point Length
Drill point comes in various lengths, including jobber, taper length, screw machine, mechanics, and taper shank. Generally, shorter drills are more suitable for works that require a high level of accuracy and precision. They are also sturdier and more rigid. However, there are instances where you will need to go for long drill bits, depending on the application.
If you want to learn more about drill bits of different sizes, kindly check it here.
6.Know Whether to Go for Ready-made or Customized Drill Bits
If your goal is to make the best use of your tools, you might consider going for customized devices instead of ready-made. Not only do they give you flexibility on design, length, size, and choice of materials. In the long run, it’s cost-effective and offers you the best value for money. NC Cutting Tools gives you limitless options when it comes to choosing selecting cutting and drilling tools. It includes diamond saw blades, turbo saw blade, grinding wheel, diamond wire saw, and lots more. You can request a free quote for a start.
Figure 5: Close shot of drill bits
7. HSS Vs. Cobalt Drill Bits
It is a contention between the most common and strongest drill bits. Many people struggle to decide which one to use for a particular application. However, from the factors we have considered above, it’s clear each serves a specific purpose. Due to its toughness and ability to withstand cyclic loading, high-speed steel will seamlessly drill through many metals and steel.
Cobalt, on the other hand, offers higher corrosion resistance due to a higher melting point and heat resistance.
Thus, cobalt drill bits are more suitable for hardened metals that HSS cannot handle. However, you can improve the strength of HSS to match that of cobalt through the coating.
8. What is the best drill bit of material?
Now that we have examined factors to consider in choosing drill bits, you may want to ask for the best drill bit material. Well, there’s no clear-cut answer to the best drill bit material. What works for A may not work for B. However, high-speed steel is one of the most common materials we recommend in various drilling. It works perfectly on plastic, wood, metals, and steel. Also, it’s cost-effective and easy to maintain. On the other hand, Cobalt (HSCO) is ideal for tougher steel because it contains 5-8% of cobalt as its base material. In summary, the best drill bit materials depend on the application.
Conclusion
Choosing the right drill bits for a specific application can be stressful. However, having a comprehensive knowledge of the factors to consider before you make select a drill bit can save you money, time, and energy. However, rather than shopping for ready-made drill bits in the market, purchasing customized tools offers you more liberty in your decision-making process.
Are you looking to order customized drill bits as a supplier or distributor? NC Cutting Tools is the best place for high-quality Diamond Saw Blade, Diamond Drill Bit, Diamond Abrasive Tools, and other cutting and grinding tools. Talk to us now to request a free quote for your project.
