As an aside, it takes only a few minutes to put a brad point on a drill bit with a bench grinder.
Here's a few done by hand. A couple of commercial ones in the background. You sharpen drill bits anyway, right?
IMG_4196.jpeg
As an aside, it takes only a few minutes to put a brad point on a drill bit with a bench grinder.
Here's a few done by hand. A couple of commercial ones in the background. You sharpen drill bits anyway, right?
IMG_4196.jpeg
Last edited by Cameron Wood; 06-01-2023 at 10:23 PM.
First of all, buying quality drills makes a difference and I am sure any of the ones you listed will do fine. I have some Fisch, LV, Colt FCE, Heller and a set of Fullers among other brands as brad point drills. The Fullers are my favorites in hardwood. They are excellent but some of that excellence may be that they only come out when I need a precise hole and hence they are still razor sharp. They did come individually dipped in protective coating as you see with router bits or machine tools so clearly the manufacturer thinks they should be and stay sharp. The Colt FCE appear to be better than others in being able to produce relatively clean exit holes in softwood (provided you keep the pressure down). The Hellers are amazing in that I bought the small metric set almost thirty years ago, used them on everything and they are still doing well.
Unfortunately there are not many comparison tests out there providing data rather than anecdotes. Here is one I looked at before I bought my set of Fullers: http://www.woodworking.org/WC/GArchi...drillbits.html
And to confuse the topic some more, many manufacturers like Fuller and especially Fisch produce different brad point bits at different price levels. Some of them are specialty bits but Fisch is clearly having different features and quality levels when looking at their website.
I have the Norseman but they're not brad point. They've been very good bits for me. I never tried the Fisch.
Mike
Go into the world and do well. But more importantly, go into the world and do good.
I have a Colt set that performs extremely well.
I have been buying Fuller Brad Points Drill Bits for Hardwood bits here:
https://toolsforworkingwood.com/stor...item/MS-BPD.XX
They have sets and individual bits, both in imperial and metric. Made in the USA.
I have the 28 piece Index by Fuller, the one Bob Hinden links to. I bought it a few years ago.
I have used the first two rows (smaller bits), never used the big ones (yet).
I thought (and still think) it was a good buy. I'm happy with it.
My second choice was the LV set. I Also I looked into Fisch Brad points
Some Fisch Brad points are now made in China/Taiwan ( I emailed Fisch a few years back and asked)... I don't know what the mfr-ing situation is at the moment.
But the Fuller ones are made in the US.
"What you see and what you hear depends a great deal on where you are standing.
It also depends on what sort of person you are.”
I bought the 28pc Fuller set from Tools for Working Wood several years ago. They cut like butter and are arrow straight. Very pleased and highly recommend.