Hagen Brothers farms,Goodrich ND | Any drill bit that will bend rather than break is total junk that was only intended to sucker you out of a few $$,and never intended to drill anything but soft wood.
I shy away from the really cheap tools from Harbor Freight,as they are usually garbage. The mid to higher end stuff is usually good quality that works well. One of the best drill bit buys from Harbor Freight is the set of 8 silver & deming drills (9/16 - 1 inch) that come in a fitted wood case for $21 or even less if they are on sale. I have drilled hundreds of holes with those things in mild and harder steel, and find they run almost forever between sharpening. If anything,they are a bit too hard and will chip the cutting edge if you get them jammed in the work. The smaller sets in the metal organizer/storage box from 1/16 - 1/2 ,also in that $20 range work as well as anything I have ever had from an American company. These drills are listed as high speed steel.
One tip if you get the little HF sale catalogs. They slip in "price leader" listings where some items are listed at aprox 1/2 price,along with the same item at the std price elswere in the catalog. This is to get you to check every page. They sell a little 4-1/2 inch paddle switch grinder for $29 that is so identical to a model Black & decker sells for $60 that all internal parts interchange. We use several of these in our shop,and find them to be tough reliable little units that live untill We manage to drop them long distance on the concrete floor or drive over them. Last year I spotted those little grinders in one of those "price leader" ad's for $17. I bought 5 to set on the tool room storage shelf untill needed,which should keep us in grinders for many years. 5 grinders plus freight was under $100. We bought a 1/2 inch VS and reversible drill from HF for $29 and used it to drill and rebush the openers on our two 15 ft seperate placement 750 drills. We drilled through 48 cast steel opener arms which amounts to drilling through a bit more than 12 ft of steel. Lugged and worked the snot out of that drill for several days,only stopping when it got too hot to handle comfortably,still runs like new. Also needed an adjustible reamer to fit those bushings we installed in the 750 drills. We checked the online tool supplyers and one outfit (ENCO ?) Had two colums of reamers side by side on the same page one colum US made, the other an import from India. Both were tool steel rated for nothing harder than bronze/brass. The US made was $127,the India import was $17,Guess which one I bought which did the job with no problems. Later HF had a full set ( 12 ?) of adjustible reamers in a fitted wood case I bought for $70. For the few times per year I use this stuff in my farm shop,these cheap online tools work fine at a price where I can justify owning them for the limited use they get.
OK,enough brag about the cheap import tools,but the stuff out of India and China is much better than it was even a year or two ago. just don't buy the HF 4-1/2 grinder that sells for $9.95 regular price. :)
Edited by Jon Hagen 9/15/2006 02:20
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