Question on drilling brass parts

[kwoodhands]

Hello Everyone thank you for responding to my post appreciated I am in the early stages of drilling holes small parts for a small project in brass 24 gauge up to 1.2 mm 18 gauge not much more than that right now
perhaps venture up to 1.45 mm at 15 gauge later on not sure on that. Question who makes the best standard to use it twist designed bits. I recently bought what was supposed have been made in the US but the shaft on the bit was not straight and shank was not quite round actuary off on test. Hole size drill bit I need right now 9/64 not too short around 2-7/8 overall shank length 1 1/4 seems pretty good to fit the chuck and up to 1 1/2 . Are the following brands any good when looking for bits Norseman Viking twist bits or twist bits from Menards high speed steel twist bit with so many brands out their now hard to tell at times made in China or not ?
Any input on good brands to looking for in bits would be appreciated Happy New Year !

Cleveland drills are the ones I buy. I have some Greenlee also that I inherited. The drills I modified for brass are Harbor Freight. I see no difference in the HF and Cleveland and Greenlee.
Do a search for " Drill America". This is a reputable company that carries any drills you may need at a fair price.
mike

 

[Metal one]

Hello Everyone
Thank you all for taking the time to comment on my post- advice and information add appreciated. Question is there any advantage to the chisel point when it comes to dabbing the end. Correct me if I am wrong this design has only two cutting edges, which might make in easier to dab verses the split point which has 4 cutting edges ? I found a box set of ten of Cleveland bits cheap old stock, tempted to buy but from what chrsbrbnk is indicting could this end up being a mixed bag of good and bad ? hate to waste off and only find a few good ones quality control issues from years back to ones made nowadays? does anyone know if this was true of twist drill bits from Cleveland .

 

[ajoeiam]

snip
Do a search for " Drill America". This is a reputable company that carries any drills you may need at a fair price.
mike

Well - - - if your msision is to 'only' buy made-in-america when you read the 'about' page on 'drill america's website you will find :

Why Drill America?

• Plants in the USA, Europe, and Asia are producing our products and shipping to us on a daily basis

(I was curious so went a looking!)

 

[stanstocker]

Greetings folks,

In the clock repair and restoration business I obviously dealt with lots of brass. I ended up buying a "quality import" set of imperial and numbered bits. While not of the 119 bits for $9.95 lowest quality grade, they were about 1/3 the cost of bits from a reputable name brand maker. Spent an evening watching youtube videos with a triangular stone and the drill indexes open to mindlessly put the small zero rake edge on every bit. Labelled the indexes BRASS ONLY and got on with life. Didn't care if the bit was in a lathe tailstock, drill chuck on a drill press or mill, or in a flex shaft or Dremel - it wasn't going to grab. If you deal with brass all the time it might make sense to consider this.

Cheers,
Stan

 

[ChazzC]

Greetings folks,

In the clock repair and restoration business I obviously dealt with lots of brass. I ended up buying a "quality import" set of imperial and numbered bits. While not of the 119 bits for $9.95 lowest quality grade, they were about 1/3 the cost of bits from a reputable name brand maker. Spent an evening watching youtube videos with a triangular stone and the drill indexes open to mindlessly put the small zero rake edge on every bit. Labelled the indexes BRASS ONLY and got on with life. Didn't care if the bit was in a lathe tailstock, drill chuck on a drill press or mill, or in a flex shaft or Dremel - it wasn't going to grab. If you deal with brass all the time it might make sense to consider this.

Cheers,
Stan

I did something similar, bought a $50 119 pc HSS set in a plastic clamshell case on Amazon to use on brass; but rather than "dubbing" all of the bits at once, I keep a small diamond hone in the case and dub them as needed & mark the slot where that bit is stored. I'm also unwrapping my gage pins & blocks as I need them since that is also a fiddly task.

I have a decent, $150, 119 pc. set of Cobalt bits for everyday use, but also high quality individual sets (1/16 - 1/2, A - Z & 1 - 60) of Cobalt & HSS bits for when I need better performance. I also have a similar mix of medium and high quality Metric bits. All of these were collected over the past 40 years, with the most recent acquisition being machine screw length Cobalt sets (sometimes that extra inch +/- of clearance is needed when working on a mini mill!).