Retail price mark-up.. how much is enough?

gkamysz wrote:Are those the kind that are so soft they unwind when you use them and the gold finish washes off?

I've used these drills a bit.. and have not experienced anything like that Greg. Granted; I don't do much drilling in metals.. which would put them to more of a test. They're the most common sizes for repair work around the house and there's "doubles" of the 1/16" and 1/8" sizes, which I thought was a good feature.

Just a reference to this and similar.

I see it daily, Chineseium .

Where did you find that picture Greg?  It can't be your's, your much too adept to subject tools to that destruction.

I have many sets of drill bits going back to the '60's.  I have snapped a few in half but I have never done any of that.

Recently I was having trouble drilling the head off the clutch retaining screw on one of my Cox chainsaws.  None of my drill bits would touch it, metal bits or otherwise.  Disgusted I got on Amazon and found Iwrins for $129.



Wow, that's a lot of money to address one machine screw.  So I looked further and found these Chinese made Cobalt Hidotol's for half that price.  





I selected the proper size and had that screw head off and the clutch out in a minute after wasting most of a morning with other quality bits. Since then they have been put to good use on many difficult drilling projects without disappointment.

The thing is, it would happen regardless of how careful you were. Junk tooling.

That's the kind of stuff the algorithm sends you when you're a machinist. Drills are one thing I never go cheap on.

HsCo with split point are most effective for that kind of thing. Screw length (short/stub) if you have them.

Last week I was drilling 1/2" steel C-channel to connect a 3x4 L clip. This required two through holes in the channel. Using hand held 1/2" drills my apprentice and I started out small and worked our way up never going through with the 1/2". We would finish bottom up with a step reamer as to not jam up the drill and our wrist. Using bits from our supplier they were indeed made of Chineseium. I would clamp the clip to the C-channel and using the 1/2" bit as a guide through the clip, I would spot the hole as we couldn't afford any walk. Once spotted, it was a task of using 3 sizes finishing with the 1/2". First hole I used the 1/2" in, the Chineseium broke. When do you ever break a 1/2" bit in a hand drill when drilling straight down? It instantly broke. It pretty much looked like it was made in a cave and probably was.

This is a Black Diamond drill bit grinder from my grandfather. He purchased it in the 40's and I still use it daily. I have a modern version as well on a bench which does a bit more. These are unbelievable machines. The speed and accuracy it provides is amazing. This particular one is used for standard point drill bits which are high speed steel. This is still the original wheel which came with the machine. The newer Black Diamond grinder is a bit more aggressive and I need to use more caution when using it as to not overheat.

We had close to 150 holes to drill in the C-channel and we were contemplating using the mag drill to do so. Unfortunately, power is limited currently during new construction and we were also in aerial lifts 50 ft up making it even more difficult. While the lift could've had a power line run to it, it becomes extremely problematic when driving the machine elevated without ruining your cord. I went into my stock of old bits, pulled out a 1/2" which was probably 50 yrs old, dressed it on the grinder and used that bit myself. My apprentice had a package of 10 Chineseium versions. He finally gave up and we used my one bit.

It depends upon the quality of the tool that you select Ken.  China, us, and others sell both quality and junk.  I remember when Chinese tools first arrived in the US, at flea markets mostly.  Wow, complete socket sets for a couple of bucks, then I looked closer and left them right there.  Junk in spades! That was 30/40 years ago. They have come a long way since then.

My son gifted me the Craftsman (red) index back in 2003, always my go-to but they would not touch the Cox chainsaw's clutch machine screw, neither would the Kawasakis.  The best was the black Dewalt index, but I gave up on them too.  The Chinese Hidotols finally did the trick.  Now, I use them all the time.




Funny, the best small bits I have found for drilling in wood and soft metals are the Dremels found in Walmart for twelve bucks.



I love the drill bit Grinder Ken. I have often thought about getting one, but most are cheaply made. That looks like a quality tool.

Each bit number or fractional and letter drills requires it's own specific collet to enable the bit to be sharpened. The collets cost more than the grinder itself. My grinder has very few parts available for it as Black Diamond no longer supports it in parts. They did however look my machine over for no charge. They've also been very helpful in finding me some of the collets I specifically require.