Choosing the right drill bit

Drill bits are important assets to have in your toolbox. These robust boring heads are designed with particular applications, drill formats, and base materials in mind. Before buying a bit for a particular job, one needs to consider the below three characteristics:

Diameter

When selecting your drill head types, always check its diameter. The size you require naturally depends on your project — for channelling  wiring beneath floorboards, you’ll need a large diameter bit, for driving one-sixteenth-inch screws into timber, you need a smaller driving head.

Shank and Chuck

Considering what drill bit to use initially requires you to check out the shank of the boring head and the chuck of your drill.

The shank is the non-threaded section behind the bit’s cutting edges — it fits into the chuck of your drill, the rounded tip at the head of your power tool that secures the bit through either a keyless ratcheting mechanism or specific chuck key.

Typically (although there are industrial-grade exceptions), bits are separated into three drill bit shank types:

  • Rounded — standard bits that can be used with most keyed and keyless chucks of drill drivers, hammer drills and right-angle drills.
  • Hex — usually used on impact drills with a 0.25-inch hexagonal chuck.
  • SDS — stands for Slotted Drive System, a bit with ‘wings’ that can only work with SDS or SDS+ drill chucks, usually the domain of hammer and rotary drills.

Construction Material

In addition to diameter and shank/chuck style, drill bits are typically categorized by their build materials:

  • Carbide-tipped — impressively robust and hard-wearing, these bits can endure serious abuse, making them excellent for masonry jobs.
  • HSS — standing for High-Speed Steel, these boring heads offer greater durability when addressing dense metals than standard bits.
  • Black oxide — suitable for soft/hardwoods, fiberglass, and metal. Their oxide coating makes them resistant to rust.
  • Titanium-coated — usable across all mediums, these bits offer significantly low-friction operation, making them long-lasting and easy on user effort. The downside is they’re hard on the wallet.
  • Cobalt — with rapid heat dissipation they’re one of the best material types of drill bits for metal, preventing damage to either your target medium or drill bit.
  • Diamond-tipped — typically utilized for glass, porcelain, and precious stone drilling. You can also use a diamond drill bit for hardened steel.

Bit Types

One needs also to consider the bit types that are required. There are different types of bits. Some of the most common bits include: twist bits, brad point bits, auger bits, spade bits,  step drill bits, tile bits, masonry bits, hole saw bits and core bits. Since bit types is quite a vast subject, we will cover this in a future article.

KRINO PROFESSIONAL DRILL BITS

MGTech is the local agent for KRINO cutting tools.

Krino has a long experience in high speed steel production and the full knowledge of the engineers and technical staff gives a full and qualified assistance to all Krino customers for any kind of use, industrial or professional.

The modern and very well equipped quality laboratory, guarantees thefull production of KRINO cutting tools. Specific and precise tests made on steels, before and after heat treatment, allow high performance cutting and drilling tools

Krino cutting tools can be found at MGTech, Triq l-Industrija Kirkop (inside Multigas’ premises) and in all leading hardware stores in Malta and Gozo.