About carbide drill bits

Carbide drill bits of 0.7-1.2mm size are priced at ~US$10 each at Digikey and Farnell while they are offered for a fraction of that at ebay.com, typically ~$1-1.50 per piece in a set. Does anyone know what these cheaper offerings from eBay are like for drilling FR4 boards?

Reply to
Pimpom
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Are you sure the digikey stuff isn't for a ten pack?

That is the way we bought drills years ago. Files too.

Reply to
Chieftain of the Carpet Crawlers

Digikey carries Injectorall bits, which come one to a package for carbide; ten to a package for HSS:

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Reply to
spamtrap1888

Don't know, but I've had spotty results (used to be uniformly dismal) with Chinese cutting tools.

Digikey isn't really the best place to buy that sort of thing- KBC has M.A. Ford (made in USA) carbide 1/8" shank drills for $4.10 ea., which is not bad for a few pieces. McMaster wants about $4.50 each, but I don't think they ship to India.

This guy claims to have Kyocera bits at a very reasonable price (havn't tried him)

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Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

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"it's the network..."                          "The Journey is the reward"
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Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

Without a serious Excelon type drill (zillion RPM air bearings, feed rate control, entry media) carbides tend to break. For home-drilled boards, use cheap steel drills and toss them when they get dull.

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John Larkin, President       Highland Technology Inc
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Reply to
John Larkin

Bad idea. An HSS drill is dull after about 10 holes of FR4. Even for hobby purposes you need carbide drill for FR4. I never had problems with carbide drills breaking unless I drilled in the aluminum base of my drill-press.

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Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
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Reply to
Nico Coesel

Works for me.

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John Larkin, President       Highland Technology Inc
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Reply to
John Larkin

I've had few to no problems*. You want to run them as fast spindle speed as possible. They cut FR4 like butta. I don't often drill much less than 0.8mm (0.031"), which is pretty sturdy- if you're trying to drill 0.015" holes, things might be dicier.

  • A few weeks ago I reached into one of the ubiquitous little boxes of resharpened carbide bits by mistake and about 8mm of tiny via-size bit punctured my finger and broke off in the finger. Ouch. This was after breaking a 1/4-20 tap off in a part, so I was grumpy to start with (took a couple hours to salvage the part). I thought a cheap "set of taps" would be okay at that huge size- I was wrong- bought some good quality ones (Chinese, but top-notch stuff) and no more problems. The cheap-a** 4-40 die wouldn't even thread onto a proper sized brass turning. Criminally bad "tool shaped" garbage- ultra brittle, dull, and not the right dimensions.

Moral.. don't go cheap on cutting tools!

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

"Spehro Pefhany" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Hmm... I suspect that some or most of those cheap bits at ebay are Chinese products.

It wouldn't make much difference for me even if they did ship to India because import hassles are a real PITA and well nigh insurmountable for those of us in remote parts of the country. But things have started looking up a bit recently in that respect. There are now at least a couple of Indian companies who offer to import just about anything from the US for a client. Their minimum shipping charge is for 1lb.

The prices are comparable to those at ebay and are certainly better than at those other sources. At least the manufacturer's name is known. Do you know anything about the other brand mentioned there - Precision Carbide? Unless someone comes along with a more attractive suggestion - not necessarily a lower price - I think I'll make a trial order for a ten-pack each of 2 or 3 different sizes.

Another thing I'll have to deal with is the drill. The 10k rpm drill I now use came only with 0.8mm, 1mm and 2.3mm collets. Thanks for the helpful input.

Reply to
Pimpom

Pimpom Inscribed thus:

All the cheap ones I've bought have been sharpened off centre.

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Best Regards:
                          Baron.
Reply to
Baron

McMaster will permanently cut them off if they know it's being exported. They really want to add to the US trade deficit- only existing large export customers are being supported.

AFAIK, everyone uses 1/8" (3.175mm) shank drills (same as a Dremel tool), so if you get one of those you'll be okay for just about anything. It helps to be able to change the bits quickly when all the shanks are identical. With collars you can get the length spot on too.

Reply to
Spehro Pefhany

The thinnest drill I have 0.6mm. No problems using it. I use the ancestor of this drill-press:

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I've drilled thousands of holes with it using carbide drills.

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Failure does not prove something is impossible, failure simply
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Reply to
Nico Coesel

Yes, I've used the smaller sizes. Because the new-style drill press didn't work I used to run 0.012 bits by hand(*)--that's a pain. Nowdays I think I'd try the old Model 210.

(*) index finger pressing on top for a bearing, rotate with 2nd finger

  • thumb. I managed 2 to 4 holes per bit before breaking them. :-)

Disgusting. Good clean, sharp, quality tools are a joy. HSS-- maintaining full hardness at red heat--is amazing.

I snapped a carbide bit off in a workpiece a couple days ago--that's a pain. It was a larger diameter bit so I thought using the big drill press would be okay. It wasn''t.

Rodger that.

-- Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

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roxxon/28606-web.jpg

I have the same except I drilled a 1/8" hole in the center of the table so using 0.035" carbide bits don't hit any of the aluminum - though I haven't drilled FR-4 in quite a while. The board houses are so cheap it isn't really worth doing at home.

G=B2

Reply to
Glenn Gundlach

Get used dental burs from your dentist, or buy them new if you can find them for a reasonable price. They work well in my (newer style) Dremel drill press - haven't broken one yet.

Ed

Reply to
ehsjr

Filch the dumpster at the urgent care too! Get that stainless!

They used to autoclave everything and that was enough... before AIDS.

Reply to
TheQuickBrownFox

At a guess, they were just fine, when they were new. Carbide drills for circuit board manufacture are mainly not resharpened, but are discarded (sold as surplus) after a certain number of holes have been drilled. If you aren't doing plated-through holes, they're certainly good enough at end-of-life for another few thousand holes.

Reply to
whit3rd

I usually buy two or three to get a rather good assortment.

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Reply to
Rick

and

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/proxxon/28606-web.jpg

My (preferred) model 210 has a formica-looking table.

Poking around I read the latest Dremel drill press accessories are better. The "new" bit-snapper I spoke of is the Model 212

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but it seems they've replaced it with the Work Station 220-01.

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The z-axis, sloppy on the #210, appears re-done.

Might be worth a look next time I'm shopping...

--=20 Cheers, James Arthur

Reply to
dagmargoodboat

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