Hex shank drills

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

After having a problem with drills slipping in a chuck I bought a set of hex shank drills but was less than happy with them. The hex shank part was simply pressed onto ordinary round shank drills and the result in most cases was very drunken rotation.

 

After looking online for better quality drills with the hex part and drill made from one piece of steel, I could not find anything suitable. Has anybody found a supplier of quality hex drills?

 

Doug

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

[Anonymous]

I suspect the terms ‘quality’ and ‘hex drills’ are mutually exclusive. I don’t recall ever seeing hex shanked drills in any professional tooling catalogue.

 

Were the original drills of quality make? If they were then may be the problem is with the drill chuck?

 

Regards,

 

Andrew

[Clive HartlandParticipant @clivehartland94829]

I have noticed that the hex. shank drills usually appear in the packs of drivers and bits in the pound shops! Quality is non existant at that price.

Why not make your own. A bit of an allen key and drilled and the shank of the drill polished and soldered into the drilled Hex. piece.

Simples, a nice home made accurately running drill. If not, try again.

 

Clive

[BogstandardParticipant @bogstandard]

I think you will find that the hex shank drills you bought are made for going into hand held drills, where precision is of secondary importance to getting a hole thru something.

 

Normal drills (for engineering work) you will find have a soft shank, and if they cannot be held in your chuck, then it is time for a chuck replacement.

 

I have been using the keyless ones from RDG (about 10 up to now) for a fair while, and have found them all to be
super value for money and very accurate, and would never go back to the
keyed variety, unless I need something to hold larger than 3/4″

 

I buy my bulk ground drills from here, and find they are very good quality and the prices are almost unbeatable. I use them for normal ground, long series and hard plate drills.

 

Drills

 

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Edited By Bogstandard on 20/07/2011 09:51:52

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

I have both Fisch, Bosch and Trend recess hex shank bits and they are good quality and the hex is machined all as one, the cheaper ones by the likes of Silverline are pants. Having said that I don’t use any of them for engineering, they are more suited to woodwork in the cordless with a suitable quick change recess hex holder.

 

As bogs says if your drills are slipping in those small sizes its time to look at your chuck

 

Jason

[Douglas JohnstonParticipant @douglasjohnston98463]

Thanks for the input on this matter. The drills I bought were probably somewhere between poundshop and decent, but nonetheless very shoddy.

I was doing a lot of drilling with a cordless drill (in wood) and the keyless chuck kept letting the drill slip, and of course when you try to pull the drill out you find the drill stays in the wood as it slides out of the chuck. Trying to tighten a keyless chuck with a thin drill stuck in a piece of wood is no easy task and runs the risk of bending or snapping the drill.

 

The chuck is probably quite worn but not worth replacing so hence my need for the hex drills. I have decent chucks on my “proper” machines and they rarely give a slipping problem.

 

The answer might well be to make my own but I seem to have a problem with the length of a day. I will seek out Fisch, Bosch and Trend drills to try and get a solution to the problem.

 

Doug

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Axminster do the Fisch ones with a lip & spur point which give a nice clean hole in wood. They also do a similar set of 5 Bosch ones that are not as pricy.

 

J

 

 

[michael howarth 1Participant @michaelhowarth1]

Where is the best place to buy good quality, good value drills that are available in O.1 mm increments? There seem to be lots of what appears to be good value stuff about but only in 0.5mm increments. Are the cobalt drills worth the extra?

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Try J&L they do Dormer , guhring and Hertel, best to look at teh virtual catalogue.

 

I mostly use the Dormer A002 series or the A022 stub drills

 

http://www.mscjlindustrial.co.uk/cgi/insrhm

[Sub MandrelParticipant @submandrel]

Go to a boot sale and look for decent chucks on old cordless drills some of them have jacobs make chucks that are actually quite good.

 

Most cordless drills have a 3/8″ threaded mounting and can be interchanged. Ther is often a left had threaded screw inside the chuck wich you need to remove before uinscrewing the chuck.

 

Always look at boot sale chuck carefully though – many good quality ones are bell-mouthed, and were probably kept by the late owner out of nostalgia for their better days!

 

Neil

[Author]

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