Favorite drill bits

What are the better quality sources of drill bits for drilling peg holes and mortises? tb

peg holes. the owl goes hootie hoo. this my attempt not to riddle and not to name a specific brand for whatever reason..

Timber Brained, not sure if you are a professional or an owner builder. I am the latter. I personally love bit and brace, the old school method, for making peg holes. An old mortising machine is also a great way for making peg holes in the mortise and it keeps your bit properly aligned. I really discovered how well these tools work when I took Collin Beggs workshop, nearly as fast as powered tools, and you have better control. Jim Rogers in the Tool Form has good bits and boring machines available. Every tool I've purchased from him or seen of his has been sharp and a good working tool. There are also a lot of old braces on ebay for not much money. I just love the holes the old bits make, nice and clean due to a sharp spur. I'm a convert, albeit I'm not framing full time so I don't know the effect that would have on me. The control the hand tools give, and the fact that they are not slow were the selling points to me. Heck, if you have not, just get a brace and sharp bit and try it. Even if you don't use it full time, you will find times when you'd rather just grab it rather than run and extension cord and get the drill out. No noise either. I really like the Russell Jennings bits, but my mortising bits aren't marked and I like those too(from Jim).

I like the irwin bits, but only this model.

We had a 1" irwin bit that we used for 10 years until someone hit a nail with it on site and completely did it in. It was getting pretty old, we knew it didn't have many sharpenings left in it. But in 10 years it drilled a lot of holes -- deep holes in green cypress, dry heart pine, plenty of oak, etc. Can't argue with that.

The owl bits simply do not last as long because the spurs are too short to withstand many sharpenings.

A take off from Gabel's link, this bit works in a boring machine, with an adaptor, the largest size is 1-1/2" for morticing. Too bad it doesn't come in 2".

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/detail.jhtml?prodId=IrwinProd100174

Tim

For mortise holes I really like my Milwaukee (Self Feed) Drill Bit 2" which is readily available. Sharpen it up and away you go....but make sure you have a proper drill for it otherwise you will end up with some sore hands!

Bruce, do you have a link or picture of this bit?

Tim

how are the bosch bits?

sorry for the delay.....

check out Amazon dot com and enter 48-25-2562 into the search field

Bruce, do you see chip clearing problems with that type of bit? Does it wander as well? I know someone who has such a bit and will chuck it in my boring machine and give my $.02 opinion on how it performs.

Tim

Tim,

I tried one in our boss machine not long after the geometry adventure and it stripped out everytime it got buried in there good -- I could only get 2" deep. But it was fast and easy until it stripped the lead out -- I had no trouble turning a 2" bit in the high speed side.

let me know if you have better luck. I had really hoped it could be a good setup.

It is funny how I can forget sometimes. As I was reading your post Gabel it flashed before me that we had tried it once before and it didn't work well, but I am going to try it anew. I have frozen wood now so a real test it will be. If I recall the feed screw is screwed into the bit, at least the one my brother has, and we needed vice grips to get it out and the screw was left in the bottom of the hole or something like that.

Tim

Actually I really like the bit and use it in a hand drill. Chip clearing is not a problem but I also need to pull the bit out every 2" in depth. I also spend time making it razor sharp when I know I am going into difficult wood. As for how it performs in a boring machine....I have yet to try it!

Bruce, what mortises are you using a 2 9/16" diameter bit on? 10" + timbers?

Heheheheh I guess I should have been clear! The 2" bit is what I have and looks the same as the one shown....I just could not find the right part number for it

Though the thought of using much bigger timbers in a project is very appealing!

Nobody mentioned the bosch , dewalt, irwin long ship auger or spur auger bits. Does anyone use these?, as they seem more widely available. Like the 3/4 inch, or 1-inch by 17 inch for drilling peg holes.
Also, Brad, do you recommend a specific hand brace that is available? It seems like it is not used much since the invention of power drills, which can make it difficult to find a decent one at a reasonable price. I dont really have much trust in getting items off Ebay. Most of what I have tried to acquire has been pretty junky. tb

tb, Jim Rogers usually has a few braces. Check out his tools for sale list in this section.

Tim, I use something similar to the one in your post of Jan. 21, although it is made by New England twist drill. It bores a really nice clean hole, even through really old knots. The one I got is 1 1/4, that was the largest shorty they had in stock. The biggest long bit, about 16" was either 1.5 or 2 inch. I'm still trying to find a website for New England Twist Drill. I really like their products.

Link it if you find it Dave. I still have not had a chance to re-try the forstner type bit, it will happen in time.

Tim