Which COBALT Drill Bit Is Best? Find Out! (Milwaukee, Drill America, Bosch or Dewalt)
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- Опубліковано 8 тра 2021
- Today we'll be testing 4 different brands of cobalt drill bits. Drill America, Milwaukee Red Helix, Bosch, and Dewalt, to see which one drills the fastest into a hard metal such as 1/4" 304 stainless steel. Which Cobalt twist drill bit is best? Which bit lasts the longest? Find out!
DISCLAIMER: Only (1) brand new cobalt bit was tested from each manufacturer, using a larger test sample from each manufacturer may cause the results to vary.
Drill America Bit Sets Here(M35 & M42): amzn.to/3erWAn4
Milwaukee Red Helix Set(Bit in video): thd.co/3ttrYWv
Bosch Bit Used In Video(M35): amzn.to/3ttniAc
Bosch Bit Set(M42): amzn.to/33rtuxT
Dewalt Bit Used In Video From This Set(DD4069): amzn.to/3exhcuq
Dewalt Pilot Point Set(DWA1269): amzn.to/3nXr8Ar
My Drill Press(Almost Identical): amzn.to/33rs46x
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Thanks for all your support guys! I cannot stress enough how important it is that my viewers share the links to my videos on others sites, especially Reddit and FB. This channel cannot remain viable with YT not suggesting my videos to the right viewers, and only getting a few thousand views each. Anything below 50K views is a waste of my time.
We better start helping him out guys. He hasn't had a video with more than 50,000 views in close to a year.
Great job and very fair test for all the brands!
Thank you! That means a lot coming from the king of testing. :-)
Peanut gallery approved video eh?
@Morgan Welk Having a bad day? It sure sounds like it. eh? Or are you just one of the many haters on YT? LOL
@@Okun240 Peanut gallery? WTF? Think before you speak, pleeb.
Project farm seal of quality 😂
Clear results in your video. Thanks for taking the time to test out the bits!
This is like Project Farm but the diet version.
Too funny! Yes, he goes all out and does extreme testing, and does a fantastic job. As long as YT suppression of my channel continues, I can't get too carried away with the amount of time and money I put into making my videos. Thanks for watching
@@electronicsNmore I do enjoy the type of video and I will watch more because the more you make, the more you'll find your rhythm and improve. My advice would be do products that Project Farm hasn't done or brands he didn't test.
@@kennethallen3843 Yes, he didn't do a cobalt bit video.
@@electronicsNmore Even worse, he compared Bosch cobalt bits to standard bits from other brands.
Another Great video from the master. Very educational and explained in common terms for the novice weekend handyman.
Thanks for watching!
Love watching comparison videos like this. Great work!
Great to hear! Please share the video link with others. Thanks
Thanks for confirming it. Milwaukee has always been my bit of choice and they've always performed well. Still, it's good to know why I've never needed to try another brand.
Thanks for watching! Milwaukee makes a good cobalt bit.
We used a lot of Milwaukee tools in all the shops I've worked at. Did LOT of high nickle & Inconel stuff that cobalt were the only thing tat lasted long enough to make good part and some money with. Tim IS money! :)
GF be like "what are you watching?"
Me "Man stuff" :)
:-). Thanks for watching! Be sure to share.
Amazing comparison. Thanks man!
Perfect timing, I have been delaying buying new bits because I didn't know which brand to buy for longer life. Thanks for this video!😁
You're welcome! Be sure to share the video link with others. Thank you
OUTSTANDING comparison. I desperately need a set of cobalt bits to drill into cast iron. The choices are maddening. You just made up my mind. Milwaukee it is!
Glad you enjoyed the video Ryan! Be sure to look over my extensive video playlists below for many other videos of interest to you, and most importantly take one minute to share a link to my channel with others on social networking sites. Thank you
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Very well thought out test 👍. Thanks
Thank you! Please share.
Outstanding test. I'm about to purchase a 5/16" cobalt bit. You certainly made it an easy decision for me.
Great to hear Mark! Be sure to share the video with others. Thank you
Great review, now I know what replacement bits to get! 👍👍👍
Glad you liked it. Be sure to share. Thanks!
After spending many $$ on different brands over the years, I've came to the conclusion that the Milwakee are the best big-box-store bought brand. They may not be the quickest but the definetely last the longest imho. Your test confirms my belief. Great test video!
Thanks for watching Fred! Please share the video link with others.
You and PF are like "Bobbsey Twins! LOL :) Another good, fair job...
Fantastic , professional job..Thank you so much
Glad you enjoyed the video! Be sure to share. Thank you
Ah, the sounds of metal drilling. Needs more cowbells!
Was spending about $150/mo on the Dewilt cobalt drill bits in my manufacturing operation(all stainless) then switched to the Milwaukee cobalts. Slowed the speed down and use the CRC cutting oil. Now I'm less than $100/mo. Don't know about the others but the Dewilts like to snap easily when used in hand drills in hard metals.
Great video!
I read the Milwaukee's bit reviews, and about 14% complained about bit breakage, I didn't have any problems. It's a great bit. Thanks for watching!
@@electronicsNmore What I've seen in the shop is whenever there is breakage, it's with a hand held drill. These bits are fairly agressive and when they grab while in a hand drill, they do tend to snap easily.
Would love to see this same test run with a smaller bit. I snap bolts off while working on cars that require a good drill bit to drill through a bolt.
I drill and thread holes every day, and use a variety of industrial drills. Just want to mention that black oxide is a coating, not a type of drill. The BO coating is meant to promote lubrication and can make the metal a bit harder. It is not at all indicative of the base metal and the quality of the drill. Just now, I threaded 18 3/8-16 holes in 1/2" A1 steel that was drilled with a black oxide Chicago-Latrobe drill. That same drill had previously been used quite a few times. It's still very sharp and comes out of the hole relatively cool to the touch. The only thing that a black oxide C-L drill and, say, a $9.98 DeWalt black oxide set from the big box store have in common is the name of the coating. Just the name. FWIW, the DW drills aren't terrible and can work well in a non-professional environment. Good luck.
Very informative, thank you! You should collab with ProjectFarm if you can.
Glad you enjoyed it! Collabs only work when it benefits both channels the same. He gets way more views than I do, so it would'nt benefit him much. Maybe in the future if YT stops holding my channel back, and more people share my videos on reddit, fb, etc.
I've got the same drill press. I like Wen tools. I also have their bandsaw, portaband, and 1"x 32" Belt sander w/5" disc sander. I haven't had any problems with any of them.
It's a nice benchtop drill press that gets the job done. :-) Thanks for watching! Be sure to rate thumbs up and share the video link with others.
Very good test! The stainless steel gets work hardened and is a real challenge for any cutting device. I just bought a set of the Drill America metric bits. I was surprised that I couldn't find a set of metric that go up to 13mm anywhere locally and it took two tries to get these from Amazon. I have a hunch that someone along the supply chain ended up with a set just like mine.
Yep 304 can be kinda awful. You have to make a good chip from the beginning or it’s going to be a bad day.
I bought the milwaukee set for work, being a mechanic I need bits that will last and are straight. First use was drilling out license plate bolts😡. Rusted bad so i started with 1/16 and worked my way up. Nice and slow and they went through with ease. 20mins later i had 2 bolts drilled out and riv nut’s installed. Never done it that fast! If I do break one homedepot is a block away and have all in stock.
Great tests, thanks for the information.
I'm curious to know if the drilling creates enough heat to change the hardness of the metal, so that the drilling gets harder for the bits that are drilling later
Thanks Joe. Yes, that can happen with Stainless, but during drilling if the metal gets too hot, not after.
Thanks, now I know what drill bits to get once my Dewalt kit is worn-out.
I probably should've also tested the Dewalt pilot point cobalt bits, but I didn't want to spend too much time and money working for no views.
@@electronicsNmore You did a great job on this video. I would say that not all drill bits available can be tested at the same time, is not practical if not impossible. When it comes to views, I shared a link to the video you made on microwave radiation testing on a channel that has close to 5 million subscribers, hope that helps you get more views.
The dewalt will outlast all 3 combined they make the best drill bits it's not always about speed
Great test. Thanks
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Very interesting! I just got through burning up a 5/16" Milwaukee Cobalt drill like the one you show, trying to drill through 3/8" thick AR500 plate. I had another 'no-name' cobalt that I acquired about a decade ago, and it ate up that plate like it was wood, making multiple holes with no problems and no dulling. So the M35 sucks for hardened steel, Milwaukee or not. I even tried a Ridgid cobalt, and it burned up in less than a few seconds, while also not making even 1/4" through the plate. So what bit would you use to drill AR500 plate?
Always wondered about this.
Appreciate this.
Great video!
Red Team wins! Great video! Thanks for putting that together! Always educational! Always entertaining! :)
Glad you enjoyed it!
Great testing eNm! There are a multitude of drill bits on the market. How did you narrow it down to just those four? In any event, now I know which drill bit to purchase next time! Thanks..... 👍👍
I chose the most popular at HD, Lowes, and Amazon. I cant spend too much time and money because YT hasn't been suggesting my videos. No views = no income. I would've like to have added Irwin too. Thanks for watching
@@electronicsNmore That makes sense. It's what people want to buy. Most folks wouldn't recognize truly excelled cutting tool manufactures like Cleveland, Chicago-Latrobe, Morse, Precision Drill, yadda-yadda, which also makes sense. This tooling isn't sold at big box stores, but sometimes can be found on Amazon. Mostly, it's distributed though industrial suppliers and it's not as inexpensive as the price many people expect to pay. Thought the video was interesting.
Can u a video on how to resharpen cobalt drill bit🙏?
Thanks man, i waa going to go an get dewalt bits, ha, guess its the red ones :)
Excellent!
I rec'd a 15pc Milwaukee Red Helix Quad-Edge (Cobalt?) set as a gift and they're the worst bits I've ever used. I hope Home Depot will let me return 'em. They're like 1 and done. They simply couldn't drill a second hole. The thin plate, about 1/16 thick, was rusty but I cleaned it up using a wire wheel on a bench grinder. I started with a drop of oil and varied the speed on each bit, taking it easy then faster when I discovered the bit(s) failed at slower speeds. No matter what I did, the bits were 1 and done.
I find that charts call for 1/4" cobalt bits to be fed .003 to .005 in per rev in 304 stainless. Call it .004 .25/.004 = 63 revolutions. The fastest hole in this test was about 15 seconds, .25 minute. 1/4 minute X 1150 rpm = 283 revs. The Cobalt bits were running too fast with far too little pressure. The bit was skidding and hardening the steel the next flute was going to try to cut. Breaking through at full pressure on the bit is poor policy, it chips bits.
Do the test again with more pressure, less speed and a steel waste plate beneath the workpiece. The the speed and bit condition results will be far different, especially after the 100th hole. Most of us will suffer little inconvenience or loss of time drilling through 1/4" plate a few times, no matter how long it takes. Speed is of secondary importance. Breaking off from productivity and fetching a new $10 bit is a painful inconvenience.
Speed was properly set according to the manufacturer. My drill press has a chart showing the correct belt connection.
Awesome test. Wondering how much cutting fluid would have made compared to oil.
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it. The rate of wear probably would've been reduced, but the end result more than likely the same. Be sure to share the video link with others.
Dewalt, Bosch, and Milwaukee only use Cobalt coatings on high speed steel for their inexpensive cobalt kits. Without a stamp that usually means it's not a full-through alloy. You have to be careful and have strict RPM/pressure practices to not prematurely wear them out.
I do not think a cobalt coating exists. When people say cobalt drills or end mills, what they are actually referring to is HSCO, essentially HSS grades which have cobalt added into the alloy. While there are means to diffuse carbon and nitrogen into steel to case harden them, there really is no easy way to do so with cobalt. You cannot simply coat a drill with cobalt apart from plating it, but cobalt by itself is pretty useless and they do not just coat with cobalt metal. I think they just use HSS grades with low cobalt overall, not apply a thin coating which really is not possible or useful.
Might be interesting if you are able to monitor the power draw of the drill during use
True, the bits that drilled slower during the first test, were definitely hotter than the Milwaukee and Drill America.
Thank You 👍
You're welcome Dave!
If you're going to be doing project farm type videos, can you do a comparison of wireless soldering irons?
I'd love to, and that's a great idea. I need to look at the product costs, if it's a lot of money and I get no views, it would be another loss.
Good advice to buy Milwaukee tools , lest make a video of how sharpenning the drill bits manually and with a electric sharpeners.
Awesome video. while I hate that its made in China, Milwaukee sure does keep a good grip on quality control.
Well, off to Home Depot to get a 1/4" Milwaukee cobalt bit. Damn exhaust stud broke and needs to be drilled and tapped.
thank you
You're welcome Ed! Be sure to look over my extensive video playlists below for many other videos of interest to you, and most importantly take one minute to share a link to my channel with others. Thanks
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Great job. It looks like the Bosch bit could be resharpened but not the others because of their tip geometries and construction. Is that a fair assessment?
Thank you Chris. I'd think 3 out of 4 can be resharpened, if done carefully, and you don't allow the bit to overheat. I don't see any way to resharpen the Milwaukee. Be sure to rate thumbs up, and share the video link with others.
You can't resharpen any of them, they are only coated in cobalt, if you sharpen them you remove the cobalt and then you only have a normal drill bit
@@Alucard-gt1zf where to buy solid cobalt drill bits? There is lots of cobalt drill bits on Amazon, are they all only coated with cobalt and not all through?
@@Alucard-gt1zfaren't the drill america m35 alloy with gold oxide coating? I would understand that from their specifications
You should try this with the higher tier drill bits, like Norseman, Drill Hog, etc.
I may in the future. Thanks for watching!
Awesome review. Very disappointed with Dewalt. I would have bought it if not for this review. Definitely going for the Milwaukee. Thanks for saving me some money.
The quad edge point works extremely well. Thanks for watching!
*ElectroncisNmore* ~ hi there, got an idea for you. Would you be willing to do a video about the best LED house lights? which brand etc is more efficient to run. Thank you for your amazing videos, all the best, kieron uk
LEDs hands down
RIGHT! LED's. Saved an average of $25 a month on energy usage.
@@Locksnut yeah ok - then perhaps which LED bulb is best? updated comment
Traditional bulb is best since pollutes less , less tax subsidies, healthier, and cheaper over the long run if u factor everything. Flurocent is efficient if u leave it on and dont turn it off so quick. Led coat a lot more to buy break down easily simce so many components to make it work which usually the capacitor and they make they break easily to sell more.
Lights r the first product with planned obsolescence. All info states online but never highlighted. Pro cons to everything.
DiyEcoProjects mine are GE. UL approved and create no RFI. Edited for misspelling
Your rattling vibrating drill press ruins bits faster so I think this test is inconclusive but I always use Milwaukee and they’re great
All bits have a different sweet spot for the speed of the spindle and pressure placed on the bits. If used on there sweet spots they would all be quite close to each other. I use cheap sets from the market and have out performed many people purely down to there lack of knowledge
That's true. Most people will be using a drill though, not a drill press, so using constant pressure was a fair testing method. You would think the manufacturer would've designed the bit to do the best cutting without having to use excessive downward force. The speed was set very close to the recommended speed for the bit size and hard metal being drilled. Thanks for watching!
@@electronicsNmore Ask yourself, do you know how drills are designed? Do you know how drills are evaluated in a professional environment? You don't, but you did see the Project Farm video and the views it received, so you apparently decided to do something equally as misleading. Luke was absolutely right - I drill and thread various alloys daily - you just didn't understand his objections, because you know nothing about this subject. A Catch 22, yet the Dunning-Kruger Effect prevails.
Glad I'm not the only one to see it, I also work drilling/tapping/milling/turning a huge variety of materials daily. I also do alot of product testing for one of our tooling suppliers and it's not as simple as running them all exactly the same way.
Some of these you can tell they are chipping bits. Where the Drill America and Milwaukee cut long strand of material..Which is what I like too see in a good drill bit...
Yes, The best bits have long spiral shavings.
@@electronicsNmore After watching your video ...I ran out and bought the 29 bit Milwaukee Cobalt Red Helix set for $55.00 after sale and using their online code...
They were telling me when I went to pick them up. You shanked us...As the manager was not happy..
I got a notification about this video so I think UA-cam notifications are working now.
Great to hear, but I can assure you they're not working as they should, only for a very small number of subscribers. As of now, only 1350 people watched from the sub feed and notifications. Where are the other 440K subs? I don't expect all them to watch, but At least 8 -10% should be. Thanks for watching!
i noticed the Milwaukee Red Helix was much smoother /quieter. That must mean something ?
Yes you will notice that the other bits the grind is much rougher so they wear out way sooner.
@@tunafish3216 i would think so
Having the quad edge, or even a pilot point keeps the tip of the bit from bobbling around. The finished hole is very smooth. It's a well designed cobalt bit.
What is oil for?
I think there's a mistake at the end - the last shown bits are DeWalt, but you're describing them as Milwaukee.
The whole rest is great.
Best!
b.
No, the last bit shown has a quad edge point, it's Milwaukee.
@@electronicsNmore ok, I've checked. You're right! Sorry :)
Hi Doug. Thank you for the review of these bit's. Has I can sharpen my own bit's I would Buy the Drill American. Just call me old school. Pee on China. Has always Liked,shared. All my very best.
I hear ya Bobby. I'm glad you liked the review! Thanks for all your support
Unfortunately it's American companies overthrew, but in failure times in all of them, got to keep $flowing, industrial bits are better but the costs
Drill America drills are made in Taiwan.
@@felixf5211 According to the website, their brand is US made.
@@electronicsNmore They claim to be an American company with manufacturing facilities around the world. These drills were made in Taiwan. Currently, Chicago-Latrobe, Cle-Line, Cleveland, Viking, MTD, RMT, Triumph are made in the US. I'm forgetting a coupe of brands, I know. There are four manufactures producing drills in the US, and these four produce the various brands. GFII is the biggest.
Edit: Posted an incorrect acronym for Rocky Mountain Twist, then looked at one of their drills and realized the mistake. Fixed it.
Now try it with Kimball Midwest bits.
Never heard of them.
Is that a " WEN " brand drill press ? :)
A few companies use the same drill press. Pretty sure the link in the video description area is to a WEN. Thanks for watching!
@@electronicsNmore Ahh they probs do ! I thought it's a WEN cuz of the color scheme :D I'll check the link out :D
For a second I thought this is Project Farm video
That's a compliment. Different voice alerted you quickly. :-)
4:47 wtf is this contraption???!! You can't certainly expect true results from this!
Drill bits need to run at the manufacturers recommended speed (Vc= ?m/min) and feedrate. Not with some arbitrary downward force on the same fixed RPM-setting for
each drill bit!
This inconsistent cooling method is just stupid
Use a CNC mill for providing a fair and accurate test environment.
Only then you can adjust speeds and feeds a little to improve the results.
Also... if a Drill bit dies faster or not is not the only thing to consider.... cost/time ratio? How many holes per hour per Dollar?
👍👍
I break Milwaukee cobalt bits too often. I’m not impressed like I would like to be
forget about hard steel, i have trouble drilling anything that isnt sheet metal!
also note: your sound is too low and sound like you are fat away from the microphone.
I played the video several times, the audio is fine on my end. No other viewers complained about it. I prefer it to be a little lower, people can raise the volume. If the audio is too loud, then they really complain about how loud I'm talking or the noise from the equipment bothers them. Thanks for watching
Once you learn how to sharpen drill bits by hand NONE of this really matters anymore.
So America makes shit drills. 😟
Well, you can't really say that, because we only tested one. :-)
@@electronicsNmore well maybe you should test USA made drills against the best of Chinese so we can feel confident in buying your own product...
Australia, we use to make stuff now we have no choice...sad.
Copycat much.....................
Sorry, I didn't realize that only one channel was allowed to make drill bit testing videos. LOL Todd is a very good friend of mine, and I discussed this video with him months before it was made, and while it was being made. He gave me great advice, and in the past I've given him great advice.