When your job requires proper industrial performance, you need the best-performing tools possible to get the job done efficiently and effectively. Furthermore, having the best drilling tools and accessories can help create accurate, smooth holes. When you’re buying carbide drill bits, there are many factors to consider, so you can improve your work productivity while reducing single-hole processing costs.
Carbide drill bits are powerful, effective drilling tools that outperform many drill bit types. They come in different construction based on your work materials, such as twist, spade, hole saw and step bits, along with varying drill bit sizes and widths for the perfect hole. So, let’s review different factors of buying carbide drill bits and discuss how carbide drill bits work.
What are Carbide Drill Bits?
Carbide drill bits consist of tungsten carbide, providing a high-heat dissipation rate, excellent strength, and maintaining a sharp edge longer than other drill bits. As a result, they’re perfect for drilling through rigid, hard materials, especially when performing demanding and challenging jobs. However, they aren’t necessary for at-home drilling projects, as carbide drill bits best suit more strenuous applications.
Carbide drill bits can drill through masonry materials such as concrete, rebar, and stone, along with hard metals such as cast iron, bronze, aluminum, copper, and other abrasive materials. They also perform at higher cutting speeds, handling higher temperatures.
Considerations for Carbide Drill Bits
Let’s discuss the considerations for purchasing carbide drill bits. Some things to consider are their benefits, various applications, and which works best for metal materials.
Advantages of Carbide Drill Bits
What makes carbide drill bits stand out is their beneficial properties. Firstly, they’re incredibly strong due to their tungsten and carbon construction, making them one of the strongest in the market. Moreover, they can penetrate steel, unlike traditional drill bits. Secondly, they’re long-lasting due to their durability. It takes considerable focus to wear a carbide drill bit out or bend them out of shape.
Carbide drill bits are also versatile, a jack of all trades for various industries. They’re one of the most widely used drill bit pieces globally, from construction to engineering and more. Furthermore, because of their structure, quality, and consistency, they offer a high precision rate to create your desired drill hole size. With the combination of hole precision and material penetration, you get a quality drill bit that performs well in nearly every application.
Types of Carbide Drill Bits
As previously mentioned, carbide drill bits have different types for your specific application. The twist bit is the most common drill bit type, which is perfect for many drilling projects. The name derives from the drill bit form, consisting of flutes along the drill bit body that helps transfer debris away from the hole. Secondly, the spade and hole saw bits work for larger-scale projects. The spade bit has bat-like wings with a sharp point in the center to keep the drill secure, while the hole saw has a hollow core that fills with drilled material.
Lastly, the step bit is another common type of carbide drill bit. It is a multilevel drill bit operating with a stair-step design system. They’re ideal for cutting precise holes while drilling various sizes without needing to change the bit.
Carbide Drill Bit Applications
One of the positive factors to consider when purchasing carbide drill bits is that they work in many different industries. From automotive to engineering to masonry, they offer dependable strength and precision that makes them stand out from other drill bit types.
Because carbide drill bits can work against harder materials, you can often see them in machine shops for production drilling and working in high-heat applications. When you’re purchasing carbide drill bits, think about the project and the type of carbide drill bit you’d need to best fit your project.
Carbide Drill Bit Construction
Compared to other drill bit types, carbide drill bits stand out for many reasons. First, workers rely on them to drill holes into rigid materials, often by punching the material until it’s crushed by its repetitive up-and-down movement. The punched hole then transfers the excess debris of the material.
Carbide drill bits can come custom-cut into specific shapes for varying uses. The most common shape options are spade, hole saw, twist, and step bit shapes. Moreover, you can also find carbide drill bits in almost any size, from a few inches to staggeringly large sizes. You can custom-make them to the desired shape and size you like.
Best Drill Bits for Metal
When people ask which carbide drill bit is the best, there are no specific answers. Instead, it’s best to communicate with an established, knowledgeable cutting supplier, set aside adequate testing time, and track results to streamline better hole-marking and increase productivity. For shops that machine lower production quantities and work with varying metals, working with a universal drill bit can benefit significantly.
Material-specific carbide drill bits are the most effective when working with higher part volumes. While they can come with a higher price tag, you’re granted a longer tool life, more predictable machining processes, better part quality, and lower cost per part.
Coolant and Scrap Removal
Chip removal is when a piece becomes shaped using tools to remove excess materials. This helps obtain the degree of surface finish and dimensional accuracy, especially when working with complex shapes. One of the most prominent issues in drilling is chip removal. It’s especially apparent when processing low-carbon steel workpieces, as the issue is unavoidable, no matter which carbide drill bit piece you use.
So, a solution processing shops rely on is external coolant injections to assist in chip removal. However, it’s only effective when the machined hole depth is smaller than the hole diameter and with cutting parameter reduction. When chips become out of control during drilling, it’s crucial to listen to your drill and machine sounds and optimize your feed rates and cutting speeds.
You deserve the best, high-quality carbide drill bits at favorable prices. DrillBitWarehouse offers affordable, high-quality drill bits and cutting tools with over 40 years of serving Aerospace, Medical, Engineering, Automotive, and other industrial fields. Our carbide drill bits provide sub-micrograin solid carbide for reliable and robust performance to cut through iron, brass, non-ferrous plastic, steel platting, and more. Visit us today and see why you’ll love the quality of our drill bit pieces.
