Drill Bits – The Essential Guide

When drilling, you have to choose different drill bits depending on what you are material you want to drill. Here, we will outline what drill bits and techniques are best for the most popular DIY materials.

Drilling in Metal

If you are drilling into a non-ferrous metal, you should be using HSS drill bits wits a partially ground tip. Non-ferrous metals include: aluminium, brass, copper, iron, zinc and non-alloyed steel. If you are drilling into stainless steel, you will require a different type of drill bit. For this material, you will need drill bits which are made of cobalt-alloyed High Speed Steel (HSS-E) or even a drill bit which has a titanium coating. These types of drill bits are more specialised and more expensive than regular HSS drill bits, however, they allow for drilling in special steel without having to worry about a high level of wear to your drill bits.

Drilling in Wood

When drilling into wood, Brad point drill bits are the best bit for the job. Brad point drill bits have a long centring tip with two pre-cutting spurs. These spurs are used to score the wood fibres before the internal cutting edges cut them out cleanly. Forstner drill bits, hardware drill bits or hinge cutting bits are usually used for larger drill bit diameters; there are auger bits for deep holes in wood.

Drilling in Concrete

Drilling into clinker, brick or concrete masonry will require you to use an impact drill or a rotary hammer. However, if the wall which you are drilling into contains perforated stones with porous material, only rotary drilling is performed (i.e. without impact). This will also apply when drilling into porous bricks and boarded walls. In order to drill into these materials, you will require a masonry drill bit. Masonry drill bits have soldered-in tungsten-carbide plates on the drill bit tip.

If you’re ever unsure about which drill bit to use, don’t try and guess yourself because this can have catastrophic effects; ask someone who is trained in the field. People who work at hardware stores will always have a great knowledge of which bit is best for the job.