Doing that reduces the tendancy of the bits to flex which is when they break.Īlso, if you are having a hard time securing the bits in your pin vise (i.e. a #78 bit is much harder to break, and again, CA will fill the gaps.Ī suggestion to avoid breaking bits constantly: Chuck your bits so that there is not much more protruding from the collet than you need to get through the depth of the material that you are drilling. As others have said, buy them in bulk, i.e. Unless you are working to within 3/1000s of an inch you don't need every size. I suggest choosing an assortment of sizes, i.e. When you break the drill you need you are out of luck, and they will break! In fact, I've only used the #80 size a few times-back when I had the confidence and no shaking "fumble-fingers," and I've since lost it and not replaced it.ĭon't buy drill 'sets', i.e. PS Add my name to those who say they lack the ability to use any of the higher number bits. They may actually have a minimum order, but I never have a problem getting enough items to make the shipping charge worthwhile. I've equipped about 40% of my workshop with tools and materials from them, and I look through their catalogs as avidly as a kid going through the toy section of any Yuletide catalog! Like most mail order businesses, the shipping and handling costs can be annoying, so I usually try to order at least $30 worth of goodies at a time. If you've never seen a Micro-Mark catalog, you don't know what you're missing. (Tapping and threading come in handy while building O scale steam locos.) My eldest brother turned me on to drilling and tapping holes when I was still a teenager, and after I went into O scale, at 53, because of aging eyesight, I decided to go whole hog and get the tools for tapping holes and cutting threads on rods for 00-90, 0-80, 1-72, 2-56, 4-40, 6-32, and 10-32. I also have bought taps and tap drills, as well as some clear drills (with the smaller sizes, such as 00-90, 0-80, and 1-72, the tap drills for the next size up work as clear drills). I bought the larger set from Micro-Mark, along with many other sets of ten of each size I use the most. Of course, I don't know how many replacements I've bought over the years to replace the ones that either broke or became too dull to work. It's complicated enough as it is (or was until computers), building ships and other stuff.Kerry, I bought a set of #44 through #60 to go with the original domed (X-acto) set of 61-80 I bought when I was getting my feet wet in the hobby in the mid-'50s. I was trained as a shipbuilding engineer and thankful that I did not have to deal with such convoluted thinking. Hey, wait a bit, why dont we invent a digital caliper that has the chart built into it? That way we have a tool that is foolproof and can be used for absolutely nothing else. The same goes for the american system, until you want to measure, because then you need the chart, unless of course you have cheated by memorising the entire chart. Of course it's easier to measure the axle with a caliper and instantly get the right bit, but that's almost cheating, so a no-go. If it does not fit you take the next larger or smaller bit until you have a match and can start drilling. Let me see: With the metric system, you eyeball the diameter of the axle and get the drill bit you believe fits. A) is 92 39 ≈ 1.12293, while for gauges two steps apart (e.g., AWG A, AWG B, and AWG C), the ratio of the C to A is about (1.12293)² ≈ 1.26098. Any two neighboring gauges (e.g., AWG A and AWG B ) have diameters whose ratio (dia. Each successive gauge number decreases the wire diameter by a constant factor. The ratio of these diameters is 1:92, and there are 40 gauge sizes from the smallest Nr. 36 AWG is 0.005 inches in diameter, and Nr. 0000 is 0.46 inches in diameter, or nearly half-an-inch. Yes, and I love it for the sake of simplicity and the absence of natural beauty in the system! That's why you often see them referred to as "wire gauge" bits. The number size drill bits correspond to the American Wire Gauge (AWG) sizing chart for wire diameters.
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