Meant to post this earlier. I had to do some tricky free-hand drilling on the job (ironwork railing going through welds on an angle) and managed to break >$20 worth of my cobalt and TN bits so grabbed the new HDX set. The sharpness was impressive but they snapped at the slightest provocation. Nice having plenty of them as that let me get the job finished. This is the toughest field drilling job Iâve ever come across as low-grade iron comes with hard spots and the welds are always full of voids, plus drilling on an angle puts all the stress on one side of the bit till itâs fully engaged. I often break a bit doing this because of all that even using the best bits made.
tl,dr: Great for wood and softer metals, or ran gently in a drill press but donât push them hard or they will snap. Still well worth $5 for the set
Next time youâre in Home Despot, pick a pack of punches.
When I worked as a welder, I found that if I use a punch (or three) as a stonemason would, to create a little pocket or dimple for the pilot bit, so it would engage the steel as fully as possible, that helped a lot. The finish bit would eat out the dimple.
OTOH, all the bits I broke made me very good at resharpening bits!!! That reminds me, if you do choose to resharpen your bits, almost no one has a Dressing Tool, which youâll need for precise grinding.
HTHâŚ
(EDIT: I donât know if this needs to be said, but when cutting steel, rock, brick, whatever, anything even resembling Cutting Fluid â even plain water â is vastly better than trying to cut it dryâŚ)
Yeah Iâve noticed this too. They drill very well but they break easily.
I found at Walmark a set of Black & Decker drill bits without a case that you can use to refill your case. But it was about $5, a little more than the Home Depot set, but the Hole Depot set had far more bits than this Black & Decker set, and a case.
I was in Home Depot today and already some of the flashlights that were brought out for the holidays have been reduced. Original price and new lower price should be visible in each shot.
Also of interest (to me) is this clearance item. The clearance sticker is $1.04 but they ring up for 52 cents. Any day now, if they are still around they will ring for a penny.
These 2 gallon buckets are always handy, now they are a dollar. Nice quality.
This ia bucket of 50 bungee cords for $7.00 Some are very small, none very large
Wow! Where can I find those multiway extension leads? I want!!
Also, for the bungee cords, whatâs with the cardboard back saying $7.88 and the sticker saying the original price is $19?
I saw those bungee cords but wasnât interested in bungee cords so didnât consider getting them.
Iâm talking about the price on the cardboard that the sticker is covering. It looks like it is $7.88. But on the sticker it says the original price was $19⌠Whatâs up with that?
Was $19 the original price, then it was for sale for $7.88 for Black Friday, and now itâs discounted to $7.00?
I know where the bungee cords are but where are those 3 way power strips located?
Those power strips were in the back of the store with lighting and the floor of a section with clearance items. The price guy often misses the stuff there. In fact the old price guy just got a promotion and there is a new guy doing it. It seems to take awhile to get the hang of it, he is missing stuff
The guy that got the promotion was very diligent and didnât miss much.
Things are looking up at HD
Hardly any sales on their lumber, itâs already as cheap as any other source overall. The bad part is their wood QC sucks; the good part is that when you pick your own you can grab only the good ones.
And we call it the âHomey-Dee-Pottâ or âthe orange boxâ (Lowes is âthe blue boxâ)
Good luck finding good lumber. The last time I tried was 4x4s for a railing. The whole pile was wet and the âgoodâ ones I picked cracked within six months.
Once and awhile my local HD will have a âspecial buyâ on certain types of lumber.
For instance in the past year they had a number of 1â by 5â by 4 foot long pine boards for 50 cents each. I was able to select out 30 pieces that were in effect #1 pine. The ones that werenât were nice too.
They once had some pieces of oak, 1/2â thick for a very low price. I actually had to force myself not to pick up some and the next day it was gone. I kicked myself on that one.
In my mind, generally the lumber at Lowes is of better quality. Recently I needed a 4 by 8 foot sheet of pressure treated plywood for the bed of a trailer. The stuff at HD looked just awful, already falling apart and VERY unattractive. The stuff at Lowes was of MUCH better quality. Then I remembered that a couple of years ago, I noticed the same difference.
And usually the lumber at the few independent lumber yards left is better than either. And they have types of lumber you just canât get at HD.
I see, I recently saw a video in which a few prices were shown. I was rather amazed, crap quality lumber here is expensive, and I donât even think you can get the good/reasonable quality stuff. Thanks for the info guys!!!