I am thinking of getting myself a set of these. Mostly drill Ali and fibre glass I suspect. Seems to me a 3 piece set can cost from a few pounds (yay) all the way up to £100 (boo!). Anyone use them and have buying advice?

Halfords do one. It lasted me a full build.

-- Ash

Aldi/Netto ones have been superb for me, in fact I bought a spare set last time they were on sale.

Cheers

Rich

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Aldi/Netto ones have been superb for me,

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I bought a couple of sets from eBay for about £15 with case etc. The first set had the flats on the shank which seemed like a good idea at the time, but actually just snapped a couple of them when they snagged whilst drilling steel. The second set have got round shanks so they slip in the chuck rather than snapping. For GRP and aluminium sheet, they're absolutely brilliant.

I have one of those conical sets (not stepped). It works brilliantly on wood, sheet metal, compoistes etc. Plus, without the steps, I can do whatever size I want!

I bought a set of the Conical ones (3 in a box) from Screfix - £20, made of cheese! AVOID!!

Bought a stepped one from my local hardware shop (2 in a box + rotary rasp bit and countersink bit) for £15, done the job several times so far and still seem reasonable.

JB

Is changing drill bits really too much trouble? A good set of drill bits should last forever, if treated with care. And you'll never drill a hole 2mm larger than the one you originally wanted.....

Phil

Spoken like a man who has never used a step drill :-)
They work "fine' and remain centred... try that with a bigger drill.

I have had one 6-20mm from RS components fo £15 and a cheap set of 3 for the same.

And yes the RS one is 3 times better.
Looks better and cuts better.

They both have there uses.
I would only use cheap ones on GRP etc.

As above, try drilling a 25mm hole in 1mm ali with a normal drill bit using a hand drill.

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Originally posted by Bare
Spoken like a man who has never used a step drill :-)
They work "fine' and remain centred... try that with a bigger drill.

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+2 for Aldi/ Lidl cheap as chips but last years i use them a lot at work on alloy and they are very good
Spray thin oil on the drill before use helps the cutting [ WD40 ]

The Aldi/Lidl ones are brill for ali, just found out they don't like stainless.

Actually you can drill fairly large holes in thin ali with twist drills, certainly up to half inch, you just have to know how to grind the tips for that purpose.

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Is changing drill bits really too much trouble?

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i use the aldi ones , they have worked on stainless too !!!

Mine worked on stainless, but only for three holes.