New Gets

Five or six years ago the shop got a set of seven HSS Brad-Point Drill Bits from Lee Valley. I've used them on an almost daily basis since then, and I like them so much I bought my own boxed set of 28.



They are the best bits I have ever used. They are accurate, the chips clear easily, and they stay sharp for a long, long time.



The thing I like best about these bits is the absence of tearout. It is disheartening to see a piece of furniture marred by ugly chipout, caused by a piece of sub-par tooling. The bottom hole in the image below is a crisp entry hole, the top one is an almost tearout-free unsupported exit hole, no backing board used. I've seen these bits make tiny wood doughnuts from the last remaing fibers of a through- hole.