Wood drill bits are the main topic of this article. Plus, we will share some useful tips for efficiently drilling out satisfactory holes in wood. Before you put up a cabinet or shelf, we genuinely hope these tooltips herein we share will be a helping, in spite of they are not in-depth.

No matter in common or special carpentry, you will find out wood is quite a whole different story from metal. Say softwood, a sort of timber that consists of cells in which there is a large amount of air making it “soft”, they could get deformed during drilling with ease. Apart from softwood, hard wood’s processing could be a little bit demanding as well. Although without puffs and with dense structure, hardwood is born with cracking. Specific designs and cares are required for wood drilling bits to handle all hindrances.

Suitable Materials according to Wood Types

Generally, for wood hole drilling, we apply drill bit made of carbon steel, high-speed steel(HSS), and carbide. These three types of materials cover nearly all range of processed woods from hickory, beech to cedar, rosewood, and so on.

Carbon steel bits are only capable of dealing with wood in soft and medium hardness at low-speed processing velocity cause there is a clear working temperature limit for it, which is up to 250℃. Once the temperature rises higher than 200℃，carbon steel is tend to lose its ability to drilling. With more flexibility and resistance to brittle, especially, preferable hot-hardness, HSS retains 60HRC during 500℃, which makes it sufficient for drilling medium or even hardwood at medium cutting speed. Topping HSS, Carbide stands up to 800℃ and remain the comparable drilling property. Prices on these three types of materials vary with their performance. Carbide drill bits’ performance is beyond doubt while they are enough costly.

However, if you just preferred a strong performer and expense is not your concern. Carbide and HSS are definitely sound choices to you. Besides they are relatively prevalent among all tool materials is their more superior affinity for chemical or physical coating. Endowed with this affinity, coated carbide and HSS tools are enhanced in aspects of hardness and self-lubricating.

Wisely Pick up Right Type of Drill Bits

You absolutely don’t want to use a traditional twist drill to trepan on a wooden surface cause their cutting edges are just way too wide and blunt, even though you have ground it. It seems like to slice a cake with a baseball stick. It could be done but the whole result could be in chaos. There are “special troops” on the market to good purpose for your choice, Be aware of that.

 Brad-point bit

Sharpening – a bit fiddly as it has to be done by hand. Sharpen the point and spurs with a fine file or edge of a fine grindstone; the angle between the point and spurs should be 90° 

As a branch of twist drill bits, brad point bits are ideal for drilling holes mortised with dowels, and they have a structure like a trident in its transverse including a central point and 3 or 4 fringe corners(spurs) standing out the bits’ cutting edge. That’s why they are styled as spur bits and dowelling bits. These raised spurs not only prevent the drill bit sliding but also cut and remove excess wood fiber ahead of planing off the base of the hole by real cutting edges.   

There is another kind of drill bits resembling brad point bits, which are called pilot bit. Both of them are able to cut more straight and cleaner hole than ones drilled by normal twist drill.

Spade bit

Spade bit for electric drilling only, the center point is in the position of the bit, and the flat steel on both sides cuts off the wood. These bits are used to drill fairly large holes. They provide a flat bottom hole (with a central point), so it is ideal where the head of the bolt/bolt needs to be embedded in wood – this bit must be used before drilling through the hole of the bolt.

Larger bits require fairly powerful bits to drill deep holes. Drill bits produce a lot of debris when they run out of the back of the workpiece – using sacrificial backplane or tape can reduce debris. Noteworthy spade bits are not suitable for enlarging existing holes.

Hole saw

This is a circular saw for cutting holes of large, fixed, diameter0 in wood. It’s usually cut to a depth of 18 mm or deeper. It is best used on low-speed power drills because the saw blade will cut through the whole board. In addition, there is a combination hole saw. Like the circular saws above, these combined saws can cut large holes, but they consist of many circular saws of different sizes, usually between 25 and 62 mm in diameter. Normally, the blade is fixed by a radial screw in the “head”. Before inserting a screw to fix the required diameter blade, all blades (except the required size) will be removed. It is best used on low-speed power drills cause the drill-through thing.

Auger bit

Auger bit is an ideal tool specialized for drilling large diameter and deep holes in wood or thick wood-based panels. Generally speaking, spiral drills can only be used on hand drills. The drill will cut clean, deep, flat-bottomed holes. A single straight tooth cuts and defines the edge of the hole, while a chisel cuts the edge to remove waste from the previous cutting circle. Hold the wood in the center of the thread and pull the drill into the wood. This “pull” action means that the bit is not suitable for use in electric drills.

Sharpening is also Important

As a skilled woodworker, knowing how to sharpen drill bits before they get blunt will do yourself a good turn. Cause nearly every drill bit you get it home are not sharpened. Plus keep it in mind that ordinary fixed-handle bit can be reground three times and undercut bit can be reground two times. When the wear diameter is reduced by 2% compared with the original one due to wear, the bit will be discarded.