Irwin Tools IRWIN 63137 Cobalt Alloy Steel Fractional Straight Shank Jobber Length Metal Index Drill Bit Set, 15-Piece

Hands down the worst quality drills I've ever owned, and I've been in the fabrication business for 40 years......I needed to cut a 1/4" hole in a hardened brake bracket on a drill press, and a 1/16 drill wouldn't even scratch it, then changed speeds slow, up to fast...nothing................used Brownell's DO-DRILL oil........nothing, barely polished tiny area around the punched area.I went and grabbed a set of cheapo QVC drills .... to see if I could ruin something inexpensive........went RIGHT THROUGH THE BRACKET like butter! ........The hole was .010 under size, so I used one of the Irwin drills to true up the whole size.......it just squeaked and rounded the bit off....Thankfully, I have an ACE Hardware close by. and went over and bought a $6.96 cobalt bit.......went through like butter.After 40 years, these are without a doubt the worst Chinese junk drill bits I've ever bought.......................they'll cut wood and aluminum fine, but they lose their edge and fight to cut mild steel...............................trash.Sorry Irwin, but you turned a 20 minute project into a ruined afternoon.. You guys should be ashamed marketing trash like this.Now I just need to figure out how to return them

I have been fabricating stainless steel railing posts and decided to invest in a really good set of cobalt bits. After drilling 100 1/8 inch pilot holes with a single Amoolo bit (separately reviewed), 60 3/16 holes and 20 1/4 inch holes, each with only one non-Irwin drill bit, I tried the Irwin bits. Using the same speed and lubrication as my prior 180 holes, one Irwin bit drilled 4 holes, and one managed 3 before they were ruined. I can't return them as they are not in "new or like new" condition. I now have a $92 drill organizer. I am sick about this purchase. I can't stress this enough: DON'T BUY THESE BITS. THEY ARE JUNK.

I bought these since they were advertised as cobalt steel, but only after a handful of uses they dull so that you can barely drill through brass. I think that they are not even cobalt steel. Chinese crap like most everything else that the Chinese make. I think that these are a total scam and the number of positive reviews must be fake. DO NOT BUY

I bought these bits for a specific project. I needed to drill out 2 snapped off wheel studs. This is something I had accomplished on a 3rd stud with my fathers 20 year old bit set in about 10 minutes. The process of drilling out that one stud was enough to dull out the old used bits. I had assumed a nice new set of bits from a name I trusted would do at least a comparable job. Nope. 35 minutes in i had still not even drilled a 1/8 in hole. I hadn't even gotten 1/4 inch deep. Bear in mind my fathers old dulled out set got through a stud starting with 1/8 inch up through 5 different sizes to drill out a stud in about 10 minutes. These bits do not live up to the name Irwin. Maybe they'll be good for wood and plastic but I wouldn't use them for any kind of serious steel drilling.

Was changing an exhaust manifold and as with everything one bolt broke. So needed a bit to drill into hardened metal. After reading about this cobalt bits figured i would give them a shot. Well after 4 bits the bolt is still there. Even after using oil to ensure they didnt over heat, they were dull within minutes. Sure they would work for smaller jobs, but if you're looking to anything heavy Don't. Want hold up to heavy duty metal.

Poor, dissatisfied, took 6 bits to drill four 3/8 " hole in a 1/2 cold rolled steel plate. Paid the higher price expecting to get the quality and performance the Irwin company brags ABOUT. Wrong choice.

Excellent drill bit set for the money. I'm very pleased and have already used them on several tough projects. I always clean after each use with a slightly oiled rag and also like to use a pre-drill technique by using smaller bits and slowly graduating to my final bit size; typically, when drilling into extremely hard surface materials and substrates. I also use lubricating oil to minimize heat build-up/friction, and avoid unnecessary wear. Yeah, they're "cobalt" but that that doesn't mean they can't be destroyed in relatively quick fashion if you don't use common sense for various applications. Lubricated bits last longer. For drilling holes in steel that's 1/8 in. or thicker, use cutting fluid or a multipurpose oil like 3-IN-ONE. Lubricating the bit reduces friction and heat buildup, which makes drilling easier and your bits last longer. Cheers!

I got tired of other drill bits barely drilling into steel and then breaking. Spent some money and it was so worth it.Pros:Cut like butter, maybe too well on mild steelIn the drill press these work amazing, nice clean cuts.Cons:Without a hex/flatted shank these bite and dig quickly so in a battery powered hand chuck drill the bit ends up catching and the drill keeps spinning around because it can't hold the bit still. These are so sharp and durable though you can step back and nibble it away with some care.

Good quality

Used 4 sizes, including the smallest and the largest and so far, they are cutting through thick metal like butter. I remember such drill bits when I was young, before the markets got saturated with cheap bits that don't last or don't even do the job. These are remarkably well made and are worth the money. Just remember to use oil to cool them while drilling.

I looked around and for most reviews a lot of people liked the Irwin Tools drill bits, Norseman and a couple of others. To that end I bought this set because I found it's price was good at the time. When I received the drill set I took a quick look at them and instantly noticed that there were different length drills in the set. We are use to see each drill shorter than the diameter above it but in this case there were a few of them all over the place for length. That immediately made me think (as a production manager) that there had been some bad bits which were swapped out with different length bits. Regular bits, jobber bits etc can have different lengths. That was my first warning that there were quality control issues. I then looked at the tips of the drill bits which all looked good. However once I got away from the immediate split tip I noticed that many of the other faces had either micro chips out of them or burred or rounded edges. The tip would cut well but further out on the other faces were poor cutting edges. These would likely not cut, while the tiny tip would cut. I contacted Irwin tools about the few bits which were bad and they wanted me to send them in for inspection. I was hoping pictures that clearly showed new bits with the IRwin name stamped on them along with no use, but damaged cutting edges would be enough. In this case the cost of sending the bits in will be as much as if I just buy new bits off the store to replace them. I explained that and received no answer back. I am now left with sending in 4-5 bits 3,000 miles and who knows what will happen from there, or just buy new ones myself and be sure I bought good tips. I happen to fix a lot of items under a microscope so I looked at these and I can tell that the machining to cut them has been let go too long and that has resulted in forced cutting by dull bits which is why there are chips out on the leading edges. The center tips were all good so that tooling was probably changed out when needed. good things can come out of china but all too often they like to extend the life of tooling past it's best stages and unless Irwin does random inspections of its tools at stores and online shippers they will only see the samples the manufacture wants them to see. Our company dealt with chinese manufacturers for a while but they were constantly giving us good samples and then changing the manufacturing process to different materials and speeds of production where the results were bad. We gave up after a while and paid higher to have our products largely made out of north america where we had better communication and control of what was happening. You get what you paid for.My suggestion is that if you are buying these from a store, take a small magnifying glass and look closely at the cutting surfaces and you will likely find one box good and the next bad. At least that way you can pick out the better examples.

I purchased these cobalt bits based on reviews, and had a hardened steel plate to drill. Already have tons of high end bits but wanted to splurge , the extra cost of these bits are not worth it at all, broke to bits immediately on a press drill, and even the ones that did not break , did not even penetrate the steel, very disappointed and I would not buy these again, I can’t understand how the reviews quoted them so good, and yes I know about but lubricant and drill bit speed. Wish I could get my money back and buy 3 sets of regular bits...do not recommend

I bought these drills to drill out a broken screw driver bit. They didn't perform any better than a cheap drill bit. Maybe these are cheap drill bits but cost a little more. I'm not sure where they are made, I was hoping for a USA product. They had a hard time biting into a screw fastening a windshield frame (with cutting oil), so I'm back to finding a real drill bit. Waste of time with this product, very disappointed.