[2024]Brad Point Drill Bit: A Comprehensive Guide

A drill bit is a cutting tool used that removes material to create circular holes. Various sizes and shapes of drill bits, such as twist drill bits, countersink drill bits, auger bits, Forstner bits, Brad point drill bits, etc., can create diverse holes in different materials.

In this blog, we will focus on the Brad point drill bit, including its features, uses, and selection.

What is a Brad Point Drill Bit?

A variation of the twist drill bit, a Brad point drill bit with a sharp locating edge at the top, is a spiral bit used to accurately machine round holes of a given size. Conventional twist drills are prone to deflection when machining on flat workpieces, while the positioning edge of Brad Point drill bits can be a good solution to this problem.

Features

Precise Positioning: With a sharp locating edge on the top, the Brad point drill bit can be accurately located and secured to the needed hole, preventing the drill from running off or shifting and improving the working accuracy.

Circular Streamline Scribing Edge: Two scribing edges (cutting edges) on both sides of the locating edge are lower than it, aiming to differentiate them in the working sequence. The taller locating edge touches the material first, and then the scribing edge scribes the material's surface. The arc streamline design can make the scribing edge smoothly cut the material surface, especially if it can prevent surface roughness from a blade that is not sharp enough to work on wood.

Large-angle Spiral Design: With a large angle, the Brad point drill bit is much better than other small-angle drill bits regarding chip removal ability and working efficiency.

What are Brad Point Drill Bits Used For?

After understanding what the Brad point drill bit is, you may be curious how it cuts the material and removes chips to achieve high working efficiency. In this part, we will discuss this problem in four steps.

Step 1: Positioning

The sharp positioning edge pierces into the material, playing a role in locating for subsequence work, preventing the drill bit from sliding from human deviation, and avoiding the error in hole size caused by the vibration of the deflection.

Step 2: Cutting

With the positioning edge piercing, the lower edges on both sides start working. Special rotating and cutting angles can effectively reduce the damage to wood fiber and the inner wall of the hole of plastic materials during the cutting process.

Step 3: Removal

Like other spiral drill bits, the Brad point drill bit’s chip removal groove is arranged in a spiral pattern like the cutting edge, which greatly enhances the ability for chip removal. Under high-speed rotation and the friction between chips, timely chip removal can reduce the damage to the inner wall of the hole.

Step 4: Secondary Trimming

At the same time as chip removal, the spiral cutting edge will synchronize the trimming of the damage to the inner wall of the hole under high-speed rotation and ensure the perpendicularity and smoothness of the hole.

Is a Twist Bit Better Than a Brad Point Bit?

As we mentioned before, the Brad point drill bit is a variation of the twist drill bit, so they are highly similar in appearance, but each has its own advantages in terms of use.

Advantages of Brad Point Drill Bit

• The biggest difference between these two drill bits is the positioning edge on the top. Stable drilling conditions make the drilling effects of the Brad point drill bit better than that of the twist drill bit. Especially when working on some hard and smooth material, the twist drill bit on hand-held tools tends to slip, which makes it hard to ensure precision and makes it easy to damage the material.
• Under the dual role of the cutting and helical edges, the Brad point drill processed hole can maximize the retention of the integrity of the wood fibers, reducing breakage and burrs. On the contrary, because the twist drill bit has linear and longer main cutting edges, users need to use a greater force and the bit is prone to oscillation without positioning, leading to an unsmoothness inner hole wall. In severe cases, it can lead to the soft material to be out of shape when processing.

Disadvantages of Brad Point Drill Bit

• Although the Brad point drill bit can provide a stable drilling environment, too much sharp positioning edge has also become the most fragile place, which is more obvious in the case of hand-held tools. The operator's force is an uncontrollable factor, resulting in the positioning edge that is highly susceptible to breakage.
• In terms of adaptability to materials, Brad point drills perform slightly less well than twist drills. Twist drill bits can be adapted to a wide range of materials such as wood, plastic, metal, etc. by adjusting the angle of their cutting edge, whereas the Brad point drill bits are more commonly used for drilling wood and soft metals.

Choosing a Compatible Brad Point Drill Bit

A compatible dill bit can protect the material and tool from damage and promote your working efficiency, but how to choose the right one might be the most confusing problem for you. When you select the Brad point drill bit, the following three factors should be taken into consideration.

• Length: The length of the drill bit can not exceed the part we need to process too long, otherwise, it may lead to poor concentricity when the drill rotates, thus affecting the accuracy of our holes.
• Spiral Angle: The size of the spiral angle will affect the ability to cut and remove chips. The larger the angle, the better the chip removal effect but the poorer the cutting ability; on the contrary, the poorer the chip removal effects, the better the cutting ability.
• Shank Shape: The common drills can be divided into straight shanks and tapered shanks. Straight shank is easy to mount and clamp, suitable for most hand-held tools; while tapered shand is more complicated to mount but can ensure higher accuracy, commonly used on CNC machines.

If you want to drill a smooth and standard hole, you can choose the Brad point drill bit, and vice versa, you can select other drill bits.

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