DEWALT DW1969 29 Piece Pilot Point Twist Drill Bit Assortment with Metal Index

5 Reviews

1. My wife got me this for Christmas. Great set. Have used now for 2 years. Not a problem with a single bit. I use it for home repair, working on vehicles, and building home furniture. I always have what I need and the DeWalt quality bits speaks for itself. I have owned other brand bits and they just don’t hold up the same which is why I was in need of a new set. My wife said she saved nearly $15 and got free shipping from Amazon off what was priced at the local box store so that is why I got the 29-piece set. Lucky me!!!! [smile]]

2. Our shop builds prototypes of things that get really hot. Our designs kind of make it to autocad and kind of make it to a whiteboard. No two things are the same. Almost all our work is with metal. things can be a few inches but many assemblies are over 10 feet. We had to run out to grab a set quickly and bought these on little more than a wild guess.

   We use these quite a lot. Working through steel I beams, it took quite a lot of pressure to keep the bit cutting. In a drill press it cut beautiful chip and would go through mild or stainless with ease. The blades lasted quite a while, and when we did burn out a bit, it was almost always when we couldn’t get enough pressure on the bit to start it cutting cleanly. Outlasts any other drill bit in the shop by a good bit. The holes they cut (that’s the goal after all) are quite good, better than just about any 117 point drill and better than many 135s.

   One of the really nice places for the pilot point is when you are drilling square tubing and end up having to start a hole across from the welded face then punch through the weld. It’s one of those things that can eat up many drill bits. These do fine.

   The down sides that kept this from being being a 5 star:

   The pressure before the flute gets started is higher than for normal 117 or 135 drill bits.

   The bits produce chip that would get to a couple feet long and wrap around the chuck. The only time I have ever complained about a tool for producing too nice a chip! Some kind of geometry change to break the chip before 6″ would be great.

   They can grab, and we have bent some bits in hand drills.

   You still need a set of 135s (or 117s) for overboring a hole. Without the pilot these bits are useless.

   Bottom line: 90% of the time this is the set that people reach for. Buy 1 by 64th index and then buy a couple of the smaller sets to replace bits as they go. No drill bit lasts for ever and I don’t expect them to.

3. I am a serious amateur carpenter, and a long time Dewalt tool loyalist, so I was very excited to get this set. Unfortunately, although I have a drill press, much of the work I need to do requires a cordless drill, and I have found these bits to be difficult to get good results with. As the other reviewers state, they tend to grab hold and thread themselves into the wood, particularly if you are trying to enlarge an existing hole, and there is little that can be done to stop them. The results are often a blowout on the back side, and they are so aggressive, the hole is not as clean as I would like. I have experienced blowouts even when blocking the back side, as you should with any bit. Most recently, I clamped my blocking to the piece and it blew out anyway. Frustrating.

   I will say they are great in the drill press when everything is clamped down and you have better control of the rate of descent of the chuck, but otherwise, I tend to shy away from using these bits, they are just to aggressive and destructive. I wish I had tried another brand, like Milwaukee or Irwin.

4. GOOD QUALITY AND FAIR PRICEDeWalt DW1969 29 Piece Pilot Point Twist Drill Bit Assortment with Metal Index

5. Pros:

   - 1/64″ steps

   - Very nice plastic case

   - “No spin” hex shank (also lets larger bits fit 3/8″ chucks)

   - Pilot point works as advertised

   Cons:

   - Gold Ferrous Oxide instead of TiN

   - More shank and less flute than your average drill bit

   - Design aggressively chews up wood badly (with tear out on exit)

   - Not good for soft woods (works better with harder woods)

   - Flutes seem less sharp than other brands

   - Too much heat concentrated at pilot point risks burning the bit

   - Halfway down, bits bite hard into the wood (especially the larger ones) and cause the drill to screw itself into the wood until the chuck hits requiring you to backout and try again. This is very frustrating and is a major design flaw in my opinion. As such these bits are not well suited to hand drills.

   If you are set on this purchase, consider the package with the measuring tape:

   DEWALT DW1969TM Heavy Duty 29-Piece Pilot Point Set with FREE Tape Measure

   Or the 25pc Black Oxide version with the normal tip:

   DEWALT DW1164 25 Piece Black Oxide Drill Bit Set

   Note there also exists a cobalt version with the Pilot Point tip:

   DEWALT DW1269 29 Piece Cobalt Pilot Point Metal Drill Bit Index Set