Need some advice on unibites

[michal_k]

Hi,

I want to buy a step bit because I got tired of hiring people to drill me three holes for tube sockets and I believe I paid 10x the money I could spent od a bite so..
Thing is that it seems that step bits are quite unpopular here in EU. Don't know why but I can find only those cheapo ones in my neighbourhood and they cost almost the same as greenlee or unibits in US. So question to you guys. What brand should I choose? I need to drill holes for noval, magnoval and even octal sockets so I need pretty big bit. I did some quick search and read that John used greenlee 1 3/8. Does it work well for mentioned sizes? oh, and I need to drill holes for footswitches cause now I enlarge 10mm holes with hand file :/

m.

[Hanglow]

http://www.axminster.co.uk/category-Sheet-Metal-Hole-Cutters-207898.htm

There are some there that go up to 30mm which should be big enough for Octals i think. I haven't tried them though, don't know what the quality is. I have read of people using hole saws for making holes for tubes.

[Derringer]

hole saws in aluminum ? Realy ?  Maybe if you have a drill press and a very secure chassis. I don't have a drill press so I've always used a unibit (starting with a pilot hole of course) and when I needed a hole bigger than my unibit would go I asked a friend who had a hole-punch kit to do it.


My Unibit, and Irwin, cost about $40 5 years ago and only goes up to 7/8" I believe. It's still going strong. I put some oil on it whenever I drill.

I would say that you should either get the unibit that goes to the diameter that you need or to look into hole-punches for the diameters you'll be using.

I think that there are some cheaper unibits out there that should last just fine on aluminum chassis or thin steel chassis.

[mike_a]

I bought a Lenox vari-bit for drilling hammond boxes (for stomps).
I'm very satisfied with it.

Mine only goes up to 1/2", but they have them in larger diameters (for tube sockets).

If it's any help, I bought it at tools-plus, which had a really awesome customer service.

[Filament]

Have you thought about chassis punches?  Some people have good luck with those.  They can be pricey but for big diameter holes some guys swear by them.

[Jered]

  Greenlee for sure. I've bought 4-5 different brands of uni/vari bits and Greenlee is far superior. They make all the sizes you'll need.

[tranceracer]

Greenlee is very good quality but very expensive for hobby work.

My Greenlee uni-bit was $60.  I returned it and bought these from Harbor Freight and they work fine for my purposes.   

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96275


http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=91201



It probably won't last as long as a Greenlee, but of course you get what you pay for...
-bK

[michal_k]

I checked ebay and 1 1/8 bit is around 30$ which isn't that bad. I need to pay almost the same for shipping so I'd rather buy something that is going to last for some time.
One more question as I've never used step bits before. If that greenlee bit is marked as 7/8" to 1 1/8" I'm gonna also need another(3/16" to 7/8") to start from 3/16" hole? I obviously don't have a 7/8" drill bit to make a pilot hole for spoken one.

thanks for the answers

M.

[mr_fender]

I picked up an Irwin unibit (3/16" to 7/8") at Lowes for about $30 bucks a while back and it makes all the difference in the world.  When drilling larger holes in boxes (1/2", etc.), I always ended up with rough looking oblong holes as I don't have a drill press.  The unibit makes them super smooth and perfectly round every time, even with a hand held drill.  It cuts really fast too.  I highly recommend them for drilling enclosures.  Here's the link to Irwin to see all the ones they offer:

http://www.irwin.com/irwin/consumer/jhtml/browse.jhtml?catId=IrwinCat100138

[Solidhex]

I got mine off ebay probably a year and a half ago. Still works great. Think I spent $20?

--Brad