[Cherryville Chuck]

I think Carb tech is more popular down under than here. I have a few router bits and they seem okay. The box and writing appears Chinese. I bought a cheap Chinese set at a woodworking show and they aren't very sharp. I can use them in a drill press okay but handheld is hard to get them to cut. I have been able to sharpen them and improve the cutting action but that takes time. Maybe your's are better than that. The sets are still worth having because you have a lot of sizes at your disposal for a small price compared to what a full set of high quality ones like Lee Valley's would set you back.

There are some other advantages of having a cheap set too. I was drilling out some cup holes last week for euro style hinges and these ones seemed to have a deeper cup than normal and by the time I had the hole deep enough the pint was showing through the other side of a 5/8" thick door. I have an expensive carbide bit for the job that is 35mm and 1 3/8 is almost identical in size. So I took the 1 3/8 one out of my set and ground the point off. Doing it on the cheap one didn't hurt a bit but doing that on my expensive one would have.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

I bought a cheapy set to use occasionally in the drill press. I found that the shanks are out of round with the cutters. I found that if I rotate them around and chucked them up that when I found the spot that they were chucked up to grind the cutters,I marked a spot on the chuck and the shank of the bit with a sharpie to always reference the position for future set ups. It has worked well for me. I too bought a set of diamond files for sharpening the bits to touch up the cutters and they are working OK now.
Herb

Harbor Freight has a set of 12 different shape small files that are actually decent files and those will sharpen them too but take a little longer. My brother bought them for me but I think they are only about $4 a set. Diamond files are faster. But I also use a Dremel type tool with a diamond grinding wheel to sharpen them with and that's even easier and faster but you have to be a bit more careful. But that's true about any power tool compared to the hand tool that it replaces.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

I popped some years ago for a 16 bit set from Rockler. HSS, and work like a champ. Bought diamond sharpening sticks in several grits, but do occasional touch ups rather than allowing them to get dull. Really nice to have them for the drill press, but I'm not able to hold them steady enough to use freehand. Anyone have any suggestions for some kind of plunge type device to steady the drill in hand held situations?

I was talking to Stick about throwing together a jig for using Forstner's. I'll do it sometime today and post the results.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

When I first had the idea I thought it was going to be really simple but then I found out that all three sets of Forstners I have have metric sized shanks and I don't have a set of metric sized bits but it was a fairly quick work around to solve that. I used 3/4" ply and the ply is thicker than the Forstner rim is high and that is a requirement for making the jig. The bit I made the jig for has a 15mm shaft which is slightly smaller than 5/8" so I drilled a 5/8" hole through one thickness of the ply and then took it over to the cut off saw and roughly cut it through the middle of the hole. Then I drilled another piece of the ply with the bit I made the jig for. (Not sure what size it was, I never looked). With bit still in the DP and lowered into the hole it made I used some hot melt glue to stick the two other pieces of ply tight against the bit shaft. All that's left to do is clamp it in place. If you need a precise location then dimple the spot where it needs to go and you'll be able to feel when it's in place. The hole I drilled is as far as it would go without removing the jig and getting rid of the chips but it's no issue to relocate the jig to the same spot to drill deeper. The pictures tell the rest of the story.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

I just finished building a vanity for a downstairs bathroom Harry where the drain pipe had to come out the side into the toilet's pump tank (macerator). I measured the location as accurately as I could but when I went to install the vanity I found it didn't fit flush against the wall which put the hole about 6mm / .25" off. I was using a hole saw but it is basically a continuous rim like the Forstner so the same type jig works. I clamped it onto the vainity and was able to enlarge the hole to where it needed to be. It would have been impossible to do that free hand.

 

[Cherryville Chuck]

For that unusual job I fully agree, but when used in a drill press (what they intended to be used in) I have never found any difficulty drilling multiple holes vertically and in the correct spot.

Harry I was going to reply back when I saw this that 99% of the time I also use a drill press when I use a Forstner. A few times I've used them freehand, for drilling plug holes I think. However, getting them started without the bit skating around on the surface, especially the larger sizes, can be quite tricky. That jig is just another weapon in the arsenal to get jobs done. If someone needed to make a very accurate hole in a location where a drill press is impractical then they now have the idea for a quick and cost free jig that will get the job done for them.