Professional installers, locksmiths and home improvers have been using our drill bits for drilling the hardest of metals.

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Have a small project where I need to mill a flat on some steel bar stock. I've seen the Carbide 3d Material Monday youtube video where they mill some mild and 303 stainless on a shapeoko 3. They chose a 4 flute 3/32 AlTin coated corner radius end mill.

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Cobalt drill bits are drill bits which contain a percentage of cobalt. The two most commom percentages are 5% (also known as M35 ) and 8% (known as M42 )

However if you are drilling in a very controlled fashion using a pedestal drill with variable speed controls and you are drilling a very difficult metal 8% may be a better option. However even under controlled drilling you will have the increased chance of breaking the bit.

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The more cobalt a drill bit contains the harder the metal you will be able to drill however, the increase in cobalt has a downside in that it makes the drill bit more brittle.

TTP HARD  drill bits are 5% cobalt throughout. This means they can be sharpened and will drill through hard metals including stainless steel.

I'm looking at two 1/8" AlTin coated, corner radius end mills. Only difference is that one is 2 flute and other is 4. For my shapeoko which has a makita router, would the 2 flute end mill be better? The low end of the RPM range on the router is fairly high. My thinking is that I might have issues feeding it fast enough to keep a decent chip load on a 4 flute end mill. The 2 flute would basically make up for my high spindle rpm. I know that people love single flute mills for aluminum but I'm wondering if there's anything special about steel where the "less flutes = better on a hobby cnc" wouldn't apply.

If you are using a hand drill then 5% cobalt bits are probably the best drill bits for you as they will certainly drill most hard metals you will encounter including stainless steel.

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If you are drilling metal, particularly harder metals such as stainless steel you will probably be advised to use M35 bits.

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