For drilling jobs that require drilling through concrete or other stone surfaces, it’s important to use a drill bit that’s strong and sharp enough to bore through especially hard, dense material. Read on to learn about materials, bit type, drill compatibility, and other crucial factors to consider when choosing a masonry drill bit.

Cylindrical sleeve, typically made from high-grade tool steel, inserted into a jig fixture to guide cutting tools. There are three main types: renewable, used in liners that in turn are installed in the jig; press-fit, installed directly in the jig for short production runs; and liner (or master), installed permanently in a jig to receive renewable bushing.

While there are many different aluminum alloys with unique machinability characteristics, Frazier said the most widely drilled aluminum alloys are 6061 and 7075, adding that there are pockets of aerospace and medical work that use specialty alloys exclusively.

Grooves and spaces in the body of a tool that permit chip removal from, and cutting-fluid application to, the point of cut.

Included angle at the point of a twist drill or similar tool; for general-purpose tools, the point angle is typically 118°.

Masonry drill bits come in several variations, including rotary percussion, double flute, and saw drill bits. All bit types use large carbide tips that can penetrate stone. Some bits have spear-shaped tips that allow for precision drilling, while others feature a crown-shaped tip that can efficiently grind through masonry.

Because aluminum is considered by many to be cheap and easy to work with, it’s easy to fall into the trap of thinking any machining setup will work. However, some of the “easiest” materials to machine end up yielding the lowest profit margins at the end of the job, according to Tungaloy’s Frazier.

1. Permanently damaging a metal by heating to cause either incipient melting or intergranular oxidation. 2. In grinding, getting the workpiece hot enough to cause discoloration or to change the microstructure by tempering or hardening.

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“Thermal-friction drilling is a process that involves generating heat through friction and pressure,” said Mitch Ray, president of Flowdrill. “We create what we refer to as a bushing in thin-walled material, which extends approximately three to four times the original wall thickness.”

Added to titanium-carbide tooling to permit machining of hard metals at high speeds. Also used as a tool coating. See coated tools.

This kit includes eight bits, ranging from 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch in diameter. The bits have SDS-plus shanks, so the user will need a rotary hammer drill to use them.

“Unlike our other bits, it doesn’t require our special lubricant; it can operate with standard machine coolant,” Ray said. “It also countersinks a chamfer into the material, which makes it the only one of our bits that generates a chip.”

Masonry drill bits need to be hard enough to endure the rigors of drilling through concrete. With that in mind, most masonry drill bits have steel shafts with a cutting tip made of tungsten carbide, which is much harder than steel and can grind through stone without dulling quickly. Some drill bits use diamond particles, which are welded to the cutting edge to chew through hard surfaces such as marble and granite.

Drilling through masonry can be tough, requiring special drill bits for concrete that will hold up to the job. We recently tested seven different types of concrete drill bits in various sizes—using them to drill holes in concrete, brick, and stone.

Ability of a material to be bent, formed or stretched without rupturing. Measured by elongation or reduction of area in a tensile test or by other means.

Liquid used to improve workpiece machinability, enhance tool life, flush out chips and machining debris, and cool the workpiece and tool. Three basic types are: straight oils; soluble oils, which emulsify in water; and synthetic fluids, which are water-based chemical solutions having no oil. See coolant; semisynthetic cutting fluid; soluble-oil cutting fluid; synthetic cutting fluid.

When drilling, perhaps no variable is as important as the workpiece material. It dictates drill geometry and substrate, tool coating, coolant application, and speeds and feeds.

This set from Owl Tools includes 10 drill bits at an affordable price point. With its broad range of sizes, this set can handle most concrete drilling needs; bit sizes range from 1/8 inch to 1/2 inch in diameter, and we found them all to be durable and of good quality.

If you have additional questions about how to drill into concrete or choosing a drill bit for concrete or a drill bit for brick, you’ll find answers here.

A durable hard-plastic carrying case keeps the bits organized and easy to transport to the worksite. It was one of the better cases we saw, as it held the bits securely and came with a sliding lock. This is an all-around great little set of drill bits for anyone who regularly needs to drill into concrete or other masonry materials.

The main difference between drilling aluminum and harder materials, noted Jason Hout, global DHM (deep hole machining) product and application specialist for Sandvik Coromant Co., Fair Lawn, N.J., is that the shear point of aluminum is low enough that it can be sliced by the tool’s cutting edge, as opposed to being pushed out  of the way when machining harder materials. This means an upright, high shear angle with a minimal edge hone is ideal for drilling aluminum.

Evan Jones Thorne, who served as associate editor of Cutting Tool Engineering magazine through February 2017, holds a bachelor’s degree in English and communications from Northern Illinois University. Evan joined Cutting Tool Engineering in October 2013.

Drilling involves generating chips. It’s just a given—after all, the material that’s removed has to go somewhere, right? But while a process that doesn’t generate chips might not sound like drilling to some, St. Louis-based thermal-friction-drilling specialist Flowdrill Inc. offers an alternative to traditional drilling.

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Hardness is a measure of the resistance of a material to surface indentation or abrasion. There is no absolute scale for hardness. In order to express hardness quantitatively, each type of test has its own scale, which defines hardness. Indentation hardness obtained through static methods is measured by Brinell, Rockwell, Vickers and Knoop tests. Hardness without indentation is measured by a dynamic method, known as the Scleroscope test.

Using a straight-flute, through-coolant drill is advantageous if maintaining hole size, finish and hole roundness is the goal. Image courtesy Tungaloy.

Start by drilling a small guide hole at a low-speed setting for very hard concrete. Once you’ve established a 1/8-inch hole, remove the bit, blow the dust out of the hole, and use a larger bit at medium speed while applying steady pressure. It’s also a good idea to wear hearing protection—concrete drilling can be loud.

This is the second set of Bosch drill bits to make our lineup, and we found these bits highly efficient. Their four-flute design excelled at ejecting dust and debris as we drilled, which made the drilling process smooth and quick. Their pointed tips kept the bits centered as we started the holes. We were able to drill clean holes in concrete, brick, and even dense stone without problems.

Each bit has a wide spiral flute that bores evenly through stone, concrete, and brick. These bits will easily handle tough concrete-drilling jobs, but you’ll want to use a good drill for concrete—and it will need to be a rotary hammer drill with a minimum 7/8-inch chuck. We drilled several holes in quick succession, and the Makita bits performed flawlessly.

The bits feature SDS-plus shanks, and users will need a hammer drill to use them. The set comes with seven bits, ranging in size from 3/16 inch to 1/2 inch in diameter, making this a highly versatile set of masonry bits.

Proper chip evacuation involves proper application of coolant, and drilling aluminum is no exception. Pecking is always an option, but many part manufacturers like to avoid withdrawing the drill when possible, which means polished flutes and through-coolant drills are the order of the day.

Angle of inclination between the face of the cutting tool and the workpiece. If the face of the tool lies in a plane through the axis of the workpiece, the tool is said to have a neutral, or zero, rake. If the inclination of the tool face makes the cutting edge more acute than when the rake angle is zero, the rake is positive. If the inclination of the tool face makes the cutting edge less acute or more blunt than when the rake angle is zero, the rake is negative.

Running at high cutting speeds while resisting the temptation to overfeed and applying a coolant with high lubricity and moderate-to-low viscosity is the best way to ensure a fine surface finish, Hout said. “You want the oil to move fast.”

This set comes with five bits, ranging in size from 3/16 inch to 1/2 inch. An included plastic bit case provides convenient storage.

Frazier added built-up edge to the list of primary challenges when drilling aluminum alloys. The aluminum will build up and adhere to the cutting edge and interfere with the formation of new chips from the parent material, which can lead to chip packing, as flutes become clogged. This leads to deposits of aluminum adhering to the drill, promoting even further adhesion and chip packing.

This bushing adds more thread to the hole and gives the customer an alternative to current fastener methods like weld nuts or threaded inserts. Once the bushing is created, a form tap can create threads, or a self-threading screw can be inserted to complete the job. There are no chips created in either case.

Some drill bits have coatings to improve their performance. Black oxide coatings are more durable than high-speed steel, as they resist rust and corrosion. Tungsten carbide coatings enhance the drill bit’s strength, enabling it to bore through stone and concrete.

With carbide tips and a fluted design that bores through masonry, these Bosch Bulldog drill bits are some of the best on the market. Their four-flute design brought concrete dust up and out of the holes as we drilled, making the process smooth and quick.

Self-guided drill for producing deep holes with good accuracy and fine surface finish. Has coolant passages that deliver coolant to the tool/workpiece interface at high pressure.

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In addition to drilling through masonry, we tried out this set of bits on dimensional lumber and 8-gauge sheet metal. They were slightly slower on masonry than some of the dedicated bits we tried, but they still did the job. They excelled as drill bits for metal as long as we drilled nice and slow. It’s not every day you can pick up a set of good metal drill bits and use them to drill a hole in brick or concrete, but it’s possible with the EZArc bits.

A durable hard-plastic storage case keeps the bits organized and protected when in a tool box or on the workbench. Thanks to the visual holes in the holder that show the exact size hole each bit will drill, we found it easy to pick the correct-size bit at a glance. If you regularly drill into any type of masonry, you won’t go wrong with this set.

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While North Americans know it as “aluminum,” most English-speaking countries use the suffix “-ium.” The Canadian Oxford Dictionary lists the spelling as “aluminum,” while the Australian Macquarie Dictionary prefers “aluminium.” The reason?

We liked the pointed tips on this set of bits as they kept the bit from skittering across the material when we started drilling, which made the process much easier. If you need to drill different size holes in masonry, these Bosch Bulldog bits are just the ticket.

“Chips tend to ‘string out’ because of the softness of the material,” Lynch explained. “The primary way to get around that is through geometry.” AMEC offers an aluminum-specific geometry for its TA product line, which has a high rake angle that effectively forms a chip in gummier, 6061-type materials, he said. A higher rake creates more shear in the cut and forces the material into the impact site on the tool.

“The threshold for aluminum is something like 60,000 sfm, which is enormously fast,” he said. “I’ve seen aluminum run at 24,000 sfm with an uncoated carbide insert, and it didn’t harm the aluminum or the insert. I tell our customers that, within a safe working environment, don’t be afraid to crank it up because I’ve seen that higher speeds in aluminum gets you both better tool life and a better surface finish.”

“If more shops are able to do the work on ‘easy’ materials, there is more competition for those same jobs, inevitably driving down the price of cutting aluminum,” he said. “In this sense, it is important to maximize your speed and efficiency when working with these materials, using updated tooling and advanced concepts, in order to stay competitive.”

Glenda Taylor is a product tester and writer specializing in the construction, remodeling, and real estate industries. She and her husband own a general contracting company, and Taylor is experienced in both residential and commercial building applications. She tests a wide range of power tools as well as other home improvement, household, and lawn-and-garden products.

“In 1926, the American Chemical Society officially decided to use aluminum in its publications; American dictionaries typically label the spelling aluminium as ‘chiefly British,’” explained Tungaloy America Inc.’s Elliott Frazier. “The earliest citation given in the Oxford English Dictionary for any word used as a name for this element is alumium, which British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy employed in 1808 for the metal he was trying to isolate electrolytically from the mineral alumina.

“We had a customer who needed to drill 3,000 holes in a plate of aluminum, and if they broke a drill machining one hole, the whole part was scrap,” said John Lombardi, company president. “So they came to us with the problem, and we made a 0.156"-dia. drill with a ½" base about 3" long for the job.” R.I. Carbide used the ZETA coating on the drill, and by running that highly lubricious drill with through-coolant capability at high speeds, the customer was able to successfully complete the part on the first pass.

The SHDIATool core bit excelled in our tests. To extend its useful life, users can spray the surface of the material they’re drilling with water, which will help keep the bit cool and reduce friction. This is the bit to have for drilling larger holes in concrete.

Spending money on specialty concrete bits that see infrequent use may not be the most economical way of expanding one’s collection of drill bits. This EZArc multipurpose bit set offers an excellent alternative. The bits’ design and carbide tips make them suitable for drilling through tile, concrete, and stone plus metal, wood, and even plastic.

On a standard Flowdrill bit, a polygon is ground, consisting of four peaks and four valleys, each referred to as “lobes,” which are what generate the friction and cause the heat. The Aludrill eschews this geometry in favor of more contact with the metal, which creates enough friction in the softer aluminum to generate sufficient heat.

“Usually, coatings are not applied to drills in aluminum applications, as a majority of coatings contain aluminum," he said. Because the majority of coatings contain aluminum as one of their base constituent elements, Frazier said some manufacturers have begun utilizing a titanium-zirconium-nitride coating in aluminum applications. “But the conventional wisdom in this field is to utilize a sharp, high-polished, uncoated carbide drill.”

Before selecting the concrete drill bit sets we wanted to test, we researched more than 20 sets, looking for high-quality bits made from steel with carbide tips. We considered brand to an extent—after all, manufacturers like Bosch and Makita have top reputations for producing high-end power tools and accessories. Still, we didn’t automatically eliminate smaller or niche manufacturers if their masonry drill bit sets were highly rated by customers.

Sharpening drill bits manually with a file or bench grinder is a complicated process. You need a machine specially designed for drill-bit sharpening to do it yourself. It’s usually easier to buy new drill bits.

When purchasing and using a drill bit for masonry, there are several important guidelines to follow to ensure a successful outcome.

Masonry drill bits come in a variety of sizes to suit a broad range of needs. The smallest masonry bits are around 3/16 inch in diameter, with larger bits topping out at the 1/2-inch size. Hole saw bits have sizes that go up to 4 inches or more.

Tungaloy’s Frazier always recommends through-coolant. “Higher metal-removal rates require [applying] a lot of coolant, very quickly, to move the chips from the cutting zone, and mrr is typically very high in aluminum.” Flood coolant would require peck cycles, and minimum-quantity lubrication simply doesn’t have the displacement value when holemaking, especially drilling deep holes, he said. “The higher the flow, and higher the pressure, the better.”

One such manufacturer is R.I. Carbide, a tool grinder and machine shop in Smithfield, R.I., that offers its ZETA ZrN coating as an alternative to TiN when extra lubricity is needed.

When applying a carbide tool, it’s important that it doesn’t have an aluminum-based coating, because the aluminum will tend to stick to the workpiece surface, he added. Common coatings such as Al2O3 or AlTiN, when brought into contact with aluminum under heat and pressure, will not only react with the part, but have abrasive properties that can contribute to BUE. Instead, Hout recommends either titanium diboride or an amorphous diamond film.

We tried out a 1-inch hole bit, although these bits are available in several sizes to suit your specific needs from just under 3/4 inch to 4 inches in diameter. This is a diamond-coated drill bit; tiny diamond shards are laser welded to the tip, making it easy to drill through concrete and other types of masonry.

Thermal-friction drilling creates a hole and a bushing—but no chips—through the use of heat and pressure. Image courtesy Flowdrill.

In actual testing, we drilled through concrete, stone, and brick to see how well the drill bits fared. We used a standard DeWalt drill and a Milwaukee rotary hammer drill (depending on the individual drill bit shanks), and we drilled dozens of holes. We noted how well the bits performed and awarded points based on a rubric. After testing, we averaged the points to determine our best overall pick, and then we categorized the rest of the drill bits by their best usage.

The following drill bits are well suited for drilling into concrete and other masonry materials. They withstood rigorous hands-on testing, and each set of bits performed well enough to make our list. You’ll find different sizes and types that fit different drills. There’s sure to be one for your concrete-drilling project.

The Owl Tools bits have standard smooth shanks to fit a regular drill. We didn’t notice any of the bits slipping as we applied pressure while drilling, as some smooth-shank bits tend to do.

Substances having metallic properties and being composed of two or more chemical elements of which at least one is a metal.

Masonry drill bits are specifically designed to tackle stone and can bore through these hard surfaces with ease. Often featuring tungsten carbide tips that can endure drilling through hard stone surfaces, masonry drill bits have wide flutes that allow them to pull away large amounts of material as they drill to prevent debris from jamming the bit. Some bits even use diamond-encrusted blades to cut through this material. They come in a wide range of sizes to suit different needs.

Fluid that reduces temperature buildup at the tool/workpiece interface during machining. Normally takes the form of a liquid such as soluble or chemical mixtures (semisynthetic, synthetic) but can be pressurized air or other gas. Because of water’s ability to absorb great quantities of heat, it is widely used as a coolant and vehicle for various cutting compounds, with the water-to-compound ratio varying with the machining task. See cutting fluid; semisynthetic cutting fluid; soluble-oil cutting fluid; synthetic cutting fluid.

“Aluminum is considered by many to be one of the easiest machining materials, but it does present its own unique challenges”—particularly when drilling, explained Elliott Frazier, a product manager at Tungaloy America Inc., Arlington Heights, Ill. “Aluminum is a generally soft, nonferrous, ductile material with low density and naturally high resistance to corrosion. Aluminum is difficult to drill because its ductility and softness causes the material to make constant prolonged contact with the rake face, or cutting edges, of a drill.”

However, a sharp edge is a weak edge, and many aluminum grades contain high levels of silica—a hard, glass-like particulate in the matrix of the aluminum that can rapidly break down a tool’s edge. “Wear [from silica] can sometimes be combatted with coatings or by switching from carbide to a superabrasive tool material like PCD,” Hout said.

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Sandvik Coromant’s Hout has observed at least one characteristic unique to aluminum when deep-hole drilling. “When using self-guided drills like gundrills, because of the plasticity of aluminum, the guide path pressure can impact the finish of the hole either positively or negatively, depending on the lubricity of the coolant,” he said. Neat cutting oil typically results in a smooth finish, while a synthetic, water-based fluid might allow some of the aluminum to stick to the guide path, creating a rough, “smeared” finish.

With extra-wide U-shaped flutes, these drill bits from WorkPro effectively ejected masonry dust as we drilled in concrete, brick, and stone. The bits have Luxembourg carbide tips that are made to be tough, hard, and durable, and they drilled quickly in our tests.

While there is no single chuck or drill head for concrete bits, many concrete bits have a slotted drive system (SDS), which means they have slots on the ends of the shanks for use in rotary hammer drills. SDS bits came out decades ago, and today, an improved version (SDS-plus) is standard on bits for hammer drills. You can still find smooth-shank bits for standard drills and hex-shank bits that will fit standard drills and impact drivers.

If those aren’t available, uncoated carbide with a polished surface provides more-than-adequate performance in most applications, Hout noted. “You want the flutes polished to help material slide out, and if there is a radius within the flute, you don’t want a square edge or a straight wall unless it’s unavoidable [such as when gundrilling].”

Our favorite, thanks to its four-flute design and carbide tips, is the five-piece Bosch Bulldog Carbide Set for use in hammer drills, which are often used as masonry drills.

When buying any type of drill bit, it’s important to consider its compatibility with the drill. Not all drill bits fit all drills. A 1/2-inch-size drill will fit drill bits with a shank up to 1/2 inch in diameter, while a 3/8-inch-size drill will only fit drill bits with shanks up to 3/8 inch in diameter.

Substance used for grinding, honing, lapping, superfinishing and polishing. Examples include garnet, emery, corundum, silicon carbide, cubic boron nitride and diamond in various grit sizes.

Frazier recommends a micrograin carbide with a hardness from 92 to 93 HRA for low-silicon alloys, but said some aluminum alloys used for forgings or castings contain more than 11 percent silicon and are best approached with drills tipped with PCD or diamond-like carbon.

1. Permanently damaging a metal by heating to cause either incipient melting or intergranular oxidation. 2. In grinding, getting the workpiece hot enough to cause discoloration or to change the microstructure by tempering or hardening.

Aluminum containing specified quantities of alloying elements added to obtain the necessary mechanical and physical properties. Aluminum alloys are divided into two categories: wrought compositions and casting compositions. Some compositions may contain up to 10 alloying elements, but only one or two are the main alloying elements, such as copper, manganese, silicon, magnesium, zinc or tin.

“Especially when you go to longer depths, the issue is always coolant flow for chip evacuation, and that’s not anything unique to aluminum,” noted AMEC’s Lynch. “We prefer not to peck, and I feel that if people have to do any pecking, it’s probably because they’re not forming a good chip. We’ve actually found that the type of cutting fluid is less important than the concentration—the higher the concentration, the better your results, generally speaking.”

The two main issues when drilling aluminum, explained Chad Lynch, field sales engineer for Allied Machine & Engineering Corp. (AMEC), Dover, Ohio, are chip formation and chip evacuation. “If you approach it without the proper tool geometry, without the proper coating, without the proper coolant, it can very quickly turn into a situation where long, stringy chips are wrapping themselves around the tool.”

Like higher-end bits, this set of Owl Tools bits comes with pointed tips to help keep the bit positioned when starting the hole. We tested the bits by drilling into brick, concrete, and stone, and they fared well. We felt they were just slightly slower than some of the other bits we tested, but drilling into masonry isn’t something to hurry along. We mainly wanted to see if they could withstand repeated drilling without breaking, and they did.

The guide path pressure of a gundrill can impact surface finish, depending on coolant lubricity, due to the inherent plasticity of aluminum. Image courtesy Sandvik Coromant.

Cylindrical tool that cuts internal threads and has flutes to remove chips and carry tapping fluid to the point of cut. Normally used on a drill press or tapping machine but also may be operated manually. See tapping.

“We’ve got some large applications for the Aludrill," Ray said. "Last year, it was used on the new Ford F150 pickup, making holes in the front aprons of those trucks. They use a self-tapping screw to attach the different wiring lines to the front of the trucks."

Glenda Taylor is a BobVila.com staff writer with a background in the residential remodeling, home building, and home improvement industries. She started writing for BobVila.com in 2016 and covers a range of topics, including construction methods, code compliance, tool use, and the latest news in the housing and real estate industries.

These are slotted drive shaft (SDS) bits, meaning they will fit SDS-plus hammer drills, so we used a cordless Milwaukee rotary hammer drill for testing. This set has five pieces, including a 3/16-inch, 3/8-inch, and 1/2-inch bit and two 2¼-inch bits of different lengths. The carbide tips are rugged, and we could easily drill through concrete, brick, and stone.

Cutting tool material consisting of natural or synthetic diamond crystals bonded together under high pressure at elevated temperatures. PCD is available as a tip brazed to a carbide insert carrier. Used for machining nonferrous alloys and nonmetallic materials at high cutting speeds.

For most standard bits, you don’t need to use water. However, if you’re using a large hole bit, spraying the surface of the concrete with water can reduce friction and help keep the bit cool as you drill.

Use of cutting fluids of only a minute amount—typically at a flow rate of 50 to 500 ml/hr.—which is about three to four orders of magnitude lower than the amount commonly used in flood cooling. The concept addresses the issues of environmental intrusiveness and occupational hazards associated with the airborne cutting fluid particles on factory shop floors. The minimization of cutting fluid also saves lubricant costs and the cleaning cycle time for workpieces, tooling and machines. Sometimes referred to as “near-dry lubrication” or “microlubrication.”

Every tool bit diameter has a certain set of parameters, Ray explained. For example, a ¼-20 thread size would require a tool to be run at 2,400 rpm in aluminum or mild steel, require 1.5 hp and have a cycle time of about 3 seconds per hole. The bit contacts the material, and the friction of that contact heats the material while the pressure behind the bit pushes through the material and forms the bushing. There is no external heat source, and Flowdrill bits can be used on any standard CNC machine without any special adapters.

You can drill as soon as the concrete is completely hardened, but pros often wait a couple of days to ensure the concrete is ready. Unlike needing to wait before painting or applying a sealer, you don’t have to wait 28 days to drill.

Microprocessor-based controller dedicated to a machine tool that permits the creation or modification of parts. Programmed numerical control activates the machine’s servos and spindle drives and controls the various machining operations. See DNC, direct numerical control; NC, numerical control.

Repeated drilling through dense concrete and stone puts drill bits to the test, often wearing them down quickly. While these drill bits from Makita are more expensive than some masonry drill bit sets, in our tests, their thick tungsten carbide tips held up well for drilling several holes.

Most masonry drill bits are used in hammer drills or standard drills, but not all. The SHDIATool core bit is designed for use with an angle grinder, and we were impressed at how well it drilled.

“Generally, drills with a high helix angle, polished flutes and 130° to 140° point angle will provide the best chip evacuation and cutting performance,” Frazier said. “However, since aluminum is so soft, drilling operations using the aforementioned geometry tend to present difficulties in maintaining proper hole diameter and sidewall surface finish. If maintaining hole size, finish and hole roundness are the goals, using a straight-flute, through-coolant drill is advantageous.”

To cover all bases, we tested bits that fit standard drills and impact drivers, as well as rotary hammer drills. We also tested a hole bit that fits a grinder. Ahead, learn which factors to consider when shopping for a cement drill bit, and find out how the following products earned a spot in our lineup of the best drill bits for concrete.

In addition to carbide tips, the EZArc bits have multigrind sharp edges and double-flute design, which make them well suited for drilling in various materials. A hex shank adds even more versatility—these bits are compatible with standard drills and impact drivers. The kit includes five bits: 5/32 inch, 3/16 inch, 1/4 inch, 5/16 inch, and 3/8 inch.

How high can those cutting speeds be? According to Hout, modern machinery has not yet advanced to the point where the surface speed ceiling for aluminum can be hit.