A Budget Drill Bit Set Beat 13 Pricier Kits on Steel

Drill bit sets get sold on piece count and steel type, cobalt versus high-speed steel, 14 pieces versus 29, and the price spread is enormous: the cheapest set in one recent hands-on test cost $29, the most expensive cost $180, and that six-times price gap is supposed to buy you speed and durability that actually matters when you are drilling steel.

A test of fourteen drill bit sets settled the question with a genuinely brutal gauntlet: mild steel, spring steel, a repeat pass to measure wear, and finally AR500 armor plate, a torture test that only four of the fourteen sets even survived. The winner was a surprise, and it was not the most expensive set in the lineup.

What the testing showed

The numbers below come from Project Farm, who bought fourteen drill bit sets and ran them through mild steel drilling, spring steel drilling, a durability retest of both, and an AR500 armor plate test. You can watch the full breakdown on the drill bit set test. One overall winner and one runner-up were named clearly in the video.

A $36 set beat sets costing up to $180

COMOWARE, an M42 cobalt set priced at $36, was the overall winner with the best average finish of all fourteen sets, 1.6. It finished 2nd on the initial mild steel test (19.65 seconds) and 2nd again on the repeat pass, but its standout result was durability: only a 1 percent performance loss on the repeat spring steel test, the least of any bit tested, and it was one of only four sets to fully defeat the AR500 armor plate, doing so fastest of the four at 58.69 seconds. The narrator's own words: "the COMOWARE would definitely be my choice, and it's a terrific deal for M42 cobalt bits at less than $40."

The runner-up actually won more individual categories

Milwaukee, at $65 for 15 bits, finished 2nd overall but won the spring steel first-pass test outright (17.65 seconds) and posted the fastest mild-steel repeat time in the entire test (17.24 seconds, 19 percent faster than its own first pass). Its notable downside: the 15-piece set omits a half-inch twist drill bit, a size the cheaper COMOWARE set includes.

Price did not protect the most expensive set from finishing near the bottom on speed

Viking Drill and Tool, the most expensive set tested at $180, was the slowest of all fourteen sets on the initial mild steel test (32.85 seconds) and finished with an average finish of 5.4, solidly mid-pack. It was still one of only four sets to defeat the AR500 armor plate, and the narrator praised its durability despite the low speed ranking: "it's not nearly as fast as the COMOWARE or the Milwaukee, but it is a very good and durable set of drill bits."

Half the field could not finish the armor plate test at all

Ten of the fourteen sets tested failed to defeat the AR500 armor plate, including well-known names like Bosch, DeWalt's HSS set, and several house brands. Several of those same sets had performed competitively on the earlier mild steel and spring steel tests, which shows that early speed results do not reliably predict how a bit will hold up under the most extreme test in the lineup.

How to read this for your own purchase

Piece count and price are the two numbers most sets get sold on, and this test shows neither one reliably predicts performance.

If you drill steel regularly and want the best overall balance of speed and durability, the test's own numbers point to COMOWARE: it won on average finish, showed the least wear of any set, and defeated the armor plate fastest of the four sets that managed it, all at a below-average price.

If raw speed on lighter work matters most, Milwaukee's category wins on spring steel and its post-durability mild steel time make it a strong pick, with the tradeoff being a smaller bit selection.

If you need bits specifically for hardened or armor-grade steel, only four of fourteen sets defeated the AR500 plate at all in this test: COMOWARE, Milwaukee, Irwin, and Viking. Everything else in the field, regardless of price or brand name, failed that specific test.

It is also worth factoring in what a set actually includes beyond raw bit performance, since piece count and size range genuinely affect real-world usefulness. Milwaukee's omission of a half-inch twist bit from its 15-piece set is a real gap for anyone who regularly drills larger clearance holes, and it is the kind of detail that never shows up in a speed or durability chart but matters the moment you reach for a size the set does not include. Before comparing average finish scores across brands, check that a set actually covers the size range your projects call for; the fastest, most durable bit in the world is not useful if it is not the size you need in the moment.

A few universal rules the data supports:

• Cobalt content and piece count on the label do not guarantee performance. Several M35 and M42 cobalt sets in the test still failed to complete the armor plate test.
• A durability retest matters more than a first-pass time. Several sets that looked competitive on the first pass showed real wear and slowdown on the repeat test.
• The most expensive option is not automatically the best performer. The priciest set in this test finished mid-pack on average result.

Looking for more cutting tools tested the same hands-on way? Browse the rest of the blades, bits and abrasives tests for saw blades, sharpeners, and specialty bits.