Irwin has the Technology Get The Drill Independent Review by Peter Brett
Drill bits are much underrated by people who don’t need to use them every day. This is probably the reason why many DIYers have a plastic gift case full of semi-used bits that don’t work very well. For professionals who need to drill accurate holes quickly, many times a day, good quality, long lasting drill bits are essential and definitely worth paying for. IRWIN has therefore developed a good range of bits that should meet the demands of many professional trades – from kitchen fitters to site chippies to shopfitters. After using some of these bits myself in the review, I found that most of them have a place in the workshop too. The range of IRWIN bits is wide, covering bits for wood, steel, tiles and masonry, but this review will concentrate only a few choice examples to try to find out just what they can do. The Blue Groove 6x range is intended to drill holes up to 32mm diameter in wood. Likely users would be plumbers (pipe fitting) electricians (cable laying through joists etc) and kitchen fitters. Starting with the shanks. They are a standard 6mm hex shape so will fit into most quick change collets and many cordless drivers that don’t have standard chucks. Even fitted into a standard drill chuck, the hex shape eliminates any torque twist that could happen on a standard cylindrical shank. Unlike old-fashioned double-fluted bits, the Blue Groove 6x has three flutes, each with a sharp outer edge to the flute that slices the periphery of the hole and keeps the bit accurately on track.
At the tip is a sharply pointed screw thread that pulls the bit through the timber as it turns, making the cut accurate and fast. Well, did all that technology work? Using my most powerful 18v cordless drill I tried drilling some 32mm holes in 50mm thick softwood. Allowing for the fact that users should be aware of the amount of torque they are going to
subject their wrists to, they cut spectacularly quickly and left a good clean hole. It made me think that perhaps my old NiCad drill needs updating to a Li-Ion version that could deliver more power in order to take full advantage of the bits. Looking very similar and also with the Blue Groove name, is the Blue Groove Power Range. But the difference in purpose and performance is great. Advertised as having a 50 times greater life than standard flat bits, the Blue Groove Power uses bi-metal technology. Irwin has some track record in using bi-metal technology in its craft knife blades, and if you examine the tips of the bits you will see that there is a subtle join where the high speed steel section of the tip is welded to the carbon steel body. The use of HSS means that this bit can cut through embedded nails and screws without damage to the cutting edges, but the carbon steel provise a measure of flexibility that means that the bit will not simply break. In recognition of the tougher job that these bits face each hex shank is graduated to the size of the bit – only the 14 and 16mm bits will fit a standard hex chuck. The other bits will have to be used in standard drill chucks – but then they may be facing some demanding rasks. I did deliberately cut through some embedded nails just to prove that the bits are unharmed by it, and indeed they were. I guess they shouldn’t be doing it all day, everyday though, because even HSS has its limits.
The Blue Groove 4x are essentially a flat bit, but with quite a few redesigned features. Again the longer hex shank that will fit chucks and collets is a plus feature, but the real improvement is in the design of the cutting edge itself. With pointed outer spurs and a parabolic cutting edge, the bit doesn’t just scrape the wood, it actually cuts. This means that speed of cutting is vastly improved and the quality of the hole is smoother and more accurate. Many trades prefer the spade-type bit because it
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