Storing Drill bits

Picked up a 54" tool chest for cheap. Looking to fill it using Schaller bin to organize reamer/bits/tools/etc that I do not use to much off.

I've never actually though of this. If I lay the bins so they face north/south I can get 12 bins. If I rotate the bins so drills face left to right, I can get 18 in. As silly as it may sound, storing drills to where they can roll against one another is bad idea? Yes, no? I would think edgings hitting one another as you open and close the draw would be bad. Open to any other options.


Also in need of good 135 degree jobber length set for alum/steel. Who do you use?

I don't like the idea of drills (or other tools such as reamers) rolling around together; I shudder at the boxes of used drills seen at flea markets.

My solution for larger drills is to put them in toothbrush cases (cheap at dollar-shops); I write the drill size on the case with a felt pen. The cases take up more space in a drawer than a bare drill but not too much more and the drills are protected.

Djstorm100 said:

Picked up a 54" tool chest for cheap. Looking to fill it using Schaller bin to organize reamer/bits/tools/etc that I do not use to much off.

I've never actually though of this. If I lay the bins so they face north/south I can get 12 bins. If I rotate the bins so drills face left to right, I can get 18 in. As silly as it may sound, storing drills to where they can roll against one another is bad idea? Yes, no? I would think edgings hitting one another as you open and close the draw would be bad. Open to any other options.


Also in need of good 135 degree jobber length set for alum/steel. Who do you use?

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Some armchairman will point out what happens in a tumble deburr with drills and grit media, but it should not harm much unless your storage is mounted atop a rockcrusher. Ribbed carper runner cuts can abate the rolling a tad. Or you could just use vee-groove material.

I actually bought the full Huot pull-drawer set from another PM member, have the "speciality" drills in indexes or pouches. Only the long bellhangers and such get laid sidegodlin. That's on ignorant fuzzy side of those 5 dollah recycled tire cord doormats. Lots of stuff - endmills etc - I just use vee- grooved board or bamboo cutlery trays from the cheapshit store.
Shallers are plastic last time I looked. I prefer deep drawn steel. Mini bread-loaf pans in 3-packs, same store. Noisier? BFD. I'm deaf.

All I REALLY care about is to be able to out my hand onto the drill I need without need of a search-warrant nor helicopter scouts with night-vision, directional mikes, and MAD or such.

I've never worried about drills laid parallel to one another. They are end cutting tools, not side cutting, so are different from endmills in that way. I have a lot of drill multiples in Schaller bins, and also bunches of mixed-size center drills and other smaller specialty drills.

I actually do the same thing with taps, one bin to a thread size. The smaller taps don't have the mass to damage one another, and the larger ones aren't going to move much especially if they have to fit diagonal cattywumpus in a bin. I do make a slight effort to match shanks with teeth of adjacent larger taps, but that's as much to fit more in a bin than concern about mutual damage.

All of my Morse taper shank drills are laid flat without partitions or protective tubes. They're oriented parallel to drawer motion, and laid on a cheap no-slip liner, so they don't move any significant amount.

I store mine on top of a maple bench top, in the lathe tray, on the mill table, in my cordless drill chuck, on the floor, and occasionally in the Huot drill cabinet. I find they come out of the cabinet a lot easier than they go in.

good touch/bad touch? (my uncle said it was just going to be a fishing trip......)

the cutting part of the drill is relatively hidden until you expose it. no need to separate the fucking drills.
ever buy a package of drills? greenfield? nachi? cheapshit chenco? all come in a flat paper envelope .the
margins are rounded off , so they can touch all they want . i usually leave the common sizes on the lathe board or the manual mill's bench.
the toolbox by the cnc has a cluttered drill drawer w/ the same. otherwise i have a 128 drill index . that, i keep stocked so i can grab something
unusual " hmm.. i need a size V drill for this hole..." otherwise i have small boxes with hundreds of loose drills each .
'


reamers- i keep them in three different boxes- s-m-l , like 0-1/4, 1/4-1/2, 1/2-bigger . most come in their own tube anyway. if not...just separate the
business end w/ wax paper . i would never consider bothering with a reamer index- waste of my time and money.
i have maybe a hundred reamers....don't need a case that holds a dozen or a hundred. last few times i pulled
one out it was metric or + or - size anyway.
i'll grab a reamer maybe once a week.

taps- just keep them piled in those little drawers in parts organizer things . i probably have 50-60, 10-32
in the same drawer...1/4-28 maybe 30-40 . only time i really move them around is if i'm searching for something unusual (gh6)
never had any issues- most cut on the end anyway.

endmills- most are in little tubes, but if not i wrap in wax paper . definitely separated.

files- again- wax paper is a must . about 50-60- files (mostly nicholson/simonds/black diamond) get separated
w/ wax paper and cardboard. you can't buy them anymore......might as well be nice to them.

Look at a drill sometime. The cutting edges are no wider then the body, and usually the shank. Do you worry about setting it down flat on a workbench?
As long as they are parallel they will not cut into each other. They may theoretically rub*a Little off the entire length and thus some of the cutting lip but it will simply be polished not dulled.
Now throwing them all together at random the points could directly rub on other bodies and cause problems.(that sounds rude).
Bill D
Bill D.

It seems to me you may be over thinking the situation. In 30+ years I've never been in a commercial or home shop that took any special precautions when storing drill bits. Most shops use Huot or similar cabinets. Each partition holds up to a dozen or more bits. I've never seen one damaged from laying side by side with another. Unless you throw them at the cabinet from across the room or live where there are earth quakes on an hourly basis I doubt they will even rub against one another.

Keep in mind when you buy them they usually come in a package of 10 or more. They went from the manufacturer to the distributor, to the retailer, and finally to the shop storage cabinet without damage. I probably have 1,000 or more various size bits in a old printers cabinet. In all the years they've been there I've yet to pull out one that has shown any sign of damage.

Thanks guys, I'm just getting started. I'm honestly more of a hobbyist than anything.


I have the space to sperate my drills by their size for the time being. Currently they are stored like so. Turning the bins 90 degrees would cause the drills to roll in to one another as the drawer are open and closed. This is something never talked about. Business end of a drill is at the points, flutes are there to bring the material up and out of the hole.

Djstorm100 said:

Thanks guys, I'm just getting started. I'm honestly more of a hobbyist than anything.

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That's GREAT!!! You are NEEDED!

"Hobbyists" are where we get all the new ideas for neat "stuff".

Worker-bees never find the time to get what was wanted actually done!

I keep the drills that I use in standard sheet metal index boxes or wood/metal stands. That way I can select the size I need almost instantly. I have two of these stands on a shelf that is attached to the vertical post of my floor stand drill press and those get used the most. The index boxes are on a shelf but I have a new tool chest and I may store them there when I finish getting it set up. There is virtually no danger of the drills bumping into each other in these.

The various index boxes are marked with the type of drills in it: 118 deg, 135 deg, brad point, sharpened for brass, screw machine length, bullet point, etc. so I can find what I want quickly.

For new stock drills, I generally keep them in the OEM's boxes or envelopes or tubes. That seems to provide a sufficient level of protection.

I can see where this may not work well in a high volume production environment where bits need to be replaced often but I think it could be adopted to it. Perhaps make a drill stand for one or just a few sizes of drills but with positions for a bunch of each. You could even have different stands for different jobs that repeat.

If you need a better way for storing new stock, then it seems to me that there are professional cabinets with drawers that have compartments with barrel shaped bottoms so the drills will congregate in the center and not move around much. This also would make it easier to pick up a small drill that may drift to the corner in a square bottom bin. The last small bit will always be in the center of a barrel shaped bin and therefore easy to grab.

Djstorm100 said:

Thanks guys, I'm just getting started. I'm honestly more of a hobbyist than anything.


I have the space to sperate my drills by their size for the time being. Currently they are stored like so. Turning the bins 90 degrees would cause the drills to roll in to one another as the drawer are open and closed. This is something never talked about. Business end of a drill is at the points, flutes are there to bring the material up and out of the hole.

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WTF is with the gloves?????

moonlight machine said:

WTF is with the gloves?????

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I have bad eczema and coolant just makes it worst. Cool? Cool


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Djstorm100 said:

I have bad eczema and coolant just makes it worst. Cool? Cool

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"Cool" even if you don't YET have skin problems and just don't care to start. Lots of stuff benefits from gloves.

Operating the moving machinery, NOT. Even ones you THINK are so thin they would safely rip may not do so at all. Bunch up into a strong ropelike structure and take bits right off the ends of the arm-bones they CAN do.

Otherwise? So long as one religiously DOES take them OFF for that? Why not have the benefit elsewhere?

Painting or prep, cleaning stuff, scraping with real Stuart's Micrometer or classical Dykem rather that artificial piss are examples.

If you have the urge to pick nose or scratch ass? Just shed glove, reglove later. Twice might be good, that "second op"!

thermite said:

"Cool" even if you don't YET have skin problems and just don't care to start. Lots of stuff benefits from gloves.

Operating the moving machinery, NOT. Even ones you THINK are so thin they would safely rip may not do so at all. Bunch up into a strong ropelike structure and take bits right off the ends of the arm-bones they CAN do.

Otherwise? So long as one religiously DOES take them OFF for that? Why not have the benefit elsewhere?

Painting or prep, cleaning stuff, scraping with real Stuart's Micrometer or classical Dykem rather that artificial piss are examples.

If you have the urge to pick nose or scratch ass? Just shed glove, reglove later. Twice might be good, that "second op"!

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I have it, not had or maybe will have. I have serve eczema. I've had it since I was 5. Would get it on hands, feet, inside nose, elbows, knees. Cracking and bleeding is the normal with in 24 hours of the bubbling surface starting. I'm not trying to sound like a dick or a pink pussy hat wearer. I do get and understand what you are saying and appreciate it. Yes, I go through a lot of gloves.

Djstorm100 said:

I have it, not had or maybe will have. I have serve eczema. I've had it since I was 5. Would get it on hands, feet, inside nose, elbows, knees. Cracking and bleeding is the normal with in 24 hours of the bubbling surface starting. I'm not trying to sound like a dick or a pink pussy hat wearer. I do get and understand what you are saying and appreciate it. Yes, I go through a lot of gloves.

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I was running a Manufacturing operation that had a packaging department for imports we didn't make ourselves. Founder and Chairman on a spot visit went all micro-manage'ey and directed that some Eyetalian gold bracelets MUST be handled with "kid gloves". And made it VERY clear he MEANT "kid gloves", not a figure of speech!

He pops back in later that day, and there sits one of my lead munchins.. wearing a drop-dead LOVELY pair of Ladies..kid gloves. For-real.

Walter was BEAMING! And then I said "now.. Mr. B.? those were over a $115 for one pair. What I have over here on the rest of the line are electronics industry lint-free disposables I can buy for a few bucks per box of 100."

He looks, feels, gets an even BIGGER grin, sez "Bill.. that's kid!"

I've had bulk-pack disposables of one kind or several around ever since. The only DOWN side is when you tear one or otherwise get solvent or acid or caustic run down INSIDE of them!

Clear Plastic Tubing and Clear Plastic Containers for Packaging and Mailing by Cleartec Packaging

^^ these guys are pretty good. I use their tubes and caps for product packaging. If you're looking for a fairly inexpensive way to protect or organize your tool cab it's a good option.

Djstorm100 said:

I've never actually though of this. If I lay the bins so they face north/south I can get 12 bins. If I rotate the bins so drills face left to right, I can get 18 in. As silly as it may sound, storing drills to where they can roll against one another is bad idea? Yes, no? I would think edgings hitting one another as you open and close the draw would be bad. Open to any other options.

Click to expand...

I use ribbed floor mat with orientation north/south. Bits don't tend to move much but I was never that concerned about it. My good drill bits are in there storage cases, either the individual plastic cases or the metal folding cases for the sets. The drill bits that are not in a case are just don't cares. So I guess you are right, it does sound silly unless...

You want to reduce the noise when you slide out the drawer so that you don't get a constant reminder of how many drill bits you have.

thermite said:

I was running a Manufacturing operation that had a packaging department for imports we didn't make ourselves. Founder and Chairman on a spot visit went all micro-manage'ey and directed that some Eyetalian gold bracelets MUST be handled with "kid gloves". And made it VERY clear he MEANT "kid gloves", not a figure of speech!

He pops back in later that day, and there sits one of my lead munchins.. wearing a drop-dead LOVELY pair of Ladies..kid gloves. For-real.

Walter was BEAMING! And then I said "now.. Mr. B.? those were over a $115 for one pair. What I have over here on the rest of the line are electronics industry lint-free disposables I can buy for a few bucks per box of 100."

He looks, feels, gets an even BIGGER grin, sez "Bill.. that's kid!"

I've had bulk-pack disposables of one kind or several around ever since. The only DOWN side is when you tear one or otherwise get solvent or acid or caustic run down INSIDE of them!

Click to expand...

I don't care who you are, that's some funny shit right there! hahaha!!

gsg9.ca said:

Clear Plastic Tubing and Clear Plastic Containers for Packaging and Mailing by Cleartec Packaging

^^ these guys are pretty good. I use their tubes and caps for product packaging. If you're looking for a fairly inexpensive way to protect or organize your tool cab it's a good option.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that. I have a few upcoming products what will benefit from that link.

Do you agree that the drils rolling around hitting one another on the lands will is not a issue? Just thinking out loud that if a burr was to happen, would think this is extreme case, could make the whole out of round.

But then again, if this was the case I wouldn't be using a drill for a hole that was a) tight tolerance or b) need to be perfectly round. Would be using something like boring bar or reamer for that. Duh!

rons said:

I use ribbed floor mat with orientation north/south. Bits don't tend to move much but I was never that concerned about it. My good drill bits are in there storage cases, either the individual plastic cases or the metal folding cases for the sets. The drill bits that are not in a case are just don't cares. So I guess you are right, it does sound silly unless...

You want to reduce the noise when you slide out the drawer so that you don't get a constant reminder of how many drill bits you have.

Click to expand...

haha. I need to order jobber length metric and sae set. Again, I'm a hobbyist taking night classes. Try to soak up as much as I can.

for well made drill bits that seem to last a good long time, I like these nitro "black and gold" bits from drillco. They are carried by my local nut and bolt supplier. A full number/letter set is about $350, but IMHO well worth it. easy enough to get individual replacements from them for a very good price, and made in the USA. After getting these at work a while back, it was a nice step up from the mystery chicom bits that the guy I worked with was fond of supplying for us.