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Hey Dakkas,

I'm looking to replace my pin vice drill bits and wanted to know where I should go looking.

I've broken some, worn some out and basically lost the rest, and not being able to drill barrel holes or pin stuff is driving me nuts!

I live in Canada, but if anyone knows what types of stores sell these that would be great.

I was thinking hardware stores, but what section do they end up in?

I think it's Privateer Press that makes pinning sets that inclue drill bits and brass rod that fits them. They offer them in different sizes.

Other than those, I use bits from Dremel and random ones from a hobby shop.

Oh yeah, I forgot I picked up a Dremel Stylus a while ago (still in the box how lazy am I?)

I'll give that a shot when I get home.

Thanks!

I get my replacement bits off of eBay from China or Hong Kong. I end up getting about 20 bits for around $10. For the pins I just use a piece of paperclip.

I usually buy 1mm bits but the hole is just a bit big for a standard paperclip, this last time I ordered some .8mm bits and will see how they do.

Any halfway decent hardware store should carry sizes small enough to be useful for modeling. I generally recommend buying multiples of a few regularly used sizes instead of getting variety packs - nobody needs .03mm steps between their available sizes, but when you've got 1mm rod and your 1mm bit snaps, shaving down to .8 or globbing glue into 1.2 are a pain. I can't count how many 1/16" bits I've gone through in my lifetime, but 9/10 of my #60-80 set has gone untouched while a handful (well, they're really tiny, so it's not a handful, per se) are either well worn or already died in the line of duty.

I totally agree with oadie.

I bought a big variety pack and half the bits are either not used or else they snap easily.

The most useful size is the standard 1mm. Paperclips leave a slight flange when snipped and the rest of the "windage" is easily filled with epoxy.

Larger drills can be useful if you use 2mm + size plastic rod.

Drill bits are easily found on the Internet and do not cost much to post.

I get mine off ebay there are plenty of people selling them and the postage isnt extortionate.

Don't Canadians have things like hardware stores and the like? Nearly all of them sell very tiny drill bits as well as the larger ones.

Breotan wrote:Don't Canadians have things like hardware stores and the like? Nearly all of them sell very tiny drill bits as well as the larger ones.

We do, but I wasn't sure if it was a hardware store kinda thing.

I've found a few sellers on Ebay so should be good to go.

@ Oadie, good point I definitely use 1mm the most