Choosing Forstner Bits....

I just got (today) fine woodworking’s 2010 Tool guide. They tested 8 fordtner bits and listed Famag as the best overall and Grizzly the best value.

I hope this helps
Rob

-- Whether You Think You Can or You Think You Can't, YOU ARE RIGHT!!!

I purchased the Grizzly forstner set based on the FWW Tool Guide. So far they have been a great buy. They cut clean, flat holes in everything I’ve thrown at them (MDF, oak, maple, birch, mahogany). Haven’t used all of them all that much, so time will tell if they will hold their edge. But for the price, $26.95 for a set of 16 bits, you can’t beat them.
http://www.grizzly.com/products/h6334

Thank you guys. That FWW review sounds like the pay dirt.

I went off and did some digging based on that and found that as usual there’s more to Forster bits than the claims of the volume sellers. (‘ours’ is always the best – no matter what the price)

The Famag application chart here http://www.famag.com/en/anwenden.htm (there is a full catalogue for all their stuff elsewhere on the site) suggests that they do at least 4 levels of Forstner bit: (1) a Super “Classic’ model they suggest is best for softwood only, (2) a Super ‘Profi’ model for softwood and some hardwood use, (3) a Bormax ‘Premium’ model for soft and hardwoods, and (4) a carbide tipped Bormax Premium for use on abrasive materials in production applications.

FWW list Woodcraft as a Famag supplier, but interestingly enough they sell the Bormax type http://www.woodcraft.com/Family/2001917/BORMAX-Forstner-Style-Bits.aspx as well as what are probably the Super Classic i.e down a quality/cost level or two http://www.woodcraft.com/Product/2000778/3365/Quality-Forstner-Bit-Set--16-Piece.aspx

I can’t quite confirm which quality of Famag Forstner was tested by FWW, but it looks like it was the basic Classic judging by the price they quote. Which begs a few questions, because if you take on board Famag’s recommendation and are working hardwood it seems you do need the Bormax at around $25 a pop, vs the Supers at more like $12 each.

If my experience is anything to go by theres layers below even this in the form of eastern stuff that much of the time is so poorly made it hardly works.

I guess as usual it’s a pays your money deal, but it opens up yet again the issue of failure to communicate tool quality and fitness for application about the stuff sold to us hobbyists and smaller end professionals.

There’s stuff that’s almost unusable, there’s stuff that’s OK for hobby/not too demanding professional use, there’s professional stuff and then high end professional/special application (e.g. production applications). The high end stuff often doesn’t come up in the mags at all, but the rest seems to be very rarely categorised by testers and reviewers. Which is a pain in the a** – it takes so much digging to figure out that when they say ‘it’s good’ the words ‘for the price’ always seem to be in brackets afterwards but not mentioned, with no clarity on the level of quality the reviewer has in mind…

-- Late awakener....

Grizzlies work for me

-- W James Brokenbourgh Custom furniture maker http://artisticwoodstudio.com/

I also have grizzly forstner bits, They have worked well for me.

-- It must be jelly baby, cause jam don't shake like that...

My Rockler set works great for me.
I have this set and bought same for my son.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=16954 Watch for them on sale I didn’t pay near the current price.

-- Only the Shadow knows....................

Thanks again guys, that sounds like real world approval of both the Grizzly and Rockler items. It’d be hard to pay $25 a piece for something else at that rate. The grizzly set got a good review in FWW too, although for some reason they didn’t test the Rocklers…

-- Late awakener....