Pleasantly surprised by these excellent performers
These are efficient and smooth-cutting - as a long-time user of spade/flat drillbits, I have been pleasantly surprised by the performance of these DeWalt extreme spade bits and will continue to use & buy them in future.
Please note that to get the best from these, you really need to use a drill with plenty of torque.
For example, a DeWalt DCD795 will drill with one of these spade bits (20mm) on high speed (23nm soft rating), will perform adequately in softwood, but struggles to perform properly with a larger diameter bit, unless switching the gearbox down to slow speed (60nm hard rating). Therefore, if you need to drill holes in excess of 20mm, at high speed, and/or in hardwood, you will need to seriously consider using a flagship combi (such as DeWalt's DCD995/6, or Makita, Hitachi, etc. equivalent flagship), or a mains-powered drill. Impact drivers are also a viable option, as these DeWalt spade bits have a 1/4" hex-shank. The only downside with using an impact driver for spade bits is that their 1/4" hex chucks do not hold the bit as tight & straight, during drilling, so there is more potential for the bit to stray during the cut.
Bosch's Speed-Cut spade bits are also good performers, but if you are trying to choose between those and these DeWalts, then I can tell you that the Bosch spade bits are excellent for drilling deep holes in end-grain timber, but can cause break-out when used to drill materials with delicate surfaces (veneered or melamine-faced chipboard, or plain MDF, or side-grain timber, to name a few examples). This is because the Bosch spade bits have an aggressive screwthread on their points, which draws the bit rapidly into the cut - great for making light work of challenging end-grain boring, but bad news when trying to avoid break-out in less robust materials or scenarios. It also demands even more torque, since it is trying to force a more rapid feed-rate, and thus cut&eject more material per second.
The DeWalts feed more smoothly, and with the feed-rate being determined largely by the operator rather than by an aggressive screw thread (the DeWalt spade bits have no tip-thread at all)
I own sets of both the Bosch spade bits and the DeWalt ones, and I like both, but I use the DeWalts for most tasks, only bringing out the Bosch bits when I need to drill into end-grain timber (which they excell at).
In summary, if you can afford only one set of spade bits, then the best all-round choice between DeWalt and Bosch would therefore be DeWalt.
Also note that there is room in the supplied case to add 4 more bit sizes, if you decide to purchase them individually (e.g. 10mm DT4762, 14mm DT4765, 35mm DT4776, 40mm DT4778).
Finally, anyone reading this who may also be seeking decent masonry drill bits, do try DeWalt's Extreme 2 masonry bits (be it the tri-shank for standard chucks, or the SDS plus shank, the cutting section remains identical). I'm not a DeWalt fanboy - I choose each tool and each accessory based upon it's quality and performance - this means that I have a wide variety of manufacturers in my tool kit. It just so happens, though, that the DeWalt 'Extreme' range includes some excellent spade bits and excellent masonry bits. The Extreme 2 masonry bits are stonking-good bits (I own tri-shank versions, and also 'full-head', AKA 4-cutter, SDS versions, and they all perform superbly, which is why I thoroughly recommend them to colleagues).Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
