MLCS 9241H 2-3/4-Inch Diameter High Quality Steel Forstner Bit with Hex Shank

I've bought other MLCS products that were well made and worked well. This is not one of those.First, the sharpening was really badly done. It looked like they used about an 80-100 grit grinder, which is not nearly fine enough for the radial cutting edges. Even worse, when they cut the sawteeth around the edges, they didn't cut enough. Instead of each tooth coming to a sharp point where it would cut into the wood, it had about a 1/16" flat spot. This meant there was no relief for the cutting point.The test cut I made was extremely slow, and created massive amounts of sawdust. Not good. After I spent about 45 minutes with diamond stones to properly sharpen the bit, it did a little better. Still too much sawdust, it dulled rapidly, and cut very slowly. In fact, the last of the eight holes I drilled in 3/4" Baltic birch took almost 3 minutes, at the highest feed rate I could use while still maintaining full RPM on the drill.If you're only cutting a few holes, won't ever need the bit after that, and are willing and able to sharpen the bit, then this will work. If you're cutting a lot of holes, I'd go with something better.

This is a large bit so requires a larger drill press to use safely. I found it caused my large drill press to stall fairly easily, which is not a problem with the bit, but rather just a usage/safety observation. Go slow!The cutting edges of the bit seemed like they could have been honed a bit better, but, frankly, I'm stretching to find this as a fault as most similar bits are the same. Overall, this is a good bit. No wobble. No burning. Decent cut quality. Did what it was designed to do.

It got dull pretty quickly. Only got 4 holes done and bit is done. Granted I was working with hard wood.

I use this to create a indent for my wood turning chuck to grip. For my purposes it would be nice if it had a shorter shaft but that is not an issue. I can cut recesses in any type of wood using a powerful hand drill. Now it is easy to set up a rough piece of wood to fit my chuck on the lathe.

This forstner bit does exactly what it is supposed to do - drill clean accurate 2 3/4" holes - If you need to do that (I use it to make feeder holes in honey bee hives to fit mason jar lids) then this is what you want. Many other models do not have the hex shank like this one does. If you are a woodworker I don't have to tell you why this is important. If you aren't a woodworker then why are you reading this?Shipped quick, good service, well packed - what more can you ask?

I bought this bit for small project, only needed to drill 4 holes, worked good on the first one, then became very dull and I did manage to drill other three holes with some effort. I knew from the price it would not be a high quality bit, but I hoped it would drill 4 holes before resharpening.

I had to adapt to this but works well.

Works great uses it to drill out 4x4 legs on coffe table to insert wheels. I used a hand drill be careful for kick backs