Build the Right Drill Range Around the Work You Actually Do

A drill case earns its bench space when the sizes inside match the work coming through the door. Sutton drill sets cover a broad mix of drilling requirements for Australian workshops, fabricators, maintenance teams, installers & trades, with options spanning general-purpose HSS jobber drills, cobalt sets, coated ranges, stainless-focused drills, step drills, hex-shank bits & mixed-material kits. Instead of buying on piece count alone, compare the workpiece material, drill construction, diameter range, shank type & machine you'll actually use.

Different Sutton ranges solve different drilling problems. A general workshop set may need everyday metric coverage, while stainless fabrication can justify a more specialised drill construction & an impact-driver user may need a 1/4" hex-shank system. Start with  Drill Bit Sets to explore the wider set category, or head to  Drills when the driving machine also needs to match the drilling work.

What Are Sutton Drill Sets?

Think of a drill set as a working range of cutting tools rather than a box of progressively larger bits. The useful part isn't simply how many pieces are included; it's having the right drill technology & diameter progression available when the next hole needs to be made.

Across Sutton's range, buyers can encounter general-purpose HSS jobber drills, cobalt HSS drills for more demanding metals, specialised coated cutters, step drills for sheet material, masonry drills & hex-shank drills developed for compatible impact drivers. Metric & imperial assortments are also available across relevant families.

That variety means Sutton drill bit sets aren't interchangeable simply because the cases contain similar diameter ranges. Two 19-piece sets can have very different cutting materials, point geometry, finishes & intended applications.

A better comparison starts with five questions:

► What material are you drilling most often?
► Which diameters do you regularly use?
► What drill or driver will run the bits?
► Is this an everyday set or a specialised production set?
► Which sizes are most likely to need replacing?

Answer those first & piece count starts becoming useful information rather than the main buying decision.

Why Choose Sutton Drill Sets?

The real advantage of a well-selected set shows up between jobs. Instead of hunting for individual drill sizes whenever the drawing, repair or installation changes, the required diameter is already organised with the rest of the range.

Sutton also gives buyers several distinct drill families rather than forcing every application into one general-purpose design. That matters because drilling mild steel on a maintenance bench isn't the same cutting problem as repetitive stainless work, opening sheet metal with a step drill or using a hex-shank bit in an impact driver.

General Workshop Drilling

Everyday metalwork often calls for a practical spread of jobber drill sizes. Sutton ranges such as XP Bullet & other HSS jobber sets provide metric & imperial configurations for buyers who need broad size coverage rather than a highly specialised cutter for one material.

Harder Metals & Stainless Applications

More demanding materials can shift the decision towards cobalt or purpose-developed drill families.

Sutton's Heavy Duty Cobalt jobber drills use 5% cobalt HSS, a thick core & split-point geometry on relevant sizes, with Sutton positioning the range for harder materials including hard steel, stainless steel, cast iron & bronze.

INOX takes a different approach again. Sutton developed that family specifically around stainless-steel drilling, so buyers doing regular stainless work have a more application-focused option than simply selecting whichever HSS set has the most pieces.

Coated Drill Options

Coating isn't one universal Sutton feature.

Viper Plus, TiNite & other coated ranges use different technologies & should be compared by the individual product family rather than grouped together as though every coloured drill offers the same construction.

That's worth remembering when comparing  Drill Accessories around an existing workshop setup: the application should decide the drill technology, not appearance alone.

Impact-Driver Drilling

Sometimes the machine changes the buying decision before the material does.

Sutton Supabit drill sets use a 1/4" hex shank for compatible impact drivers, with cobalt HSS construction & a 135° split point. That's a very different setup from a conventional parallel-shank jobber set held in a drill chuck.

For trades already working heavily from an impact platform,  Impact Drivers is therefore a more relevant equipment relationship than treating every Sutton set as drill-chuck tooling.

Common Applications

Fabrication & Metalworking

Hole preparation sits at the start of plenty of fabrication work, from brackets & frames to guards, plates & fabricated assemblies. A useful drill set gives the bench a practical spread of diameters without relying on loose individual bits scattered across drawers.

Material still leads the decision. General steel, stainless, aluminium & harder alloys can place different demands on the cutting edge, which is why the Sutton family matters as much as the size range.

Workshop Maintenance & Repairs

Maintenance teams rarely know which diameter they'll need before the breakdown lands on the bench. A broad metric or imperial drill assortment gives technicians options for replacement parts, mounting holes, modifications & general repair work without building every job around a single loose drill.

The most frequently used sizes usually reveal themselves fairly quickly. Keep an eye on them because those are often the first positions in the case that need individual replacement.

Thread Preparation

Drilling can be the first operation rather than the finished result.

Where a hole is being prepared for an internal thread, drill diameter needs to match the intended tap rather than the nominal thread diameter.  Tap & Die Sets become the logical next stage when drilling is part of a threading workflow.

Sheet Metal & Installation Work

Sheet material can change the type of drill that makes sense. Sutton's step-drill sets, for example, use fixed drilling steps & are intended for suitable sheet metal, aluminium, plastic & fibreglass applications.

That makes them a different buying decision from a conventional jobber set, particularly where one cutter needs to produce several predetermined hole diameters.

Masonry & Mixed-Material Jobs

Not every Sutton drill set belongs at the metal bench.

Sutton also offers combination sets pairing masonry bits with Viper HSS drills, giving trades a compact option where installations move between masonry & suitable metal, timber or plastic materials.

A set like that should be bought because the job crosses material types, not because “combination” sounds more versatile.

Product Selection Guide – Choose the Set From the Workpiece Back

The best Sutton drill set isn't automatically the largest, most expensive or most specialised case. A better choice starts with the material you drill most often & works backwards through drill construction, diameter coverage & machine compatibility.

Start With the Main Material

Steel dominates the workload? Stainless keeps appearing? Mostly aluminium? Mixed workshop repairs? Sheet metal? Masonry?

Put the most common material at the top of the decision.

A general-purpose set can be an excellent workshop choice when the work is varied, while regular hard-metal or stainless drilling can justify moving into a more specialised family.

Decide Between Metric & Imperial

This sounds obvious until the workshop regularly sees both.

Metric sets are practical where drawings, fasteners & components are predominantly metric. Imperial ranges remain useful around older machinery, imported equipment, legacy components & work specified in fractional sizes.

If both standards regularly land on the bench, trying to make one set impersonate the other creates unnecessary compromises.

Look at the Diameter Progression

Piece count only becomes meaningful once you know the sizes behind it.

For example, Sutton currently offers relevant metric jobber sets with ranges such as 1–10mm in 0.5mm rises & 1–13mm in 0.5mm rises, while other compact sets use different diameter combinations.

Ask yourself which is more useful: more sizes across a wider range or a smaller case containing exactly the diameters your work consumes.

Match Drill Construction to the Job

HSS, cobalt HSS, coated HSS & application-specific designs each have their place.

Sutton's Heavy Duty Cobalt range is built differently from Viper Plus. Viper Plus isn't the same as TiNite. INOX has its own stainless-focused geometry. Supabit changes the shank arrangement again.

Treat the range name as meaningful technical information rather than branding printed on the case.

Check the Shank & Machine

Most jobber sets belong in a conventional compatible drill chuck, while Sutton's Supabit range uses a 1/4" hex shank suited to impact drivers.

Larger drill diameters can also bring chuck capacity into the decision.

Before ordering a set, know what's driving it.

Think About Replacement Sizes

The case doesn't become useless because one 5mm drill eventually wears out.

If your workshop repeatedly consumes a handful of diameters, check whether those drills can be replenished individually. Maintaining a good set can be more economical & organised than replacing the complete case whenever a favourite size reaches the end of its useful life.

Separate Everyday Sets From Specialist Sets

One case doesn't need to do everything.

A general workshop set can cover everyday drilling while a dedicated cobalt, INOX, step-drill or impact-compatible set handles the work it was designed for.

That approach also makes tool selection easier for anyone else reaching into the cabinet.

Quick Drill Set Comparison

The table is a starting point rather than a substitute for the individual product specification. Sutton uses different geometries, materials & features across these families, so compare the exact set before committing it to a particular application.

Expert Tips for Getting More Value From a Drill Set

Open the case before ordering the replacement. A faded label can hide useful information, but the remaining drills often reveal the diameter range, missing sizes & whether you're replacing a metric or imperial set.

Let the workpiece choose the drill family. Repeated stainless drilling deserves a different conversation from occasional mild-steel holes. Buying around the hardest job you might encounter once a year can leave you with an unnecessarily specialised everyday set.

Watch which slots are always empty. The missing drill sizes tell you what the workshop actually consumes. Keep replacements for those diameters close rather than waiting for the case to become incomplete.

Don't mix look-alike drills blindly. Different Sutton families can use different materials, coatings & point designs. Returning the wrong loose drill to the wrong case makes future tool selection harder.

Check the finished hole where accuracy matters. Drill diameter is only one influence on the result. Machine condition, runout, setup, drill wear & workholding can all affect the finished opening.

Use the correct tapping drill when threads come next. The nominal thread size isn't the hole size you drill first. Confirm the tapping-drill requirement for the intended thread.

Store the cutting edges like cutting tools. A drill case is there to organise & protect the set. Throwing loose bits into a drawer works against both jobs.

Replace damaged drills rather than completing the set cosmetically. A case with every slot filled isn't useful if one of those drills is chipped, overheated or no longer cuts properly.

For anyone building their first serious kit rather than replacing an established workshop set, The Apprentice's First Tool Kit: What You Actually Need takes a practical look at choosing tools around real work.