In this review
Every contractor I know keeps a mixed box of drill bits somewhere. Mine lived in a shoebox under the workbench for three years, and it became the place bits went to die. Dull ones, mystery sizes, snapped 1/16 bits that I kept meaning to pitch. Pilot holes started with five minutes of rummaging and a prayer.
I sorted through the shoebox last fall during a garage rebuild. Counted fourteen useable bits across three brands, six dull, four snapped, and one I could not identify. That was the trigger for buying three proper sets and deciding once what belonged in the drill bag for a homeowner who does real work but does not run production.
These three kits cover ninety percent of what a homeowner hits. Wood pilots for deck screws. Soft metal for shelf brackets and conduit. The occasional stainless bolt or hardened fastener that laughs at HSS. I tested all three across a garage utility rack build, a bathroom vanity swap, and about a week of small repair jobs spread over the winter. Each one earns a spot in the shop, but for different reasons.
DeWalt DWA1184 14-Piece Titanium Set (Best Overall Daily Driver)
DEWALT DWA1184 14-Piece Titanium Drill Bit Set
Fourteen-piece HSS set with 135-degree split-point tips, 3-flats shanks on bits larger than 3/16 inch, and a black-and-gold industrial oxide coating. Cheap enough to forgive a lost bit, sharp enough to handle most of a weekend.
This is the set I grab without thinking. The black-gold oxide HSS runs cooler than the flash-coated bits you get at a hardware-store checkout, and the 135-degree split point bites on the first turn with no center punch needed for anything reasonable. Most jobs that hit my shop are wood, drywall, or light sheet metal, and the DWA1184 was built for exactly that tier.
Pilot-drilling for deck screws through treated 2x6, the 1/8-inch bit cut clean chips for about sixty holes before I felt it start to dull. On 11-gauge steel angle with a shot of cutting oil, same story. It will not drill stainless, and it will not survive a rebuild where you need the same bit for an hour straight. For an afternoon of mixed work in mixed material, though, it stays out of your way.
The 3-Flats shank is the sleeper feature. Chuck jaws grab the three ground flats instead of a smooth cylinder, so the bit stops slipping under load. I noticed it first on a cabinet install, driving 1/4-inch holes for concealed hinge cups. My old round-shank set would slip in the chuck about one hole in six, and every slip cost twenty seconds and a re-clamp. The DWA1184 never slipped through the whole kitchen. Small thing. Adds up across a day.
Rating breakdown
Full breakdown in my standalone DWA1184 review.
DeWalt DW1361 21-Piece Titanium Pilot Point Set (For Size Coverage)
DEWALT DW1361 21-Piece Titanium Pilot Point Drill Bit Set
Twenty-one-piece TiN-coated HSS set running 1/16 to 1/2 inch with doubles of the five smallest sizes. Pilot Point tips on the eight largest bits. Hard-shell case that actually latches.
The DW1361 is what you buy if you have already owned a 14-piece and know you want the fractional sizes the smaller set skips. Seven-thirty-seconds, fifteen-sixty-fourths, the in-between pilot sizes for wood screws larger than #14. A full run from 1/16 to 1/2 inch with doubles of the five smallest bits, which matters the first time you snap a 1/16 in a knot and realize you are now out.
The marketing on this set leans hard on the Pilot Point name. The photo does not tell you that only the eight largest bits have the Pilot Point self-starting tip. Everything 5/32 and smaller is a standard 118-degree grind on a round shank. For me it did not matter much because the small bits live in pilot-hole duty where you already have a punch mark or a scribe line. But if you buy thinking every bit has the fancy tip, you will feel conned. The fine print is accurate. The product photo is misleading.
What surprised me was the case. Thick plastic, a latch that actually latches, and a bit-bar rack where each drill snaps firmly into its slot. You can flip it upside down and nothing shifts. That is rare at this tier. I have owned twice-as-expensive sets with cases that cracked in the truck bed by the second job. This one has been beaten around in a tool bag for six months and still closes tight.
Rating breakdown
Full breakdown in my DW1361 review.
Irwin Hanson Cobalt M-35 29-Piece Set (Upgrade for Hard Steel)
Irwin Hanson Cobalt M-35 29-Piece Drill Bit Set
Cobalt M-35 HSS set from 1/16 to 1/2 inch. Cobalt alloyed into the steel itself, not a surface coating. Holds its edge on hardened steel and stainless, and shrugs off the high-abrasion work that burns up a TiN-coated bit.
This is the set I reach for when the DeWalts would smoke. Cobalt M-35 is not the same animal as titanium-coated HSS. Cobalt is alloyed into the steel itself, not sprayed on, which means the edge stays hard at the kind of temperatures that turn a regular HSS bit blue in thirty seconds.
I drilled out a snapped grade-8 bolt on a trailer hitch last spring, the exact job that killed a 1/4-inch DeWalt bit from my daily-driver set. The Irwin cobalt went through it in about four minutes of slow pressure with cutting oil. Bit came out warm but not blued. Edge still cut clean afterward. I have used it for stainless pan heads that stripped out, drilling through angle iron for a gate-latch rebuild, and for the high-abrasion jobs that TiN-coated sets are not built for.
The trade-off is cost and care. This set runs two to three times the price of the DWA1184, and you still need to feed it slower speeds and cutting fluid or you will blue it. It is overkill if you mostly drill wood and drywall. Buy it if you do a decent amount of metalwork, or if you have ever walked away from a job because the bit would not cut. Skip it if your last twenty projects were all in softwood and pilot holes.
Rating breakdown
I have not written a standalone review of this set yet. It is next on the bench.
How They Separate
All three are honest tools. None of them pretend to be something they are not, once you read past the box art. The difference is what kind of work you are pointing them at.
The DWA1184 14-piece is for the homeowner who drills wood all the time and soft metal once in a while. It is the set that lives in the drill bag. Cheap enough to forgive a lost bit, sharp out of the box, and the longevity holds up for weekend-project volumes.
The DW1361 21-piece is the same DeWalt engineering tier, but wider. If you are starting from zero and want one kit that covers the fractional gaps the 14-piece skips, this is the one. If you already own the 14-piece and some singles, the DW1361 adds less than its price tag suggests.
The Irwin Hanson cobalt set is for the tier the TiN coatings cannot handle. It is not a daily-driver replacement. It is a second drawer in the shop for when the DeWalts would quit.
Who Should Buy What
If you are a new homeowner building a first real tool kit, buy the DeWalt DWA1184 14-piece. Spend the thirty dollars, throw three spare 1/16 bits in the case, and get on with the year of projects ahead of you.
If you know you are going to be drilling a lot of different fractional sizes, or you want one kit to cover shelf-mount pilots and small hinge screws both, buy the DeWalt DW1361 21-piece. Just know going in that only the bigger bits get the Pilot Point treatment.
If you have ever given up on a stripped stainless bolt, a snapped hardened fastener, or a drilling-out job that killed a regular HSS bit, keep the Irwin Hanson Cobalt 29-piece in a separate case in the shop. It is the set you reach for when the DeWalts would quit.
One last note. None of these replaces a masonry bit for concrete or brick, and none of them is rated for use in an impact driver. Drill drivers only, and match the bit set to the job. Buying the right kit and using the wrong one is its own kind of waste.
For more handyman coverage, see my DIY reviews.
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