and short of brass reproduction screws and a few plated ones I donвЂ™t know of any tapered wood screws you find these days. As said they were made for older style wood screws that are tapered. as far as I can tell, I bought a dewalt bit to replace my #6 Irwin.ДЄnyway I have tapered bits becasue thatвЂ™s what I found first.

And the dewalt by the way are just like the Irwin countersink sets. ItвЂ™s an interesting topic of straight vs taper. And these days I tend to use modern screws which arenвЂ™t tapered anyway. Sometimes IвЂ™ve had the hassle of having to drill twice, once for the shank and again for the threaded part of the screw so I could see the tapered bits being a time saver there, but I donвЂ™t do enough fine woodworking to justify the cost of one trick pony bits like that. I understand that tapered bits do have a theoretical advantage for classic style wood screws, but IвЂ™ve never encountered a situation where normal straight bits didnвЂ™t work for me. A tapered bit can only make holes for wood screws, and they are limited in terms where you can place the depth stop or countersink. And when you are using countersinks or depth stops on the bits you can position them anywhere along the bit that you like. They make holes which can accept pins or dowels. They make holes for bolts, self-threading screws, wood screws, or sheet metal screws.

Straight bits work for everything: wood, plastic, metal, etc.

Snappy also has a depth stop attachment that can aid in repeatability and consistency, something I occasionally have difficulty with when using drill bits or self-drilling screws with separate countersink вЂ“ I would think that the Snappy set would be a good option, and readers might have alternate or even better suggestions and recommendations. Some of you have expressed countersink preferences in the past, and so IвЂ™m wondering вЂ“ do you prefer straight or tapered countersinks? Do you prefer a particular brand? Why?ДЄs far as my own preferences, I have a couple of import bits that I use infrequently, and if I had a project coming up where I knew IвЂ™d need a good countersink drill, IвЂ™d get Snappy. Most if not all of the wood screws I tend to use have straight shanks and even threads, and so I have always assumed that tapered drill bits could cause problems when drilling deeper holes вЂ“ exactly the type of issue that Rich has been experiencing.Д«ut if straight countersink drills are better for modern wood screws (an assumption for now), why are there so many more tapered countersink drills on the market? Tapered countersink drilling accessories are said to be designed for use with traditional tapered wood screws. With this brand at least, it seems that if their countersinks are not described as tapered, it should be fair to assume the pilot drills are straight. Snappy also has tapered countersink drill bits.ДЄlthough SnappyвЂ™s other countersinks are not explicitly described as having straight drill bits, it seems to be a fair assumption based on appearances. Shown here are Dewalt countersink drill bits, and their pilot hole drill bits are obviously tapered. Shown above is a 5pc set of Snappy countersink drill bits, and it has always looked to me like they use straight drill bits for the pilot holes. So trying to figure out who is producing decent countersink pilot bits. If you drilled deep enough to achieve a proper countersink the pilot hole became too wide due to tapering in the drill bit. IвЂ™m wondering if you have any info on countersink pilot bits? I bought a pack of three sizes from Dewalt recently and found that the pilot bits did not properly match the countersinks.

Countersink drill bit