If you are new to drilling, you may be completely unsure of which drill bits to even have. You walk into a hardware store and see an aisle filled with them, but you don’t know where to start. There are two main things you need to keep in mind when choosing which drill bits to purchase: optionality and material.
Let’s start with that first topic. Rarely, if ever, is someone going to buy one singular drill bit. They come in a variety of packs of different sizes. If you want to stay in the Ryobi line to match your new Ryobi drill, the company offers many different packs of drills, ranging from three-piece sets to 300. If you’re looking at sets with under 10 drill bits, these tend to be for more specialty purposes, like wood spades. Something like a 25-piece set is a decent starting point that gives you quite a bit of versatility with fairly common measurements to not overwhelm you.
Then there’s material. Drill bits are generally made from steel, but there are a variety of coatings that the bits can come in that affect durability and strength. For your average drilling, the common black oxide coating bits are perfectly fine, but if you are drilling through a lot of wood or even metal, opting for a titanium-coated drill bit may be of interest to you. There are also diamond-coated and carbide-tipped bits, but once you’re at that point, you need to be pretty experienced with a drill.
