Drilling technique to preserve those bits

[Captain Slower]

I want to knock off a few of the 1/48's in the stash.  I have a couple of packs of #80 bits coming to me.  The challenge is keeping from breaking bits or worse, leaving a piece of a bit in the wing.

Any suggestions for clean drilling?

[gbrivio]

Unfortunately, drill bits are machine tool accessories and when hand driven tend to bend and break easily and the better their quality, more easily they break    A drill press is a good solution, but bending is not the only issue: plastic shavings get stuck in the process of drilling (also tend to melt at high speed) twisting the tool and again leading to breaks, so low speed, frequent extraction and cleaning from plastic the drill bit are good preventive measure (also when using a pin vice). Last but worthy, in my opinion: try with cheap, low quality bits: they are flexible and not hardened, it's difficult to start drilling and keeping straight, you can't drill metals, but they don't break easily.
I hope this can be useful, good luck. Ciao.
Giuseppe

[macsporran]

After years of using pin vices for micro drills, I recently bought a cheap USB rechargeable lightweight drill from eBay and cannot sing its praises highly enough.
Unlike my big unwieldy Dremels, this is hardly thicker than a finger and as easy and light to apply as a pencil. Even the smallest bits can be gently touched accurately where needed without applying any sideways pressure to snap the bit.
At just over a tenner, it works for me.
Sandy

[bobs_buckles]

I bought the Tamiya drill bits 0.2 0.3 0.4 and 0.5.
I've not had one of them break and they remain sharp.

Yes, they don't come cheap, but they do just work!

vB