Drilling Spot Welds, What do you use? Options

[obscurity]

I have been drilling spot welds as I work on my car and it occured to me that there may be a better way (or maybe I am being to picky). I am curious what everyone else uses.

I have been using a spot weld cutter. It looks like a short drill bit with a pilot point and little cutters along the edge. It will cut through the top layer or steel but not the back layer (usually). They will cut about 10 welds before being hoplessly dull. When I was buying them at $5/bit it was fine but that company went out of business and the ones I find now are $25/bit. Are these the right tools to use or should I be just using a drill bit allthe way through the weld.

Any help or tool suggestions would be appreciated. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Thanks,
John W.

[bkrantz]

I have noticed that with the Blair cutter, the 3 bits that came in the kit seemed to dull quickly, but the first replacement bit has stayed sharp after drilling many more spot welds.

[bbrock]

I have noticed that with the Blair cutter, the 3 bits that came in the kit seemed to dull quickly, but the first replacement bit has stayed sharp after drilling many more spot welds.

Hmm. That's interesting. My first set of Blair bits in the kit lasted a LONG time keeping the drill speed slow and liberally using a Blair lubrication stick. I did go through two sets over the course of my build but didn't notice any difference between the original set and replacements. In the long run, the Blair bits were quite a bit cheaper per spot weld than the HF bits.