Drill bit shank Drill bit shank The shank is the end of a drill bit grasped by the chuck of a drill. The cutting edges of the drill bit contact the workpiece, and are connected via the shaft with the shank, which fits into the chuck. In many cases a general-purpose arrangement is used, such as a bit with cylindrical shaft and shank in a three-jaw chuck which grips a cylindrical shank tightly. Different shank and chuck combination can deliver improved performance, such as allowing higher torque, greater centering accuracy, or moving the bit, but not the chuck, with a hammer action. This
Drill bit sizes drill a hole deep, since it is 13 times the diameter in flute length. The term "jobber" refers to a wholesale distributor—a person or company that buys from manufacturers and sells to retailers. (It was especially widely used in the 1850-1950 period.) Manufacturers producing drill bits "for the trade" (as opposed to for specialized machining applications with particular length and design requirements) made ones of medium length suitable for a wide variety of jobs, because that was the type most desirable for general distribution. Thus, at the time that the name of jobber-length drill bits became common, it reflected the