Drill bit shank The name comes from the German "Stecken – Drehen – Sichern" (Insert – Twist – Secure). In German-speaking countries the back-formation "Spannen durch System" (Clamping System) is used, though Bosch uses "Special Direct System" for international purposes. The triangle shank is almost always made by machining three flats on round bar stock. It is intended as a minor modification of a straight shank, still allowing it to be held in a 3-jaw drill chuck, but allowing higher torque transmission and limited slipping. The Morse taper twist drill bits pictured right are used in metalworking. The full range of tapers is
Drill bit sizes Drill bit sizes Drill bits are the cutting tools of drilling machines. They can be made in any size to order, but standards organizations have defined sets of sizes that are produced routinely by drill bit manufacturers and stocked by distributors. In the U.S., fractional inch and gauge drill bit sizes are in common use. In nearly all other countries, metric drill bit sizes are most common, and all others are anachronisms or are reserved for dealing with designs from the US. The British Standards on replacing gauge size drill bits with metric sizes in the UK was first published