I received my new 5-piece Freud Round Over bit set on friday and two of the bits, 3/8 and 3/4, were loose in the neato little box that they came in. There are scuffs on the inside of the top of the box above each of those two bits and their respective sleeves are looser than the others. I checked the edges and there is a chip (not just a nick) out of one of the edges on each of them. I called Amazon and they were very kind and helpful and offered to send out another set and give me a $10 gift cert as well. BUT....because of their 30% off all Freud sale that they are having right now, they are out of stock on these (as well as lots of their other Freud stock). Shipment will happen sometime in April.
Well, I need a new 3/8" round over bit right now so I went to HD to get one and the only brand of router bits that they carry now are Porter Cable. With the rather thin amount of carbide on the edges of the PC router bits, can someone please explain why HD wants to charge between $25 and $35 for each bit? Is PC making their bits out of some super secret metal that doesn't need to be very thick and lasts forever?
Would it be appropriate to PM Charles M to see if there is another solution?
Thanks for your advice.