Tooling
Drilling consumables available to order online — Carbotec bits and core lifters supplied direct from our UK operation. These are the fast-moving items crews reorder between programmes, held in the UK so a worn bit or a spent lifter does not cost you rig time.
What is in stock
- Carbotec Bits — drilling bits for rotary and core drilling work.
- Core Lifter — grips the core so it breaks cleanly and stays in the barrel on the way up.
Why core lifters are worth stocking deep
A core lifter is among the cheapest items on a drilling job and one of the most expensive to be short of. Its only task is to grip the core as the barrel is lifted, so the core breaks at the bottom of the run and travels up inside the barrel rather than sliding back into the hole. When a lifter is worn, deformed or polished from a previous run, it may not bite — and the first you know is an empty barrel at surface.
The arithmetic is straightforward. Set against rig time, crew time and the cost of running the interval again, a lifter is negligible. Treat them as per-run consumables, carry more than the programme suggests you need, and change them rather than reusing one that looks marginal.
Knowing when to change a bit
The signal is usually penetration rate. When progress falls away and does not recover with sensible adjustments to weight and rotation, the bit is the likely cause. Visible wear on the cutting structure confirms it.
Crews often run a bit longer than they should because pulling the string feels like lost time. In practice a worn bit costs more — slower progress across the whole remaining run, higher loads through the string and the rig, and a real risk of having to trip anyway at a worse moment. Changing at surface when you have the opportunity is nearly always the cheaper decision.
Matching tooling to the job
Bit selection is driven by the formation, not by preference. Abrasiveness and hardness set the cutting structure you need, interbedded ground is a different problem from consistent ground, and the rig and flushing medium both constrain the choice. Connection type and hole diameter then have to match the string you are actually running — something worth confirming rather than assuming on a mixed fleet.
If you send us the rig model, the hole diameter and a description of the formation, we will confirm the specification before you order rather than after a bit arrives that will not make up.
Beyond the online range
What is listed here is fast-moving stock for direct reordering. For the wider tooling range see Tooling, and for the rigs this tooling runs on see Conventional Rotary Rigs, Sonic Rigs, Mineral Exploration and Conventional Foundation Rigs. For a programme of any scale, or for items not shown online, get in touch with the specification and we will quote.
Drilling tooling FAQs
Ordering and support
Consumables listed here are supplied direct from our UK operation, alongside UK-based service and technical support for Eijkelkamp and Fraste equipment. Tell us the rig, the hole size and the ground, and we will confirm the right tooling before you order.