Drilling Through Metal

[zippypinhead]

Check out some decent automotive parts stores or body shop supply stores. They should have something like these cheap for pilot holes:
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/atd-9204.html
When they quit drilling, turn 'em around... when the quit again, toss 'em out. Not even worth the time to sharpen 'em.

[Shadow Catcher]

You are drilling through mild steel probably a 1018 (the 18 being the points of carbon) so nothing fancy is necessary. Use a a punch to make a dimple in the steel so the drill bit goes where you want it to (they tend to skate) and a common high speed drill bit will work fine. You can achieve the same result as nitride coating with using paraffin/wax as ageless suggests or oil.
As they say Drill baby Drill, hmmm note. they don't seem to be saying that much currently