Drill bit sharpeners

[Dempsey]

What is the best bit sharpener you guy's have found,as far as best results for being user friendly and easy to set up? Other than the Drill Doctor!

 

[bob15]

What is wrong the the Drill Doctor? It's user friendly (if you're not an idiot and can read directions) and easy to set-up.

What price range do you want to spend 2-3k?

 

[nine4gmc]

Either I'm an idiot, or I get readers block when it comes to instructions... I have better luck free handing it on a grinder wheel than I have had with my drill doc.

 

[crab]

Either I'm an idiot, or I get readers block when it comes to instructions... I have better luck free handing it on a grinder wheel than I have had with my drill doc.

It's a lot faster to.

 

[Dempsey]

There is nothing wrong with Drill Doctor! I just want to see what else is out there! So don't be an idiot and put something into the question that isn't there!

 

[PelicanPines]

I have never had an issue with my drill doctor. It's a 750 and has sharpened about 50 bits this year for me and dozens for my friends.

 

[GeorgeFromPa]

I also use the grinder... drill doctor dont seem to work well for me.

 

[Grewd]

I use a Viel belt sander with a drill bit sharpener. I get much better results than with my Drill Doctor. It will put back that factory finish on drill bits. It also does an amazing job on chisels.

 

[Doug Arthurs]

I have a Dr. Doc. It has plastic collets which I think I heard were recalled at some point. I could be wrong. I find it doesn't put enough back relief in so I use it to get the cutting lips sharp and equal and then put a touch more back relief in on the bench grinder.

 

[6PTsocket]

General Tool 825 is another way to go. There are also a lot of clones of it out there. Grizzly has one. It is a jig that mounts on your bench, next to your grinder and sharpens on the side, not the edge of the wheel. Of course, you have to take the guard off. It requires adjustments. I have had one for many years. It works. I don't know why some people have to be nasty and call people idiots for asking a question. There are different tools for the same job because what works for some does not work for others.

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[KnurledNut]

You wont appreciate the freehand method until you master it.
But when you do...

 

[Dempsey]

Thank you all for replying! I also have a Drill Doctor and am happy with it, I find also that it doesn't put enough back relief on the bit. I am no expert that's for sure! Freehanding seems out of the question for me right now, I don't have the eye or the feel for it, may be down the road. I am going to give the Grizzley a try, for the price it seems like the next reasonable step. I alway's keep my eye's open for one of the more pro models used or someone going out of business that I could afford.

 

[Aqua-Andy]

I use a Drill Doctor for bits up to 1/2 inch and free hand after that. I use the sharpener at least a dozen times a week, sometimes more depending what I am working on. I have a 500 I believe and you can set the back relief you want by the notch the collet locks into when setting up the bit.

 

[wayne55]

I have an older drill doctor 750 and the General Tool mentioned above and I have tried free handed sharpening.. I get the best results with the General Tool.

 

[Lassen Forge]

I had a drill doc, and then this old codger taught me the way of how to freehand sharpen bits, and how to get the results I wanted for the material I was cutting... I eventually sold off the Drill Doc as freehanding gave me way better results.

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Darex v390

 

[ricleh]

Darex XT-3000 AUTO

 

[marinusdees]

Darex v390

Drill Doc is made by Darex, they just don't want to put their name on it. I have an older Darex, M3, I think. Works very well if you spend the time to master it. Has been superceded. Darex makes some excellent sharpeners for industrial use. You have to be willing to pay the price.

 

[ajchien]

Thank you all for replying! I also have a Drill Doctor and am happy with it, I find also that it doesn't put enough back relief on the bit. I am no expert that's for sure! Freehanding seems out of the question for me right now, I don't have the eye or the feel for it, may be down the road. I am going to give the Grizzley a try, for the price it seems like the next reasonable step. I alway's keep my eye's open for one of the more pro models used or someone going out of business that I could afford.

Well, my suggesting for you would be to drill doctor and then freehand the back relief. Being off on the back relief isn't going to affect performance that much. And if you're worried about going too fast, try belt sanding rather than a grinder wheel.

I drill doctor my smaller bits. My biggest issue with free handing is trying to get the tip centered.

 

[Roberts210]

Lisle 91000. Just picked it up last night. It will sharpen 1/8th inch to 1&1/4" bits.

 

[Cruzan80]

I like my old B&D vertical one. Cheap enough that when it starts to wear out, I just find another for a few bucks, and "Viola!", new machine.

 

[larry_g]

Thank you all for replying! I also have a Drill Doctor and am happy with it, I find also that it doesn't put enough back relief on the bit. .

I've found that with my DD I have to give the drill bit a clockwise, as viewed from the shank end, bias when installing it in the collet. Try this, put a bit in as you usually do and sharpen it. Now reinstall the bit in the chuck with a bit of clockwise bias and then go through the sharpening routine but only hit the stone once or twice on each lip. Now take a look and see if you haven't marked the heel of the cutting edge. If you have then go ahead and sharpen the bit again and see if you don't have more relief.

lg
no neat sig line

 

[Jim Johnstone]

Drill Doc is made by Darex, they just don't want to put their name on it. I have an older Darex, M3, I think. Works very well if you spend the time to master it. Has been superceded. Darex makes some excellent sharpeners for industrial use. You have to be willing to pay the price.

Yeah I've got an old DD750 and have worked in shops with darex xt3000 sharpeners. Such nice machines and world's better than the drill dr. One day I'll get one for my own shop.

 

[bob15]

Thank you all for replying! I also have a Drill Doctor and am happy with it, I find also that it doesn't put enough back relief on the bit. I am no expert that's for sure! Freehanding seems out of the question for me right now, I don't have the eye or the feel for it, may be down the road. I am going to give the Grizzley a try, for the price it seems like the next reasonable step. I alway's keep my eye's open for one of the more pro models used or someone going out of business that I could afford.

Have you tried re-adjusting the drill bit chuck after your first couple passes? I have been using a DD750 since they first came out 20 or so years ago without any back relief issues. Could be in your set-up........

 

[seber]

It took around 50 bits and a call to Darex before I finally figured out how to make my Drill Doctor work. It can do just about any relief you want but the instructions that come with it are pretty worthless.

 

[WhiffySpark]

Free handing is great if you have someone to teach you. Most of us don't

 

[paulsomlo]

I use an SRD drill grinder. Easy to setup, will do split points, works well. I see them on ebay on a regular basis as well.

http://www.drill-grinder.com/storefront/scripts/prodview.asp?idproduct=17

 

[ttpete]

Free handing is great if you have someone to teach you. Most of us don't

I don't, and don't want to know. The problem with freehanding is that if the lips aren't both exactly the same length, the drill will cut an oversize hole. That's fine until you need the exact size for tapping or other critical considerations.

 

[dnschmidt]

I have a drill doctor and I've never been able to get it to produce the correct relief angle. Lucky for me I'm pretty good as sharpening drills on my belt sander which I find to work much better than a grinder.

 

[Teenager with old tools]

My bench grinder always worked fine for me


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[nes999]

With industrial supply house prices on drill bits so cheap I just toss em. I also find that their drill bits last alot longer than those from the home improvement store.

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[Dempsey]

Hi, Again I want to thank everyone for sharing there experience with me! I got a Grizzly drill grinding attachment and tried it out! It was a little confusing at first,"and still is"! I guess I got lucky on the first try, it came out much better than I expected! It didn't have enough relief on it and the angle was a little flat 54deg. it was even had a nice point and straight cutting edge! I put it in the drill press to see how it would drill, and it drilled very well, it seamed very sharp went right through 3/16" steel, it just put off small chips no spirals and left a burr when it exited, and it bound up when it punched through. I forget what speed I was running at I think around 1800 3rd of 5 on a small drill press. The hole was clean, did'nt look out of round at all and the walls were smooth. I felt good about it. But the second one was a different story! Ok on the first one I did'nt fallow the instructions all the way! On the second one I tried to, but the instructions aren't very good! I know they expect you to dummy up and apply your own thinking to part of this, but if you don't know way they are doing things the way they are it makes for failure! Iwill call them in the morning and see if they can shine some light down that dark tunnel I look in to. I'll let you know if there is daylight at the end!

 

[6PTsocket]

I used a piece of channel for the jig to ride in so after setting the rear adjustment that rotates the bit, I can slide the jig forward or back without the whole set up falling apart.

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[stuk4x4]

I worked at a shop that had a Drill Dr. one of the guys there swore by it and had great results, but I guess I was to impatient to get it out and set it up. Using a grinding wheel takes practice but once you found your rhythm with it you wont have a better sharpened bit. Just my 2 cents...

 

[cheechi]

What is the best bit sharpener you guy's have found... Other than the Drill Doctor!

Bench grinder.

Stick to the drill doctor unless you have someone to show you how to sharpen one on a grinder.

 

[justanengineer]

I don't, and don't want to know. The problem with freehanding is that if the lips aren't both exactly the same length, the drill will cut an oversize hole. That's fine until you need the exact size for tapping or other critical considerations.

A drill point gauge is a quick/easy double check if someone is concerned but realistically for simply touching up larger drills there's no real need unless someone's blind.

Personally I offhand grind most larger bits and use my Darex M6 on smaller ones.

 

[marinusdees]

I like my old B&D vertical one. Cheap enough that when it starts to wear out, I just find another for a few bucks, and "Viola!", new machine.

Viola?? Do you know how to tune it??

 

[Dempsey]

Hi folk's, I didn't get home in time to call Grizzly today, so I'll try in the morning. Let me put out there some of the thing's that confuse me about this jig. First thing in the instructions it say's to "Remove the cradle from the base by removing angle adjustment nut", then "loose binding screw". Then "PLACE DRILL IN CRADLE", " Adjust Lip Rest until it extends slightly behind the cutting edge of the drill. Drill should be extended by approximately the length of it's diameter beyond nose of Lip Rest". Maybe it's me but doing any set up or adjusting of this thing with it in your hand doesn't seem right to me. It was very awkward to do for me! Next "Adjust the Rear Bracket to hold drill in it's position, tighten clamp and secure Lip Rest". Now it never does tell you to put the cradle and the base back together and set the angle! Next it say's "Using slotted base, move Drill Grinding Attachment toward flat surface of grinding wheel, until point of drill just touches grinding wheel. Secure base." This thing was made in Taiwan so I think the instructions were printed there too, and this is how they speak. So now they advice you to "Advance drill gradually through use of Feed Screw until entire surface is ground. When grinding, use a light tough to swing Drill Grinding Attachment back and forth on Pivot pin.
If Pivot Pin is tight, loose tension screw on name plate. Avoid grinding too much in one sweep as this will cause drill to burn." I don't want to get ahead of myself here! In my way of thinking, It's not going to be posable to "Advance drill gradually through use of Feed Screw" when they have told you to "Adjust Rear Bracket to hold drill in it's position, tighten clamp".Ifyou must loosen this clamp each time you advance the drill bit your going to be changing your set up adjustment all the time. That bit is not going to be in the same position after you loosen the clamp move it forward and retighten the clamp with that Lip Rest in the flute of the bit. So how do you advance the bit when grinding it? And then on to doing the other other lip. "To grind second lip. Lock screw E " which is what locks the Rear Bracket from moving."Move attachment away from grinding wheel" Does this mean to pivot the bit tip way from the wheel or does it mean to loosen the slotted base and move it away. If your moving the base your changing original set up. Then "Loose clamp. Rotate drill until the opposite cutting edge rests firmly against the Lip Rest as before. Retighten clamp". If you have moved the bit forward as you were grinding,aren't you going to have more material in contact with the grinding wheel than when you touch it off to the tip on the other side? That would be a lot to feed against the wheel at once it seems. And if you do this is this going to make both cutting edges the same length, do you still feed the bit forward if you need to?

And the you will be loosening the clamp again? Sorry this got to being so long and drawen out! Maybe it's just my head in *** way of thinking, and I don't see the big picture! There's not much light in there!

 

[ttpete]

It's pretty hard to explain how to use that sharpener using words, but Craftsman and General both sell the exact same sharpener so you might want to try watching some Youtube videos of it being used for better instruction. Here are a few video links I found that should help get you started.

By the time I played with that, I could have walked over to the drill doctor and had it sharpened and back in the chuck.

Where I worked, I'd just go over to the crib window and swap a dull drill for a sharp one. The dull one would eventually go to cutter grind.

 

[ptschram]

If your drill doctor has the grooved setting jig and you don't have enough relief, turn the chuck one notch counter-clockwise when you set the drill in the jig, this will increase the relief angle.

As for me I have a Darex M5 that I got at an auction...

Yeah, I know, I ****!