Sharpening drill bits?

[snoeproe]

What you guys using to re sharpen your drill bits?
I have a Drill Dr that was a xmas gift several years back. Never got that pos to work. What a waste of $$.
By hand is not working for me neither.
Tonight I broke 3 3/16 bits drilling many pop rivits on a snowmobile I am bulding for my daughter.
You guys who are re sharpening your drill bits, what are you using?

[bert the welder]

By hand. Check youtube. I think I saw some videos on sharpening there.
Could always make a little sharpening jig for your bench grinder or your belt sander.

[jesusno2]

My drill Dr. works like a dream its very slow going though esp on bits about 3/8 and up if your fixing bad bits. I thought the same as you that it was a pile till I relized their was a depth setting on it so I could just touch em up instead of grinding the crap out of the bits everytime.

[Somthingoriginal]

for dull or chipped bits i free hand it with a bench grinder. take's a little practice and it's important to maintain the center and angle but if you have another as an example it's not that hard. You'll be able to tell right a way when you try it if you got it right. If your breaking em clean off idk

[DSW]

Most of the time I use the Drill Doctor. It's easier and I can have the labrador do it. I did that a bit to figure out how to set up the bits in the unit, but once a friend of mine showed me how, it made perfect sense and I haven't had issues since.

I'm guessing you probably are having the same issues I did and are not getting the bits indexed correctly when setting them up in the holder for grinding.

[chuck5121]

I use a Drill Dr. and it works great you have to take care and index them correctly.

[jackalope]

I rarely sharpen bits <1/8". I see them as throwaway at that size. For anything larger, I use an Oliver of Adrian Model 510 sharpener. Allows me to sharpen up to 3" and does so in amazing short time. When it is finished, I get a perfect and continuous chip coming from both flutes. Amazing to watch work as well.

Grant

[zapster]

Everything from 1/8" up to 4" on a belt sander and they drill like going thru butter!!

...zap!

[bhardy501]

I have tried several different devices for sharpening bits and have had no luck. Never had a Drill Doctor but have heard great things about them. I sharpen them by hand the way and old machinist taught me to do it. The way I do it is hold the bit against the wheel with the cutting edge turned up and the bit at the right angle so the entire surface of that side will touch the wheel. Start at the bottom of the ground area of the bit and lift grinding up to the cutting edge. Use a lifitng motion not a twisting motion. When you see the first sparks break the edge stop grinding. If you grind until you get a line of sparks across the cutting edge the edge will be ground over and it wont drill. I have sharpened bits by this method for years and they always cut perfect. Dip the bits in coolant after a couple of passes to keep it cool. Another very important thing to remember is to keep your grinding wheel dressed and flat. If you dont have a wheel dresser your grinding wheel will get out of shape and loaded with debris. I also keep a small sharpeining stone to dress the edge on the flute side of I get a little bur built up from heavy sharpening such as repairing a broken bit.

[snoeproe]

Most of the time I use the Drill Doctor. It's easier and I can have the labrador do it. I did that a bit to figure out how to set up the bits in the unit, but once a friend of mine showed me how, it made perfect sense and I haven't had issues since.

I'm guessing you probably are having the same issues I did and are not getting the bits indexed correctly when setting them up in the holder for grinding.

Exactly. I just cant get a bit consistantly aligned properly in the chuck, no matter how I do it. I emailed Drill Dr awhile back with my problems and they told me I had to buy a new upgraded unit. While my unit is several years old, at the time I recieved it, it was suposed to be a good unit that will split the point.

[Tool Maker]

I used to ( about 25 years ago) grind from 16th inch up, by eye. I now grind the same ones by eye with high powered magnifying glasses on and really bright lights. I start at the cutting edge and tip down toward the heal. but it works either way just as well. Just really try not to grind off to much of the heal as it makes the bit dig in to deep and break. Basically the heal should determine how thick the metal the cutting edge is removing. Mac

[Old Doug]

Is thier anyone that is useing one of those holder that is sold by sears,made by I think General On a belt sander or some other bit holder on a belt sander. dremel sold a drill bit sharpener belt sander. But the picture I found is not very good.

[Andrew_D]

I've got an older Drill Doctor that will go up to 1/2". I still rough them in on the bench grinder before using the DD though, especially when I've broken the bit off. It does take some getting use to though - can't just throw the bit at it and expect it to come out good! A couple of workers here still can't figure out how to use the thing!

For over 1/2", it's by eye on the bench grinder. I've got two grinders. 1 is set up with a General Purpose wheel and a wire wheel. The other is an Aluminum Oxide wheel for HSS and a Silicon Carbide wheel for carbide. (Did I get those right? Maybe it's the other way around...I can never remember. That's why one has "HSS" written beside it and other "CARBIDE"!) I've thought about getting a belt sander, but haven't gone that route yet. For those that use both, which one do you like better and why?

Andrew

[stonehockerwelding]

I use the shop saw turn it on and use the side of it

[Warpspeed]

Is thier anyone that is useing one of those holder that is sold by sears,made by I think General On a belt sander or some other bit holder on a belt sander. dremel sold a drill bit sharpener belt sander. But the picture I found is not very good.

Do you mean one of these Doug ?
I use one, along with a very small bench grinder and it works great.

[Larrysmachine]

Anything under 1/4" hits the chip bin, even a quality bit of that size can be had for less than a buck fifty. Anything larger gets done by hand.
Larry

[Old Doug]

Warpspeed I have 3 that I got at flea markets or yardsales. Would like to use one on a belt sander thatI built.Thought it would keep bits cooler.

[snoeproe]

That is a different and redesigned chuck compared to my older unit. Mine is much older than that one. My chuck is not a self aligning chuck. To align a bit in my chuck there is a slot in the side of the drill dr housing with fingers in it that grap the tip of the bit. The chuck itself also has several fingers in it as well.
The upgraded chuck looks much more user friendly. No wonder why I cant get a bit properly aligned in my chuck.

[forhire]

I emailed Drill Dr awhile back with my problems and they told me I had to buy a new upgraded unit.

What model did you have?

Most of the time I use the Drill Doctor. It's easier and I can have the labrador do it.

I hate to admit it. A few years ago I bought a Drill Doctor 300 from the hardware store. Despite my best efforts over the years I cannot get it to work very well. The resharpened bits appear to cut wood ok but for metal... they are poor! Because all the positive praise I even spent some time watching the videos to ensure I was doing it right. DSW, what is the secret?

Is the model 300 trash or am I dumb?

[snoeproe]

[QUOTE=forhire;623732]What model did you have?

I have the drill DR 400

[larphead]

Here is the rig that I have set up. It will do up to 5/8ths, any thing bigger i do by hand on the belt sander.

[DSW]

I have to dig mine out and find out exactly what number it is, but I think it's the 750 model. I need to play with it again to remember exactly how its set up, but the "fingers" in the side set the bit rotation so it will grind the edge right. They show this pretty good in this vid at about 5:25 Part of my issue was that the material depth stop was set wrong.

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[Fegenbush]

forhire,

I had a Drill Doctor at a shop I ran about 8 years ago. I don't know the model, but the guy who swept the floor could sharpen a bit that would cut only 0.002 over. I trust from your previous posts that you're not a dumb guy, so DD must have done something weird with their designs since then.

[CEP]

I generally don't have to fiddle to much to turn on my bench grinder.

[forhire]

I had a Drill Doctor at a shop I ran about 8 years ago. I don't know the model, but the guy who swept the floor could sharpen a bit that would cut only 0.002 over. I trust from your previous posts that you're not a dumb guy, so DD must have done something weird with their designs since then.

Yeah that's what I thought. Looking at it tonight, I think the model I have is designed primarily for a wood worker. The drills do wood just dandy.

I have to dig mine out and find out exactly what number it is, but I think it's the 750 model. I need to play with it again to remember exactly how its set up, but the "fingers" in the side set the bit rotation so it will grind the edge right. They show this pretty good in this vid at about 5:25 Part of my issue was that the material depth stop was set wrong.

The model 750 appears to be quite different from the model 300 I have. Mine doesn't split points which I suspect is the real issue. I read some reviews on the 300 tonight and the common thread is it's great for wood but lack luster for metal. I guess that's what I get for buying my DD at the lumber yard.