Drill Dr. . . .

Re: Drill Dr. . . .

Jerry Nicholson

>I haven't heard ol' Paul for several years so I don't know what he is saying about Drill Doctor but I have a model 400 and it works for me. I don't use it every day but it sure comes in handy when I need to drill a hole right away or am in the middle of a project and all my drills that size are dull. I use it for twist drills and masonry bits. It does not work (at least mine doesn't) on brad or bullet point bits.

Jerry

Re: Drill Dr. . . .

ThomD

>Did you ever see Jim Cumming's tip on how to sharpen drills yourself. Really easy, as easy as sharpening a chisel.

Re: Drill Dr. . . .

Paul Erickson

>I haven't seen it, where can I find it?

cheers, Paul

please elaborate

Jack Guzman from Maine

>

Review & Instructions

Garrett in Victoria

>You can read Forrest Addy's review of his Drill Doctor 750 here, and Al Stokka's easy instructions on sharpening drill bits by hand here.

Cheers, Garrett

I saw it...

Hoa Dinh in Alameda

>on Jim's video, "Small Shop Tips" or something like that.

But I still couldn't sharpen a drill bit until I bought a Drill Doctor.

Oh, now I know. It is "really easy, as easy as sharpening a chisel." I couldn't sharpen a chisel until I bought the Veritas Power Sharpener Mk. II ;-)

-- Hoa

You're not going to like this but...

Dave Thompson - Champaign IL

>After hearing all the great reviews from every one who has owned one, I bought one for my father-in-law. He used it and liked it. He did point out that given the low price of twist bits these days, Do you know how many entire sets can be bought for the same price of one Drill Dr??

I stopped in an Amish hardware store last month and picked up a drill bit grinding jig for $9. It's the kind that holds your bit just right up to the side of the grinder and are made in Taiwan. I haven't used it yet. Frankly it looks like it's going to be a pain initially, but will be good once I get a trued side on my grinder, and I work out all of the details, and screw up the temper on a bunch of bits learning... and of course this assumes I maintain my gumption and don't give in and just buy another set of twist bits ;-)

enjoy,

Dave

Re: please elaborate

ThomD

>Chuck bit into drill. Power up drill so it is going backward, with the near side rotating upwards. bring it radialy to a rotating grinder so that a bullet head of perfect symetry is immediately created on the end. The exact angle does not mater too much, just eyeball it.

Take bit out of drill, examine tip, it will be conical with no relief angles. Hold it in front of the not rotating grinder. Angle it verticaly to the surface of the grinder. Rotate the bit until one of the edges is dead horizontal, as if it was a single bevel chisel, let the horizontal edge of the chisel tip be your guide. Now eyeball the bit to see what tangency position will perfectly remove the conical bevel. You need to aim of the high point of the crown at a sufficient angle so that when you reach the edge yo will have established a clearance angle. Fire up the ginder and grind both bevels. Look at the bevels and the position of the central arete to judge symetry, perfect symetry is not necesarry, but the bit will be unevenly loaded and might break in hard material. The whole process takes seconds, plus set-up time. If you blow it you can regrind in a few more seconds.

The only bad part is you need to know how to rub a bevel and not get catches. Grinding and wood turning are pretty much mirors of each other, but without some grinding savy you could hurt yourself badly. I've never had the least problem, but grinding can be fatal so exercise all due caution. Obviously FWW thought this was simple enough to be a useful tip to just about anyone, and safe enough too. I have no opinion on who should try this kind of stuff.

Re: You're not going to like this but...

ThomD

>I've had uneven results with all these cheap bits. Some are dangerous, others are really quite good. Not easy to know which will show up. I guess the danger is mostly in drill press use, but some bits I have used have bowed and then shatered, or snapped off in the work.

Re: Drill Dr. . . .

mikew

>Hi Steve,

Gotta say I do have one and do use it.

My dad taught me to grind bits at our shop. Did it for several years. Then I got into the "buy cheap bits" and replace them mode for the intervening years. Two years ago I replaced the last of the cheap bits and bought the Drill Dr. I like it, it is quick and accurate.

I have heard of people who it did not work well for. I don't know if it is build issues, bit quality or technique--not that there is much technique.

Take care, Mike

Using an old fashioned guide

Derek Cohen (in Perth Australia)

>Dave

I use one of those guides. Here is what I do (I will take a pic and post it if my description is not clear).

I have the base of the guide fixed in a small vise (so that it is rigid and immovable). This is then place directly under the chuck of my floor standing drill press. I use a circle shaped (about 2 or 3" diameter, from memory), but flat diamond stone in the chuck.

With the blunt drill bit in the guide (at the desired angle), the flat of the spinning diamond plate is then lowered onto the bit to grind away a bevel. This takes a couple of seconds to set each side, position, lower the stone, and remove.

Is it "perfect"? Probably not, since there is a little bending movement when the stone comes down (Thought to self - make a new, unbendable jig for the drill press!) but I have only used these bits in wood and they have seemed to do all I ask of them.

Regards from Perth

Derek

freehand *LINK*

Andrew F in Australia

>Hi All,

Drill bits are fairly easy to resharpen freehand on the grinder - just hold the drill bit at the correct lead angle and cutting angle (by eyeballing the existing ones parallel to the face of the grinding wheel), then touch the edge of the drill to the grinding wheel and tilt it straight up while maintaining contact with the wheel to grind the clearance/relief angle.

You don't twist the drill at all while it is in contact with the grinder.

I hope that this makes sense - as with most practical tasks, seeing it done is a lot better than reading about it.

The other advantage of this is that you can make your own dowelling bits when you need to - ie: turn a standard jobber drill into a brad point bit, as well as resharpen brad point bits easily.

I went looking for an online tutorial on how to sharpen drills freehand and found this one, for what it's worth.

http://www.woodenboat-ubb.com/cgi-bin/UBB/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=1&t=006203&p=


Drill angle nomenclature

I have one!

Adam Cherubini

>If you're the type of person who can break a shovel, you can screw up bits with a Drill Dr. If you are drilling wood, I think a drill dr may be a waste of your money (I guess depending on the wood). I really prefer using a brace and spoons or shells or centerbits anyway. But for drilling hardened steel, I think its real helpful to have sharp, split point bits. Mine seem to get dull pretty quickly. And I don't want to go to Sears in the middle of a job.

That's my two cents.

Adam

I picked one up

Derek

>I used one my friend has and sharpened all the bits I have in an evening. I liked it so much I kept my eyes open. When a local store had the big kit (750) on sale for about 1/2 price I could not resist.

I have a few larger bits which cost like $15 and up. They were all dull. Replacing them would be very costly indeed. They are all now sharp. If I see any lamp auger bits or long concrete drilling bits at a flea market I can get them for peanuts and sharpen them (it will do carbide just fine).

I do not dull bits drilling wood much but I do dull them with metal and other stuff. I would like to learn to sharpen bits by hand someday, but I just don't do it often enough to learn nor do I have a tutor.

Apparently, a couple of folks found that the chucks were assembled wrong and they could not do small bits until it was fixed. I found I had to play with it to get it to sharpen small bits correctly. Once I got the hang of it, it was easy.

Re: Using an old fashioned guide

Dave Thompson - Champaign IL

>Good idea. I wasn't looking forward to attempting to true the side of my dry grinder wheel.

thanks for sharing,

Dave

Re: I picked one up

paul womack

>Once I got the hang of it, it was easy.

Ah! The forgotten third way. Machine AND Skill.

BugBear

Re: I picked one up

Derek

>I'm not sure you should put my name and skill in the same sentence! Not that you did, but it was implied... :>)

Re: Drill Dr. . . . long

Tom MacGregor

>I was the facilities guy for Tubbs Snowshoes until K2 Sports bought and outsourced them. I bought premium bits from Fastenal to drill out stainless steel rivets at the rework table and kept them sharp with a Drill Doctor. It worked very well on the 1/4" bits and saved us a lot of money in the long run. I could not get the hang of making a good split-point on it, but did OK on plain 118 and 135 degree bits. I now keep better quality bits in my home shop than I used to. They're worth it for the improved performance I get, and I have a Drill Dr. to keep them sharp. Brights for aluminum, Black Oxide for steel & premium cobalt for hard stuff. In metals I also pay close attention to feed rates, RPM, and use proper cutting lubricants. Most people I know don't & it makes a big difference. Those cheap coated 115 pc. sets are trash. Buy good ones of only the sizes you actually need or save up for a good set if you really want them all.

Well said

Bob Hackett(Mainely,Bob)

>You get what you pay for.

MB