Drill Bit Sharpeners?

I have tons of drill bits I picked up in a bucket at a flea market for five dollars. I went through them sharpening most on the bench grinder. I am pretty good at sharpening bits that way until I run into those left handed ones, I just can't switch to mirror image bit sharpening.
-Spike
 
I do the same. I bought a nice tool grinder that only touches hss and such.....but after using the adrian I look at my work and it looks like a hyperactive kid did it. I'm super impressed with the finish and ease of use.
 
Drill Doctors and other inexpensive gadgets like them are a waste of money in my experience. Here's some pics of my homemade version of the Lisle 91000 drill grinder I used to use at work. It works beautifully and produces the same precisely matched drill flutes. The mounting post is laminated oak pallet wood glued up and shaped to wedge fit into the base of my Harbor Freight mini tire mounting machine. It is solid as a rock. The loop on the top is for extracting it with a bar and fulcrum. There's no way I could remove it by hand. The drill jig is the good ol' General tool that everyone seems to bad mouth but it is accurate when used as per instructions. I pulled out the original square slide rod and replaced it with a 14" rod so I could sharpen my morse taper bits and it works fine. The grinder is a perfectly balanced 7" two-speed Baldor. I use it on low (1800 rpm) to reduce risk of burning the drill edge. This setup avoids the traditional idea of mounting the fixture on the bench and using the side of the grinding wheel, which is a generally discouraged practice.
Total cost of my setup, minus the grinder, jig and hardware, which I already owned, plus some scrap pallet wood was $0.00. I included a photo of the Lisle grinder I patterned this after. They're over $500 new.

P1010803.JPG P1010804.JPG P1010805.JPG P1010806.jpg
 
bearbon said:
Drill Doctors and other inexpensive gadgets like them are a waste of money in my experience. Here's some pics of my homemade version of the Lisle 91000 drill grinder I used to use at work. It works beautifully and produces the same precisely matched drill flutes.
Click to expand...

Hey Bearbon,

Thats a terrific idea - you often see these things grinding against the flat of the wheel - does the cunning way you have mounted that tool twizzle everything through 90 degrees so you grind against the "normal" part of the wheel rather than the flat.

Am gonna copy that.

Bill
 
Yes, the bit pivots vertically against the normal face of the wheel the same as the Lisle grinder and not on the side. I have a sliding tool rest that mounts on the grinder so I can dress the wheel with a diamond tipped tool. The grinder has to be positioned with a square so it's perfectly 90 degrees from the fixture mount for the correct drill point angle. I use the general purpose drill angle of 59 degrees so it's fixed in that position. For other angles I'd have to re-position the grinder. The only thing I'm going to change is the way I mounted the fixture base to the oak post. It should be mounted with the slot horizontal so I can fine adjust the clearance to the grinding wheel so the "grain" of the grind is perpendicular to the cutting edge as recommended.
 
This got put in my truck , think it says wen on it , it is a wet stone . I use a DD 750x works good
Don't know what I'll use this for, it'll sharpen drills , sizzers, knives, some day I'll give it a try.
image.jpeg
Just figured ied throw this out there
 
Nice find. These aren't cheap. These are nice for sharpening chisels and wood plane knives. The flat wheel is better than the round wet stone grinders like I have. I use it mainly for knives and scissors. If it leaks water out the bottom there's a video on youtube showing how the problem is fixed.
 
Last edited:
I played with it a little today , put water in the tank turned it on but water is not making it to the stone
The filter is missing from the hose , I'll see if I can get the pump working and put a filter back on it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top