Drill Bit Sharpening Jig Plans

Doubleeboy said:
The video maker seemed to be a newbie at using a Drill Doctor. After using one for years, I find its strength is the little bits like 5/32" to 5/16". Anything larger than 5/16" is pretty easy to free hand with grinder with a bit of practice. The Drill Doctor excels at the smaller bits in my opinion.

cheers
michael
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I have had no luck with the Drill Doctor at all. I bought the 750x and have carefully followed the instructions with little success. The tolerances between the chuck and the body are too lose. Even with very careful use the results were hit and miss.

A useful looking grinder is the SRD type:
http://m.ebay.com/itm/SRD-TDR-DRILL-GRINDER-SHARPENER-DG-80M-/201453614895?nav=SEARCH

I can't see that the chuck would be hard to make and the cup wheels are readily available in CBN so they will have a decent service life. People who use these seem to be very happy with their performance, especially for smaller bits which other sharpening systems struggle with.

Paul.
 
Smithdoor said:
I just use a 6" grinder and hand grind all my drill bits
I do have a new drill doctor still in the box with the VCR tape. My father In law gave to me.
I have found some shops will not hire any that can not hand sharpen drill bits.
It is not hard to teach any to hand sharpen drill bits take about 10 min

Dave
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I would agree with that. Took our instructor at the college about 20 minutes to teach 11 of us out of a dozen students. We were given 1/2"x4"long bits and told "Watch, just like this."

The one exception got his sharp but the bit was about 2 1/2" long afterwards.
 
brino said:
I just spent a half an hour looking for an article I had read recently about drill bit sharpening. I did not find it! :frown:

Anyway, from my (known faulty) memory, they compared a Drill Doctor against the older "side of the grinding wheel" type like this:
http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=32965&cat=1,43072,43086

The reviewer started out believing the Drill Doctor would do a better job, but then by the end of the review was leaning toward the grinding guide.

I have never used either one of those so cannot add my voice.

I too would be interested in seeing plans.......but there is no way I could make one for less than the link above......and I am sure they could be had cheaper...that was just a vendor that I knew carried it.

-brino
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I started with the side grind type ,poor results.Not blaming the tool,maybe it was me. I then bought the 350 Drill Doctor which is the least expensive one.Been using it about 8 years,replaced the stone once.I screwed up a couple of drills while getting the hang of it when I first bought it.Sometimes I have to hand grind a bit more relief after initial grinding with the Drill Doctor.There is another type of jig that uses the front of the wheel,haven't used it but a friend has and switched to the Drill Doctor after trying mine.

mike
 
I foolishly walked into my second or third semester Machine Tool Technology class in 1990 or 1991 and told the instructor that my main reason for attending that semester was to learn to grind drill bits and lathe bits.

Wrong thing to say. I spent the rest of the semester sharpening everyone's drill and lathe bits. I learned how to do it!

Now that said, if I'm "on", I'm "ON". If not, I end up with a lot of screw-machine length bits. I have one of the side-of-the-wheel jigs, a Drill Doctor (of which I sell many from the tool truck as I know how to sharpen drill bita. I tuck a Drill Doctor under my arm and a pocketful of dull drill bits and teach guys to sharpen bits), and recently scored a Darex industrial production drill bit sharpener (when I met the fourth generation CEO of Darex and told him I had one, he was astounded that any individual would have one in their home shop).

My go-to sharpener is the side-of-the-wheel jig, then the big time Darex. The Drill Doctor is a good tool but I've moved beyond it now.
 
I know the older Drill Doctor did not work well for me. But then it could have been me also. A friend did give me a newer model that I haven't tried yet. The older model seemed to have a very flimsy chuck to hold the drill. The fingers in the check seemed to go sideways if you tightened the chuck enough so the drill wiuld not slip back.
 
I have read many opinions on drill sharpening. The most and best info I ever read was from John at gadget builder.com. That being said and this is MY OPINION, after forty years of machining I find it is impossible to hand grind a drill and get it right. Many can do it and come close, but you can never hold the two sides exactly the same. I have used many drill grinders over the years. I throw the cheap cast one that uses the side of the wheel away. It will work but is total hit and miss. I have a really nice big commercial drill grinder but it takes an hour to set up and then you have to change settings for every size. A great machine but intended for grinding batches of drills the same size. I never do that so it just sits. Last year I built the grinder on gadgetbuilder.com and love it. It is easy to setup and use and works great. It makes as close to a perfect drill bit as I have seen yet. I grind all new drill bits I get on it before I use them. I also feel four facet ground bits work a whole lot better than the conical grind.
THIS IS MY OPINION on drill grinding.
 
I have the plans for that one. Just don't have the proper machines to make the thing. With my drill press miller it would take me too long a time to make. From all that I have read about that sharpener it does a perfect job every time.
 
mark_f said:
I grind all new drill bits I get on it before I use them. I also feel four facet ground bits work a whole lot better than the conical grind.
THIS IS MY OPINION on drill grinding.
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Mark,

If you get the chance try out these bits, they are 135 degree 4 facet split point bits, you can get them from enco individually. They cut through everything like a hot knife through butter.
http://shop.triumphtwistdrill.com/Product/viewitem/?Style=T1HD
triumph.jpg
 
Dan_S said:
Mark,

If you get the chance try out these bits, they are 135 degree 4 facet split point bits, you can get them from enco individually. They cut through everything like a hot knife through butter.
http://shop.triumphtwistdrill.com/Product/viewitem/?Style=T1HD
View attachment 114679
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Those look great. This is how grind my bits. Even new ones I find are off as much as .005" off center. I regrind them to 4 facets, right on center and they drill with a lot less effort, really close to on size and no walking.
Even inexpensive bits work good when properly ground.

I will order these when I get replacements.
 
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