Drill bit sharpening

[undercut]

Without fail, every time one of those Drill Drs goes on sale, I seriously consider it .... until I figure out how much I would save if I sharpened rather than buy a new bit. Don't go through many drill bits. Makes me wonder what I'm missing!

[not2old]

I worked in a machine shop as a kid, and learned how to sharpen drill bits there. I have a Drill Doctor, but rarely use it unless I'm drilling stainless and need lots of well sharpened bits. The Drill Doctor does do a better job, and those bits will drill a more accurately sized hole. You will also have better luck with a less than perfectly sharpened bit if you use a pilot hole and keep enlargening it to the finished size.

[Steave]

Without fail, every time one of those Drill Drs goes on sale, I seriously consider it .... until I figure out how much I would save if I sharpened rather than buy a new bit. Don't go through many drill bits. Makes me wonder what I'm missing!

As far as saving money on resharpening it would take a while to justify the price of a DD. I don't use a DD but do sharpen my bits. It only takes a couple of seconds to touch it up on a sander and using a sharp bit makes a LOT of difference. I pittle around with old farm plows and end up using a hand drill so need those bits sharp. I've used bits in my drill press that couldn't be used in a hand drill (to dull). So I guess it comes down to making it easier to work with is my reason for sharpening and I'm kinda cheap ..uh.. thrifty.

[undercut]

Well, there certainly quite a few resources available on how to manually sharpen bits. I'll have to give it try at some point. Broke the tip of one my hss bits. Maybe I'll give it go on that one.

[deereman75]

Well today in wood shop, there was a brad point bit missing the point. The teacher said he would normally pitch it. In about 3 mins on the baldor bench grinder, I turned it into a razor sharp twist bit. Turned a piece of scrap into a $15 bit. I am getting good at this.

[tglass]

Have a Drill Doctor and quite honestly after reading all the threads, and trying to sharpen them by hand...it's easy to sharpen one by hand if you listen and learn the correct way. If you don't want to learn buy the DD and you can spend time sharpening bits when I'll be sitting in the couch. I'm glad someone on this forum taught me how to do this.

[Shield Arc]

I am getting good at this.

Good for you! I'd guess less than 1 % of the people I've worked with over the years could sharpen a drill bit by hand.

[KYErik]

I like my DD. I feel that it gets the two cutting edges a little more even than I can get them by hand on the grinder and it is more of a "no brainer"/less thinking/less eyestrain than grinder sharpening.

Broken bits require time on the grander for reshaping (the DD can't do this).

My DD was frustrating me a few months ago- I was getting "negative relief" (sounds frustrating huh?). It was taking more off the cutting edge than it was off the area behind it (so the cutting edge wouldn't touch the metal). It turned out that my set up jig depth adjustment had slowly worked its way loose. I readjusted it and everything started working well again.

[Johnp33]

I worked at a truck dealership, and I collected all the drill bits others threw out because they were dull. I have a drawer full of bits, it always amazed me that most people did not want to know the right way to sharpen a bit.
You also can sharpen a drill bit flatter to drill really hard material.
Just a thought!

[crazyal]

What finally pushed me over the edge was when I was doing an engine swap in a dump truck. There was lots of 1/2" drilling to be done and the steel was something harder than mild steel. The best solution seamed to be start off with an 1/8", then a 1/4", a 3/8" and then the 1/2" Cobalt bit. Even using cutting fluid I could drill about two holes before the bits started to dull. After about 4 holes the bits had to be sharpened as any further attempts to drill with them would overheat the metal.

The dump truck is a 2 1/2 ton so when I was working on it I wasn't close to the house (where the grinder is). After repeatedly walking back and forth to sharpen the bits I finally unbolted the grinder from the stand and made a temp mount on the front bumper, it worked but not great. Before moving the grinder I tried using a 4 1/2" grinder but that was too difficult. That night I bought a DD so I can bring it to the work and leave the grinder on the stand.

Now the grinder rarely gets used. If I break a bit I'll use it to shape the bit.