Drill bit sharpening

[lynnmor 7,305]

6 hours ago, Mickwhitt said:

I saw a Black diamond machine on Ebay, looks complicated and there were bits missing from it. At least with this one everything is there and it's pretty fool proof, even with the Chinglish instruction manual ...."If further is need, turn clockwise, if less is need go left" 

I will do some pics of setting up and results.

 

Actually the Black Diamond is rather easy to use once you adjust everything that the previous owner hosed.  I have worked in a number of shops over the years and never once saw a Black Diamond that wasn't knackered.

[ebinmaine 67,422]

I took a few minutes to try the new to me Drill Doctor 400 this evening.  

I grabbed two 1/2" drill bits to sharpen. 

 

Here's some BEFORE pics. 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's an AFTER Pic. 

 

 

It's certainly not a 40 million dollar mo-chine but it's FAR AND AWAY better than what my inaccurate unsteady poorly coordinated hands can do. 

 

 

 

[oliver2-44 9,732]

@Mickwhitt what is the Brand and model of your sharpener. I like it 

Edited November 2 by oliver2-44

[Mickwhitt 4,617]

Hi Oliver.

It is sold by Warco, a long established tool supplier in the UK.

There are quite a few clones of this type of machine on the Internet. Not sure who made the original that was copied.

Brierley is a name that is big in tool grinders over here, they sell a very similar looking machine at over three times the price. They also do industrial sharpeners that can do amazing things to drill points.

I bought the warco because I won't be thrashing it every day, so it should last for me.

There seem to be a few small differences in how drills are ground on each copy, but they are basically the same. 

I'm happy with the warco as it is quick to set up and use. 

[ebinmaine 67,422]

My first time using Drill Doctor sharpened drills. 

Overall... pretty impressive.  

 

As stated above or other places it's like many things in that there's a definite learning curve. 

 

I had sharpened 2 different types of 1/2" drill bits. 

The gold one worked well, stayed sharp for 4 holes and didn't experience much wear at all. 

 

 

 

The silver one..... sucked.  

Why?    'Ellifino....

 

Certainly different steels but the silver drill made NO effort to make a cut. I tried reshaping and resharpening. Nope. 

 

 

Another thing to report. 

I used the 1/2" bit by itself for the first 4 frame holes. That was to create holes that lined up with pre-existing coupler holes. 

No problems. 

 

Then I had to add a set of holes in a slightly different location. 

I measured and punched to make a centering point. 

Started with a 5/32 drill bit. 

Went to around 7/32 or so. 

Both cut great. 

 

I tried to use the SAME 1/2" drill bit from the other holes. Nada. Nope. Wouldn't go. 

I had to use a 3/8", followed by a 7/16", then the 1/2".

 

Dunno why..... the largest drill bit would just slip and spin....

 

 

 

 

 

[lynnmor 7,305]

Show us the drills, maybe we can see the problem.  Perhaps the web is much thicker on one and the drills indexed differently in the grinder.

[ebinmaine 67,422]

1 hour ago, lynnmor said:

Show us the drills, maybe we can see the problem.  Perhaps the web is much thicker on one and the drills indexed differently in the grinder.

 

Appreciate that.  

I'll get pics tomorrow.  

[oliver2-44 9,732]

18 hours ago, Mickwhitt said:

Hi Oliver.

It is sold by Warco, a long established tool supplier in the UK.

There are quite a few clones of this type of machine on the Internet. Not sure who made the original that was copied.

Brierley is a name that is big in tool grinders over here, they sell a very similar looking machine at over three times the price. They also do industrial sharpeners that can do amazing things to drill points.

I bought the warco because I won't be thrashing it every day, so it should last for me.

There seem to be a few small differences in how drills are ground on each copy, but they are basically the same. 

I'm happy with the warco as it is quick to set up and use. 

 I did some searching and found several knock off version but they all had metric collets.  I suppose they would work on similar size fractional bits.  I wish everything would go metric and be done with it. It drives me crazy working on vehicles with such a mix of fasteners. 
But then the tool guys couldn’t sell double sets of everything. 

[wallfish 16,994]

20 minutes ago, oliver2-44 said:

 I wish everything would go metric and be done with it.

Right

We were taught the metric system way back in the 70s, so it should have happened by now

[Mickwhitt 4,617]

7 hours ago, wallfish said:

We were taught the metric system way back in the 70s, so it should have happened by now

It's a bewildering mix of stuff over here too. A lot is now metric since we joined Europe (then left but still seem joined at the hip).

We all quote our weight in stones and pounds (you guys seem to just use pounds which is so confusing). 

Most people still say they are five feet ten or six feet two, but young kids insist on confusing everyone by saying they are 1.25 metres high (some even spell it meters which makes you wonder if its 1.25 gas meters, or water meters).

We drive in miles at speeds in miles per hour, unless you're on a boat when it's knots and nautical miles, but we run in metres and kilometres.

We drink pints of beer (nipping to the boozer for 0.568 of a litre of beer isnt as romantic) and buy litres of milk. My grandad knew how much petrol was per gallon, now it's per litre, but we still worry about miles per gallon.

I can only deal with centigrade but my FIL can only deal in Fahrenheit. 

As regards engineering it only gets worse...  metric, imperial, British standard Whitworth,  British standard gas, B.A., bicycle threads, Acme. Millimetres, metres, microns, feet and inches, sixteenths, thirty seconds, sixty fourths, thousandths. I've even been known to mix my measures and ask for three feet and four centimetres of lumber. 

I read something the other day about a sailing ship called the Vasa, built in the 1600s in Sweden. Different workers built each side of the ship and each used a different version of the inch. The resulting difference in weight of each side resulted in it sinking almost immediately!!!

If we continue with our policy of integration we will be buying stuff in cubits and two camel weights of coal, oh wait, we can't have coal. 

I guess we are stuck with things the way they are.... unless we change to the Musk as a unit of wealth that is, anyone fancy being a Muskionaire.

 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,422]

You guys would get HUGE entertainment from this video....

I won't post it here because the first thing you see is...

"sentence enhancers"

in a quote box.  

 

Go on youtube and search:

 

Edison motors Understanding the Metric System 

 

 

[ebinmaine 67,422]

On 11/2/2024 at 5:43 PM, lynnmor said:

Show us the drills, maybe we can see the problem.  Perhaps the web is much thicker on one and the drills indexed differently in the grinder.

 

I forgot to get pics but you were correct.  

The drill bit that wouldn't work was a cheapo and could not be lined up in the Drill Doctor manual's description. 

 

 

[Mickwhitt 4,617]

The machine I bought only does 3mm drills as the smallest so I had a go at making a new bit holder to go down to 1mm. 

Involved turning a holder to carry an ER11 collet chuck.

It's a bit Heath Robinson but it works fine.