Sharpening drills

[Kittyhawk]

I have to admit to being pretty bad at sharpening drill bits, the problem being that I don't do it enough to gain the skill. I've looked at a fair few videos on line on the subject and the viewers comments are usually equally divided between 'great video thanks' and 'absolute rubbish.' The things that give me trouble are getting both cutting edges at exactly the same angle and also the drill point exactly central. If anyone could provide a link to a good video on the subject I would be very grateful.

 

[JSW]

 

[Phil Pascoe]

That makes it look so easy. It isn't.

 

[JSW]

It actually is, once that muscle memory gets locked in it's no different to hand sharpening a plane blade or chisel.

There, I mentioned the unmentionable, the runes are cast.

 

[niall Y]

Am I allowed at this point to mention sharpening jigs and gizmos? I do have one myself which I believe was made by Plastiplugs ?? Every now and again I go through my bits and sharpen them . It works well enough , but it is a faff to use.

I've always eyed up "The Drill Doctor", but have never been able to justify the cost. However , even with this you are restricted with the sizes you can sharpen. It is the tiny bits that I find most difficult to deal with, though mercifully these usually have broken before they need sharpening. The bigger the bit, the easier I find to do it by hand on a bench grinder. Mine, rather conveniently , has a V groove on the platform that presents the bit at an angle to the wheel.

 

[Distinterior]

I have a very good mate who used to work in the Tool Room for the company where he & I did our engineering apprenticeships.
As a young apprentice of about 16/17 years old, one of the first things they taught him was how to sharpen drill bits & tooling on an bench grinder.
He told me he would often be standing at that grinder for hour after hour after hour, just sharpening drill bits......That was about 46 years ago!

Neither of us still work in the engineering industry, but he still has a metalwork lathe and other pieces of equipment.

Whenever I need my high quality drill bits sharpened, I pop in and see him and i stand in wonder as he sharpens them all in a matter of seconds and he often laughs at some of my cheaper drill bits that I've attempted to sharpen myself.

They are a joy to use after he has sharpened them....

 

[Phil Pascoe]

6mm are about £5 for ten, 6mm cobalt are about £15 for ten at UKDrills. It's not really worth the bother of sharpening them.

 

[J-G]

6mm are about £5 for ten, 6mm cobalt are about £15 for ten at UKDrills. It's not really worth the bother of sharpening them.

!!!! Wastrel !!!!

Whatever the replacement cost, that is (IMO) a very poor attitude Phil - - - but I didn't amass my fortune by subscribing to the 'throw-away' culture that has become prevalent.

 

[Diver Fred]

Sharpening drill bits got me sacked from my first apprenticeship!

Not because I was so bad but because I was good at the job and I embarrassed the 'shop foreman had a go at me for sharpening drill bits.

 

[Fergie 307]

I have a very good mate who used to work in the Tool Room for the company where he & I did our engineering apprenticeships.
As a young apprentice of about 16/17 years old, one of the first things they taught him was how to sharpen drill bits & tooling on an bench grinder.
He told me he would often be standing at that grinder for hour after hour after hour, just sharpening drill bits......That was about 46 years ago!

Neither of us still work in the engineering industry, but he still has a metalwork lathe and other pieces of equipment.

Whenever I need my high quality drill bits sharpened, I pop in and see him and i stand in wonder as he sharpens them all in a matter of seconds and he often laughs at some of my cheaper drill bits that I've attempted to sharpen myself.

They are a joy to use after he has sharpened them....

Sounds very like my dad. I think I was a bit of a disappointment to him as I never really got the hang of it. Pretty good at lathe tools but I could never sharpen a drill to his standards.
So I fear I too am a wastrel like Phil, although my cut off is probably about 3mm

 

[scholar]

If you like gadgets (and I do like good ones) there is the Tormek drill jig (it helps to have a Tormek to begin with).

I bought one quite cheaply on eBay (from a French company, I recall) quite a few years ago. In all honesty, I have used it once, for a small handful of drills when I was drilling a sizeable number of steel parts. It actually worked very well and on my never ending list of jobs to get round to is an overhaul of all my standard drill bits.

This video is a good demonstration It basically does the job shown in the earlier hand-sharpening video, but sets up the angles and depths of cut.

Cheers

 

[Vulcan]

There is a basic drill sharpening jig on the page linked below. I’ve seen very similar ones used on a standard bench grinder.

https://www.barras-blades.com/sorby-pro-edge

Then again, if you like building gadgets then you could go for something like those on this page. The jigs accurately produce a four facet grind which is reckoned by many to be superior to the all purpose geometry found on standard drill bits.

https://gadgetbuilder.com/DrillSharp.html

 

[J-G]

a four facet grind

This is nothing more than creating a 'clearance' by grinding away the rear of the main body of the drill.

Just as when sharpening a chisle, the actual cutting edge is seldom wider than 1mm, by creating the extra facets you leave just a sliver as the cutting edge.

I've been hand grinding drills (well all of my cutting tools) for 70+ years - having initially being taught by my father and any drill above 4mm would have this clearance. We never referred to it as 'four facet' though, which seems to indicate that there is a 'facet' (which would be flat), the grind would always be 'spiral'.

I still hand grind all my drills down to below 1mm and anything above about 6mm would also have the web thined.

 

[Vulcan]

This is nothing more than creating a 'clearance' by grinding away the rear of the main body of the drill.

I didn’t suggest otherwise, what’s your issue?

 

[J-G]

I didn’t suggest otherwise, what’s your issue?

No 'Issue' @Vulcan - - - just a comment to make it clear that 'four facet' grinding does not require a jig, it's simple to achieve the same effect by hand.

 

[Yojevol]

There is a basic drill sharpening jig on the page linked below. I’ve seen very similar ones used on a standard bench grinder.

https://www.barras-blades.com/sorby-pro-edge

Then again, if you like building gadgets then you could go for something like those on this page. The jigs accurately produce a four facet grind which is reckoned by many to be superior to the all purpose geometry found on standard drill bits.

https://gadgetbuilder.com/DrillSharp.html

By pure coincidence, I yesterday received a new set of Bosch twist drills and on opening the case I was surprised to see they all had a secondary land (bevel). Something I've never seen before and now here we are discussing it. I now realise it's the method I've always used, its just that my first land merges seamlessly into the second; convex sharpening if you like. Now where have I heard that grim subject before?
Brian

 

[TRITON]

Can we remove 'sharpening' from the thread title before Jacob turns up

I've been long thinking about getting the Proxxon drill sharpener. It isnt cheap at £160, but its one of those purchases you make once and own for decades.

Nothing better than a sharp drill bit, and nothing worse than a blunt one.

 

[kinverkid]

I bought the Plasplugs drill bit and blade sharpener in the eighties. I thought at first it was 'doing the job'. Then, my big brother showed me how to sharpen both by hand and eye. It really does become a muscle memory. I do occasionally use jigs for sharpening blades and bowl gauges when it's more convenient or renewing a bevel after a 'dink'. But sharpening drill bits by hand has become quick and easy with practice. It probably takes me less than thirty seconds per bit.

 

[highwood122]

6mm are about £5 for ten, 6mm cobalt are about £15 for ten at UKDrills. It's not really worth the bother of sharpening them.

good ones are much more money

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Most of us don't need anything any better.