Drill Doctor

[Mikes]

I know there have been many threads on drill sharpening but would value the wisdom that comes from this forum. I've had a Drill Doctor 750X sharpener for several years and have found it to produce good results. A while back, the original motor gave-up the ghost with a big flash and bang. I bought and fitted a replacement motor soon after and continued to use it. Well, it has done the same thing again. The motor in my opinion is far to 'open' giving the amount of fine grindings produced and I wondered if this was the cause. I've always been very careful about cleaning the unit and even vacuum it out when finished with.
Has anyone else had a problem with a Drill Doctor? I'm loathe to buy yet another replacement motor but miss the machine due to the beauty of using sharp drills. The problem is I can't find a good alternative to this without spending vastly more. Any ideas?

 

[123hotchef]

I sharpen all my drill bits on the bench grinder, I must google drill doctor

 

[MCKDAVID]

had mine a good while, and use it pretty much regularly, usually put the blunt drills into a can by the drill press and when there enough I'll set up the drill doctor and do a mass sharpen, too much of a faff for a one off, will just dress it on the grinder for one or two.
I agree with you, the motor and lower case is poor design and too open especially dealling with a very fine metal dust from sharpening. Always give it a good blast out with the air line after each session, and sometimes during if I'm doing a lot.

A lot of folks criticise them, but once you get dialled in, it's far faster for me.

edit just checked, I don't have the same model as you, I have the 500X, but from your description sounds like the same design.

 

[Shox Dr]

Owned one for the last 20+yr, blunt drills get thrown in a tin, once its full I spend a few hours sharpening them. Probably only used it 40-50 times. But alot of accumulated hours. Never a problem

 

[frank horton]

Mike,
well in the old days there was only a bench grinder......I was tought by an old hand......started as trial and error.....
dread to think of all those quality Brit made drills that got trashed learning the craft......and the cost.....
Now I get to teach a few young'uns and not so young'uns to sharpen drills without a specialised tool......
SO,
now I get them to buy 2 sets of cheap and nasty's from where ever......
then we have one set to copy and the other to bxgger up.......
the idea is to sharpen by hand with a bench grinder with one set and then try to drill a hole....taking time to referance the untouched set.......
after about an hour they tend to get the idea....
practice makes perfect........
good luck....

 

[500e]

The number of people who have grinders with wheels that vibrate and or have groves as deep as the Grand Canyon & then say cant sharpen a drill

 

[timgunn1962]

Fixing the DD Is well worth it, if it’s worth it to you.

Having gone through something similar to the process Frank Horton describes above back when God were a lad, I have always been able to get a blunt drill to cut like a new-but-fairly-mediocre drill.

It does usually take a few minutes to get the hand/eye in if it’s been a while.

The DD 500 and 750 can split the points IIRC, which I cannot do freehand. That alone is worth it if you use cordless handheld drills fairly often.

 

[Jay1st]

i used to have one, and i still prefer using a bench grinder for my drill bits

 

[Mikes]

Fixing the DD Is well worth it, if it’s worth it to you.

Having gone through something similar to the process Frank Horton describes above back when God were a lad, I have always been able to get a blunt drill to cut like a new-but-fairly-mediocre drill.

It does usually take a few minutes to get the hand/eye in if it’s been a while.

The DD 500 and 750 can split the points IIRC, which I cannot do freehand. That alone is worth it if you use cordless handheld drills fairly often.

Yes, I should have said that the majority of the drills that I needed to sharpen were those that I used in hand held drills on metal when I'm not in the workshop. I've tried to do drills by hand on the grinder and as you say take a while to get your hand / eye coordination in and achieve an acceptable finish. These have generally worked adequately in a drill press where slight differences in the cutting edge don't really cause problems but the larger sizes can cause nasty bind-ups when used in a hand held drill.
When I get a moment, I'm going to open the Drill Doctor up and see if there would be a simple way of providing better dust isolation to the motor if I bought a replacement one.

 

[EddyP]

I've got one but haven't had much success, always find they don't cut very well, must watch the youtube video of how to set it up properly, must be doing something stupid.