How Do You Sharpen Your Drill Bits

[frank horton]

was able to do it after training on the job (1969).......
must have cost a fortune on those Brit made drill bits......oh well.......

 

[MattF]

Why do folk mention they can see , and accept it as a drawback of getting older ,,, go get some glasses a slight add in the driving script will get you by on most things , explain to the optom what you want and they will sort you out , get the script put into a pair of safety glasses and your onto a winner , it will get to the point you wont do any welding grinding or setting out without them , great for improving the welding too ,,
just thought id mention it.

Were you wearing your reading glasses when you composed that?

 

[daleyd]

Freehand on a bench grinder.

 

[tom2207]

Were you wearing your reading glasses when you composed that?

oops , of course I meant cant see ,, Decent lighting and a simple pair of glasses will make you feel twenty years younger , and be far more attractive to women , weld better , shoot straighter and look far more clever.
Well thats what mine did ,,,,,


just cant remember who borrowed them last as Im non of those things any more.

 

[mechman]

I recently bought on of the Lidl shapening 'machines' but ive not had chance to try it yet. i seem to recall the old plasplug sharpening machines were highly rated.

Just binned one. the plug was the best part.

 

[James1979]

Just binned one. the plug was the best part.

There is a sealey one with collets. Guy I was working with today had one. By the time he’d rummaged about, found the collet, set it up etc I’d sharpened it by hand on the grinder. Same way I always do. It’s a skill that can take some time to master but it’s well worth persevering with

 

[RichardM]

by hand on bench grinder or linisher, whichever is more convenient. If I have a few to do I will tape a steel rule to a square to ensure both sides are equal

 

[Alan Reynolds]

I do the small ones on an oilstone. Doesn't take off too much material from the side you're doing and you get a sharp cutting edge.

 

[johnakay]

an old method of getting the correct angle is to put two nuts together.
an old chap taught me that years ago.
very small drills get's me.
bigger ones are easy to sharpen. I use an 8" bench grinder.

 

[nickk]

Luckily I took to it like a duck to water,and then used to do the whole factory,day shift,anyway,so ,on the front of the bench grinder wheel,4 mm plus,but sadly need glasses now,I have a huge pedestal grinder so can do the morse taper number 5’s as well.

 

[gaz1]

By hand on the grinder or linisher, not all perfect but I get there - but, come the Quorn....

oh you mean your round to it project

 

[Barking Mat]

oh you mean your round to it project

I think he's referring to sharpening drills with a meat substitute ?

 

[Domdom]

You guys all make me envious. Even when I was doing Engineering Workshop Theory and Practice at school (college link, not metalwork) the instructor there spent hours trying to teach me how to sharpen drill bits. He ended up saying "Take them to a sharpening place"

 

[northwest]

I have one of THESE and it is great for all of the small drills, especially the solid carbide ones, the big ones I do on the grinder.

(note: I did NOT pay that for it)

 

[123hotchef]

I have one of THESE and it is great for all of the small drills, especially the solid carbide ones, the big ones I do on the grinder.

(note: I did NOT pay that for it)

nice

 

[henry Kadzielski]

I at least know my limitations and now don't try to sharpen drills by hand until there is no option. A lot of my drilling is Stainless steel, where the drill needs to be sharp and the correct geometry. I have a Darex XT3000, which not only sharpens drills, but does countersinks as well. The XT 3000 is used for all my drills and all drills are sharpened with split point. This machine is also so easy to use and accurate that my wife could sharpen drills and she probably doesn't know what a drill is and never used one. There is only one problem and that was cost. I have had this machine for over 8years and still works the same as the day it come out of the box

 

[slim_boy_fat]

oh you mean your round to it project

That's the very one , it IS working it's way to the top of the pile though.

 

[Wedg1e]

When pressed - by hand, with an angle grinder
Case in point, we were on a job in Gosport some years back and we'd roped in assorted teenagers to help out with menial tasks like lugging stuff.
Someone gave them the job of drilling holes in a concrete floor to put Rawlbolts in, using big SDS masonry bits and a hefty Bosch hammer-action. Once that was done, it was realised that all the steel fixtures they were to bolt down needed bigger holes in, so a 16mm drill bit was obtained and they set to it. I should point out that I was busy elsewhere for most of the day, and when I got back to the site the lads were all sat round twiddling their thumbs while the so-called 'project manager' grinned like a Cheshire cat and said the job was knackered.
Why? I asked.
Because the 16mm drill lasted seconds before 'going blunt'. So off they'd trooped (all of them!) to the local tool shop where another 16mm drill was obtained.
Same thing happened: drill was blunt in no time. Back to the shop. Repeat until the shop had no more 16mm drills, but the lads had a pile of shagged ones.
I looked at the drills, said all we needed to do was resharpen them.
Project manager gets all shirty, where's our tool grinder, how can we do this on site etc. etc.
I pointed at the 4.5" angle grinder and said "There's always that".
Well now project manager is on the floor: you can't sharpen drill bits with an angle grinder, he chortles to the young lads.
I picked up the grinder and a drill, put some semblance of a shape on it and handed it to one of the teenagers: show me what you were doing, I tell him.
So he fits the drill, pulls the trigger and the big Bosch spins straight up to warp speed as he applies it to the first bit of steel.
I stopped him, turned the speed control right down and told him to try again. Predictably, the drill went straight through.
I reshaped all the other 16mm drills but I don't think they neded to swap more than once for the rest of the job.
The 'project manager', by the way, had some sort of Degree in engineering.

 

[Wedg1e]

By hand on the grinder or linisher, not all perfect but I get there - but, come the Quorn....

How is a horse-flavoured mushroom sausage going to improve anything?

 

[mtt.tr]

I split point my but do it by eye freehand, most important to to get everything equal but to also not make the drill too aggressive.

Below 3mm i use a diamond stone