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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Location
    Mackay North Qld
    Posts
    6,446

    Default Do we ALL need to own a drill doctor?

    Well it seems for 25 years plus I have managed to operate in my modest workshop shop with out owing a Drill Doctor.


    One does wonder how many people own them and don't actually need them.?

    I can understand those who are in to precision machining might find a drill doctor handy to own.

    Many of us who are in the home handy man category could and do survive with out owning one.

    A lot of us are preconditioned or is it brainwashed and that is just down to good ol marketing.

    We have been educated by the tool gurus, the U Tube talking heads and salesmen to believe that hand sharpening is almost a black art. Its a hard skill to learn, they say .You really do need to own a drill doctor.

    As a shop boilermaker I observed my fellow shop mates, the fitters and turners hand sharpening their drills and asked questions.

    I asked attachments and drill sharpening guides and they laughed at me. A young fitter gave me some hand sharpening basics and I was away.
    I scrounged all the blunt drill buts from family and friends and practiced on them.

    If you don't drill a whole lot of holes that require high precision, why go to a $600 expense? How many drills sharpened for that price?

    For my application it is clearance holes and tapping holes.

    I keep a dedicated set of HSS drill to 13mm for the lathe as well as a set of cobalt drills.

    I have a couple of sets of el cheapos that that I purchased for use as a Manual Arts technology teacher at high school. None of them have ever seen a drill doctor and were all hand sharpened.

    Most have a bench grinder and that is what I use to sharpen HSS drills with.I am able to sharpen HSS drills on a bench grinder, angle grinder face (when on site) and also with a belt grinder.Fitters ,please tell me if Drill doctors are used today in industrial workshop situations.

    How many more of you are out there who hand sharpen? Lets hear your stories.

    Grahame

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    4,779

    Default

    I hand sharpen when I can't be bothered using my DD. Sometimes I get it right other times I don't and end up back at the DD.

    Getting the point centred by eye and equal cutting height is easy on say an 8mm bit but on a 3 or 4mm bit I find it more difficult.

    The quickest and easiest jig I have seen is a piece of steel that has a rest at one end and some layout blue at the other which is used to witness the cutting height of each flute to ensure they both cut equally.

    I should make one.

    Simon

    Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
    Girl, I don't wanna know about your mild-mannered alter ego or anything like that." I mean, you tell me you're, uh, super-mega-ultra-lightning babe? That's all right with me. I'm good. I'm good.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Sydney
    Posts
    505

    Default

    It's good to be ablle to sharpen drills by hand, and that used to suffice, but more recently vision declined and so has the quality of drill sharpening, particularly with small drills.
    Bill

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Aug 2011
    Location
    Melbourne
    Posts
    4,779

    Default

    I should also add that I only bought stuff i needed and none of what I wanted, I would have stopped buying stuff years ago!

    The joys of having a job in a first world country that allows me to buy stuff to satisfy both wants AND needs!

    Living such a life is not lost on me!
    Yea yea I know i'm waffling now!

    Do we ALL need to own a drill doctor?Do we ALL need to own a drill doctor?

    Sent from my SM-G970F using Tapatalk
    Girl, I don't wanna know about your mild-mannered alter ego or anything like that." I mean, you tell me you're, uh, super-mega-ultra-lightning babe? That's all right with me. I'm good. I'm good.

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Melbourne
    Age
    34
    Posts
    1,075

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Grahame Collins View Post
    Fitters ,please tell me if Drill doctors are used today in industrial workshop situations.
    Not in our shop, I suspect the response would be "What do we need one of those for when we have 5 bench grinders?" Or something to that effect but less polite
    With CNCs running carbide, there's less and less sharpening done in house in general.

    How many more of you are out there who hand sharpen? Lets hear your stories.
    I was taught to sharpen when I did my furniture trade, both twist and brad point bits. With a sharp corner on the wheel you can even get fancy and do split points.

    I definitely see the use case for the DD as one's vision deteriorates or your hands aren't as steady as they used to be

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Aug 2008
    Location
    Adelaide
    Age
    68
    Posts
    1,373

    Default

    I picked my DD750 up at a garage sale some years ago. It was in pristine condition and, from memory, priced at around $50 or so, there's no way I could or would pay full price for one but at that price it was worth a punt.

    I was less than impressed with the results when I did use it - perhaps it needs a bit of fine tuning but as I've hand sharpened drills for 50 years or so since my grandfather taught me the DD sits gathering dust and will probably get sold off at some stage.

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Dec 2005
    Location
    South Australia
    Posts
    1,656

    Default

    I was taught to sharpen drills on a Bench grinder when I was apprentice (Cabinet Maker ) I remember seeing a drill doctor demonstrated somewhere many many years ago I thought it was lot
    of fidgeting about just to sharpen a drill.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Location
    jilliby nsw
    Age
    71
    Posts
    111

    Default

    As most others learnt the art of hand sharpening as an apprentice fitter. Then worked in a tool room for a while and used a whiz bang german machine with a cam system, perfect drill poinjt with 2-3 turns of the handle. Now in my home machine shop I still hand sharpen 90% of the time but a couple of times a year I machine sharpen to true up drill points (point angle & equal cutting egde length) from about 13mm to my 1 3/4"drill bits

  9. #9
    Join Date
    May 2011
    Location
    Murray Bridge S Aust.
    Age
    71
    Posts
    5,942

    Default

    I used to be able to sharpen on both a bench grinder/linisher and angle grinder, but the eyes aren't what they used to be, so I do go to my DD on the smaller drill bits up to 1/4 or 6mm.
    Kryn
    To grow old is mandatory, growing up is optional.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2019
    Location
    Adelaide
    Posts
    589

    Default

    I hand sharpen but am total RUBBISH at it. The poor eyesight doesn't help. Plan to make/buy an attachment for the Monoset....

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Sep 2014
    Location
    Elimbah Qld
    Posts
    24

    Default

    20 years ago I always hand sharpened drills now the eyes are not that good. So I now prefer split point 4 facet drill points . Even with the old eyes if I'm in a hurry and no good drill available in the size I'll rough hand grind a 4 facet as I now find it easier and quicker than trying to spin the drill while grinding for no real reason . I have a simple setup on my tool and cutter grinder to do the job properly and every month or so I set up and do a batch .I had one of the red drill sharpeners worked like a drill doctor same sort of chuck and setup but never happy with it waste of time took too long and most of the time the drill wasn't in the right setting so the cutting angle was wrong and had to regrind it again with more clearance to get the drill to cut . The way he Tormek sharpens drills is the go just need to make it cheap . I'd also like to add that I now only buy m35 cobalt drill bits they are the best

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Sep 2010
    Location
    Lebrina
    Posts
    1,910

    Default

    I've been a Boilermaker for 28 odd years and the best thing I ever did was choose Offhand Grinding as one of my optional modules during my apprenticeship. So few Boilermakers, (at least among the newer crop), can sharpen drill bits well enough to even cut. I have saved a fortune in both tool costs and time by being able to sharpen drill bits by hand on a bench grinder, angle grinder or even the side of a 14" abrasive cut off wheel.
    Now that I have branched out and own a milling machine etc I would like to get my hands on either a D bit grinder or a proper tool and cutter grinder. That will be some time off, so until then, I'll keep sharpening drills by hand.

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    Townsville, Tropical Nth Qld.
    Posts
    225

    Default

    I am much the same as most of the comments above, I was taught by dad very young to sharpen by hand. But as age has caught up with me I decided to buy a DD500 as Sydney Tools had them real cheap about 4 years ago and I like the results. The best bit is the split point function. I still make a lot of stuff and I believe it takes 50% less effort to drill steel with the split point drills.
    But at the cost they may not be for every one.
    Rgds,
    Crocy.

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Dec 2013
    Age
    56
    Posts
    1,416

    Default

    I sharpen my own without any jigs.smaller drills I use an eye glass.
    I've been at friends places using there tools and resharpened there blunt well worn drill bits on there angle grinder because they didn't have a bench grinder.

    A neighbour bought a drill doctor about a 1 1/2 years ago, he couldn't use it. I showed him the twisting motion to use it as I knew how to sharpen by hand, but I didn't think much of it for the price.
    Using Tapatalk

  15. #15
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Canberra
    Posts
    1,322

    Default

    If you've been taught or trained to sharpen by hand, that's awesome, but if not, you've got, at best, Youtube videos to learn from.

    I bought a DD 750 with the idea that it should get the drill to a sharp, symmetrical state with the desired angle and the optional bonus of a split point.

    In reality, it kind of achieves that, but very slowly, and I often got negative relief, which I now put down to not tightening the chuck sufficiently when setting up. The slow sharpening process has lead me to prefer to head to the grinder for an "easy" bit to sharpen - for me that's around 6mm or bigger - I rely on equal timed and number of grinds on each face with hopefully consistent pressure and rotation to ensure symmetry, and still have the option to break out the DD if I bugger it up in some respect.

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