The Drill Doctor

The boss was getting tired of replacing drill bits so he bought a Drill Doctor and asked me to learn how to use it. I’ve spent the last two days with it and at this point all I can do is DULL drill bits and make them useless. I studied the manual, I understand the alignment procedure, etc. It just doesn’t work for me. I stand at the at the grinding wheel and sharpen a drill bit by hand and end up with a bit that cuts pretty good. But if I use this machine it doesn’t make any difference which end of the bit I stick in the chuck…..what am I missing here? Have any of you guys ever had any success with the Drill Doctor?

Thanks

Rootski

Only on very small bits. Large bits are mostly a waste of time.

I’ve actually been pretty happy with mine, and I’ve done bits up to 1/2″.

This will pay for it self in a short time if you sharpen a lot of drills.
Drill Sharpner

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I’ve actually been pretty happy with mine, and I’ve done bits up to 1/2″.

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OK, then my question is have you discovered anything you need to do that isn’t mentioned in the manual? Maybe I’m pushing down to hard or not hard enough or in the wrong direction or something? I mean, this thing does NOT work. If I sharpen a 3/8″ according to the manual and then try and drill through a piece of aluminum, it just spins in one spot without cutting anything. It’s terrible. What couyld I be doing wrong?

Do you also get the feeling that I need to get my trailer fixed and get out fishing

What model do you have? I haven’t used mine in a while, so I’ll have to pull it out at try it out again. I remember pushing fairly hard on the inital few swipes, and using light pressure to finish the bit off. Also, it they’re really dull, you may have to reposition the bit in the chuck after you take a little bit of metal off.

Does yours have the option to make a split point? I would thing that would help out some, too.

I agree with Alumanator. You can’t go wrong with a DAREX drill sharpener. We have 1 at work. 99% of what we drill is stainless steel, and that thing is awesome. Not to change the subject, but do you have the c’sink attachment with your DAREX?

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I agree with Alumanator. You can’t go wrong with a DAREX drill sharpener. We have 1 at work. 99% of what we drill is stainless steel, and that thing is awesome. Not to change the subject, but do you have the c’sink attachment with your DAREX?

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I sell them at work, I can get you the c’sink attachment for your DAREX. They are not cheep.

With botht he drill docter & the Darex, if you take any amount of material off the end of the drill bit at all, then it becomes very important that you loosen the collet and reposition the drill bit.

What happens if you don’t do this is that the drill bit will not be sharpened with the correct axial relief. Or in many cases, the drill bit will have a negative axial relief and drilling a hole is impossible with a bit that has a negative angle on it.

You’re best bet with these types of drill sharpeners is to do two or three very lite finish cuts after you reposition the drill bit in the collet.

Personally, I don’t like either one of these sharpeners because of the constant repositioning of the drill bit in the collet in order to achieve the correct cutting angles on the end of the bit.

Give me a 59 degree drill gage, a pedestal grinder or a flat, circular disc sander and I’ll give you a super sharp drill bit that cuts with ease.

The old drill sharpeners that were built right on the pedestal grinders were the cats meow. Especially with drill bits over 3/4″. They are very hard to find anymore these days but they took into account the fact that a drill bit’s cutting angle’s change as material is removed while sharpening the end of the bit.

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This will pay for it self in a short time if you sharpen a lot of drills.
Drill Sharpner

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Holy cow, $1500 and $3300 respectively…I realize someplaces go thru a lot of bits, but holy cow!