Best drill bit sharpener

Charlie Mike

Charlie Mike

Sober since 1-7-14 (still a Paranoid Nutjob)
Knifemaker / Craftsman / Service Provider
Joined
Nov 1, 2000
Messages
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I've been hand sharpening for years but would like something that offers more consistent results.

The ability to sharpen straight flute carbide bits would be a huge plus.
 
Unless you want to spend $$$$ on a real tool and cutter grinder, you'd be better off sticking with freehand grinding.
Drill doctors are a toy at best, and even the more industrial drill sharpeners generally take longer to see up than it would to freehand grind.
You can do the straight flute carbide (hiroc) drills on a pedestal grinder as well, they just take a green wheel and a bit more practice
 
The drill doctor 750x is decent for twist drills. I've not had much luck with the split point feature, but it's really not bad for regular sharpening.

For end mills, unless you want to spend a few grand on a machine, there seems to be some success to be had with a fixture, usually used with a surface grinder. These can range anywhere from a stationary jig with a 5c collet insert, to a multi axis jig, to jigs with moving spindles and various other adjustments. Price varies according to complexity, but if you're just doing the ends, you should be fine with a basic jig from somewhere like Grizzly.
 
more less what i have found cause i want4d better resharpens of the 1/8 and 3/16 sizes i use the heck out of but also woudl be nice to sharpen my endmills $$$$$$$
 
I have a drill doctor and it works great. I use it to sharpen conventional drill bits though. It's not super heavy duty but it works every time and has for years. I bought it used at an estate sale for $10. It gets the drill bits looking brand new, some times better. They zip right through work after being sharpened.
 
View attachment 741012 View attachment 741013 I have a couple of the General/Craftsman jigs. They give me better results than free handing. I also have fancier model with a micrometer advance used with a cup wheel grinder. It works even better. These jigs do not work that well on small drill bits, but small drill bits are cheaper to buy new.
 
I have used a drill doc a ton and it's a good system. Not as good as when at one of my jobs where we had a tool grinding department but it does good results.
 
I'd highly recommend spending the little extra for drillco nitro gold, Morse marxman, Norseman viking, ect
The common knife sizes are $2 or less, and they vastly outlast everything else I've tried.
A top quality black and gold coated HSS drill has usually proven to be superior to cobalt in my experience working with blade steel. The cobalt drills are a bit more heat resistant, but generally have a thicker web. A thicker web leads to more resistance drilling, and more heat. It's always a trade-off, but in blade steels I've generally found the trade-off to favor a thin web.
And cutting fluid. Not wd40, not cooking oil, not any kind of lubricating oil. Lubricating oil is designed to keep two pieces of metal from touching eachother. Cutting fluid is designed to prevent galling and welding of two pieces that are touching. Lubricating oil will greatly reduce the life of tools, and make sharp tools cut like they're dull. A gallon of pipe threading oil is about $30 at a plumbing supplier, and will probably be a lifetime supply for the average knifemaker. It's well worth it.
From a cost perspective, using a drill sharpeners for tiny drills probably isn't worth it. But for 1/8" or larger I feel it works out in favor of the 30 seconds sharpening on a pedestal grinder takes. A good pedestal grinder with a pair of 120 grit stones (blue for HSS, green for carbide) is indespensable in any shop, even if you don't sharpen drills. Scribes, lathe and flycutter toolbits, cold chisels, center punches, even single flute countersinks can be resharpening well once you get the hang of it.
 
For my carbide end mills I am fortunate to have my next door neighbor (who is also my wife's uncle) sharpen them for me, he works at a machine shop that manufacturers these things. I'm sure there are services out there...
 
We send our endmills to MSC (I assume they aren't doing it and are just contracting it to someone and being our point of service, but it may be a place to start if you're looking) for resharpening. Remember, if you don't want an endmill to come back undersize on the diameter, specify that the sharpener needs to only work from the end. Personally I find it kind of handy to have undersize endmills floating around.

I've never met a drill sharpener I liked. I would rather just buy new drill bits when you are talking <1/4" diameter, and I'll hand sharpen anything larger. If they work for you, great. But none of them put proper geometry on the end of a drill in my opinion.
 
The old black and Decker and Lisle drill grinders will do a good job. They are getting to be very hard to find though, and are slower than freehand. There is one of the black and Decker commercial ones floating around the shop here, but I basically never use it. Unless you're doing a few dozen 1/8" or smaller drills, freehand is faster
 
A thick web however can't really be dealt with by any machine. They really need freehand grinding, and the point split
 
Freehand sure brings back memories...Still do it today. My first day as an apprentice the "Ol' Man" gave me his bits to sharpen to test me...must have done something right or he felt pity...led to 30 years at NASA. I've tried to warm up to sharpening fixtures just to much time to set up with results no better than freehand. It was nice to have an in house tool room to sharpen all of our cutting tools!!
 
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