It should “bite” the wood right away with minimal pressure and, when you extract the drill bit from the wood, it should fling wood chips as it emerges. Once you’re confident in the sharpness of the bit, insert it in your drill, grab that scrap wood, and begin drilling. Don’t be disheartened if you return to the wheel several times-that’s part of the learning curve. Again, strive for that ideal 60-degree slope on the point, with equal widths on either side. If not, re-examine your tip and return to the grinding wheel. 0:00 / 5:37 Sharpening Carbide Tools Rockin Walls 5.12K subscribers Subscribe Like Share 31K views 11 years ago Learn the easy way to sharpen your carbide tools with out spending a lot. Even with this light pressure, a well-sharpened drill bit should create the beginnings of a hole. Hold the tip perpendicular against a piece of scrap wood and twist the bit by hand. Once the drill tip meets in a finely honed point, and both edges are sharp and the same width, give the bit a test run. To help ensure equal sharpening, some people opt to sharpen a little on each side, holding the drill bit in their dominant hand and flipping it 180-degrees after every few seconds of grinding. This article demonstrates the old-school way of sharpening by hand. Aim for that 60-degree angle, and an angle and point that’s the same width on both sides of the drill bit, to enable the tool to bore straight holes. When satisfied with the point on the first side, turn the drill bit 180 degrees and use the same grind-and-cool process for the opposite side of the tip. Once the bit is cool to the touch, inspect it to see if it’s honed to a good point on the side you just worked. Failure to do so will cause the drill bit will become too hot to hold and even wear down the metal faster, shortening the effective life of the bit. Pause after four to five seconds of grinding and dip the drill bit into the ice water to cool the metal. The most likely reason is that you have a dull drill bit. There are a few reasons why you’re looking to sharpen your drill bit. Examine the whole cutting edge, right to the outer edge of the bit. If the angle isn’t steep enough, the drill bit won’t bore smoothly. You’ll want to take a close look at the drill bit you’re sharpening. Focus on grinding the heel of the bit, where the tip meets the twisted shaft-not the edge-to achieve the ideal angle. Remember: Your objective is to simply grind the dull surface away, not wear down the bit. Many people create HSS lathe tools using nothing more than a bench grinder and get perfectly acceptable, if not downright excellent, results. Hold the bit at this angle against the wheel for no more than four to five seconds. Do not turn or rotate it simply keep it straight and held at the original factory angle of 60 degrees. Slowly, carefully, move the bit until it contacts the wheel. Get a firm grip on your drill bit and hold the cutting edge precisely parallel to the front of the grinding wheel. STEP 2ĭon your goggles and turn on the bench grinder. If the bits are really ravaged, start with the coarse wheel, and switch to the finer one later in the process if your bits don’t look too bad, begin with the finer grinding wheel. Many bench grinders have two grinding wheels, one coarse one and one fine. Your goal is to remove only enough metal to get a sharpened edge. How to Sharpen Drill BitsĮxamine your dull bits. Because it’s crucial to have a firm hold on the bit while grinding, gloves are listed as optional. Moreover, they hold their shape and edges, so you can get some sharpening done with never using a dressing stick.Note: Some find that wearing work gloves impairs the ability to get a safe grip on a drill bit. From my experience, CBN and Diamond wheels last nearly forever with moderate usage. You've got to have good wheels to get good results. Equip some with ordinary wheels for rough grinding, and put CBN wheels on another one, and diamond wheels on another. If your grinder has a larger table, you can clamp a guide edge on the table to grind more accurate angles. You also don't have to worry about heat buildup burning your fingers. The larger surfaces give you a better idea (and better control) of the angles. I rest my left hand on the bench holding the drill bit and use my right hand to. I find it easier to hold the bit being ground in the tool holder. Repeat.įorgot to mention: get yourself a few 6" bench grinders. One may have to try the drill first in a scrap piece before using it on a job. Compare what you did to new drill geometry. How do you get good at drill sharpening? By doing it. Guys who solve their tool sharpening problems by buying new tools, well, they're lucky, and apparently, never stuck to get something done with what is on hand. However, the setting fixture is probably too blunt to actually catch the flute for positioning, so I'd have to set the angle by eye anyways. I just touch up the point by hand, because the my center drills are too short to be grasped in my Darex chuck, but I suppose extra long ones could be done with it.
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