Sharpening steel drill bits

[Ken]

How do you guys sharpen steel drill bits? Thanks, Ken

[Woody]

Ken,

There are many ways but you can either use a sharpening stone (I find Diamond Sharpening stones useful for this - see our new review at

or there are special drill bit sharpening machines you can buy for this purpose. "The Drill Doctor" is a common machine that springs to mind.

The important part about sharpening drill bits is to keep the cutting angles on the tip uniform. About 18 degrees off memory for twist drill bits (but don't quote me on that - very tired right now!)

-- Regards,

Dean Bielanowski Editor, Online Tool Reviews

5 Reviews:

- Eze-Lap Diamond Sharpening Stones

- Incra TS-III Table Saw Fence

- Ryobi AP13 Planer/Thicknesser

- BeadLOCK Loose Tenon Joinery System

- Hyphone Air Tool Kit & Impact Wrench

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[Lawrence A. Ramsey]

[jo4hn]

[Phisherman]

It can be done and described in detail in a few good sharpening books, but I just replace them because the cost is so low. I am surprised that some woodworkers do the same for router bits which can be expensive.

[Clint Neufeld]

But your drill bit doesn't fly apart at 20,000 rpm when it becomes unbalanced because you ground off a little more on one side than the other. Just a thought...

Cl>

[Bob Summers]

Teenut (Robert Bastow, may he RIP) made a classic post on freehand twist drill sharpening in r.c.metalworking. Here is a link:

Teenut often made very good posts.

Bob S

[William E. Prisavage]

drill sharpening in r.c.metalworking. Here is a link:

[Chris Harris]

I don't have a drill doctor, never seen one, and it would probably take me six months to get one even if I could find a company that would export one, by ordinary airmail, without insisting on using a courier service and charging me £60 for postage. I found it a very good post and will definitly give the method a try, considering my current method is more like "stab it and see what happens".

Chris

[George SA]

I have been sharpening my metal twist dril bits by freehand on my bench grinder for the past couple of years. If the dril doesn,t work the first time round I just try again. As time goes by I seem to have fewer second trips. Can't recall having to make more tha three trips to the bench grinder.

Regards George SA

sharpening in r.c.metalworking. Here is a link:

[FOW]