Looking for a (powered) Drill Sharpener

[Martingchapman]

Hi everyone.
I am looking for a powered drill sharpener that will sharpen normal twist and masonry drills and if possible SDS masonry drills.
Ideally this would have its own motor so I do not need to hook it up to a drill or use it on a grinder.
I have seen one from Plasplugs (a four in one which looks a little flimsy but does claim to do twist and masonry drills) cost is around £35 so the quality is reflected in the price but it doesn have a jig to "back off" hammer drills which is nice.
Also seen one from Proxxon which looks much more substantial but is 3 times the price. Also this one does not say anything about masonry drills.
Does anyone have one of the above sharpeners and if so what do you think of them.
Also I would appreciate any suggestions or guidance on the best sharpener to buy if there is one.
I know I can sharpen by hand on my grinder but as I don't do this very often I would have to learn the technique again every time I needed to sharpen a drill and I have little confidence in my ability to get consistent results by hand.

Thanks in advance - Martin.

 

[George_N]

Martin, if you already have a grinder what about one of these jigs? I've not tried the Axminster one but at under a tenner it might be worth a go.

 

[DaveL]

Martin,

Where are you? (Hint, put an area in your profile.) :-k

Or should I say where will you be on 1st September :?:

I have one of the Plasplugs kits, no longer used due to newer toys, er I mean tools replacing it. If you come to the Bash at my place on 1st September, 8) then you are welcome to take it home with you.

 

[Roy Clarke]

How much do you want to spend? I have been looking for ages, and there are a couple of machines under £1000, yes they really are that much. I have looked at the cheaper ones, and you might as well rig up a wooden jig on a belt sander IMO.

 

[andpartington]

get your self one of these with the exchange as it is it wont brake the bank but i got a bill for 20 quid import
if you have some 110 stuff you are in business but i got a transformer off the bay for 20 quid and i am very happy with it
i tried the jigs and imho they are rubbish

http://www.genext.drilldoctor.com/content/view/13/28/

it will do my
straight shank twist drills
tapered shank twist drills
straight shank masonry drills
will probably to the sds but i don't have any to check

andy

 

[inventor]

I had a cheap plastic drill sharpener - was it plasplugs? - some time ago. It ended in the bin. Hard to get top class results, on any drill.

On large drills, I've had great success with a conventional sharpening jig and a bench grinder.

On little drills, I throw them away. Drills are cheap. Little cobalt drills, which are actually expensive enough to worry about, I'm afraid I have a fine record of breaking before they wear out.

 

[Martingchapman]

DaveL,
Thanks very much, that is a very generous offer but I have looked at the PlasPlug version and it does not appear as if it will be as accurate as I like (no offence as you have one). I have updated my profile as you suggest.

Andy,
Thanks for pointing me towards the Drill Doctor this looks more up to the job. Regards getting hold of one it is available in the UK from the International Tool Company in Northampton here http://www.international-tool.co.uk/Products/Default.asp?type=dept&DepartmentID=79.
They also sell spares for the Drill Doctor although their prices are almost Dollar to Pound one for one!!!
I think this is the one I will go for but having just bought a Festool C12 drill this will have to wait a bit.
Thanks again - Martin.

 

[Roy Clarke]

BEWARE THE DRILL DOCTOR. Model Engineering Workshop has had several letters recently from people who could not make the DD sharpen drills, though the latest issue has a letter with a workaround in.

 

[andpartington]

they are not using it right i can sharpen a 3\4 bit cock on then go
to a 3/16 and guess what cock on
they should read the manual and watch the dvd

Q do you know how to test for a good sharp bit and right rpms?

A you should be getting 2 ribbons of metal one from each flute
for cutting speeds look at this

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutting_speed

i am sharpening dormers which makes big difference (rubbish in rubbish out)

also i am running them on a lathe and bridgey so both variable speed machines so can hit the cutting speed right on the nose which makes one hell of a difference hand drills run far to fast for anything over 1/4

get the drill docker and you will not regret it

andy

 

[merylvingien]

I have a drill doctor, and its one of the first to be imported into the country, had it for many years now and sharpened loads of my drill bits.

Works every time, nice and quick to setup and a couple of turns and the drill is just like new.

Im not sure about the latest versions as i havent used them, but the original was and still is superb.

I still kick myself that when i was made redundant and the factory where i worked moved, everything had to go, welding machines, lathes, pillar drills etc and the drill sharpening machine that i could have had for £25 and i turned it down for a poxy 3 phase welder.

Today this item would cost a couple of grand at least. Damn!

 

[Lord Nibbo]

Why on earth do you need a special power tool to sharpen drill bits?

My first ever lessons at woodwork were how to sharpen tools, it included drill bits just using a bench grinder, no jigs not even a rest on the grinder. My suggestion is to find someone who can teach you how to do it. Then buy a cheap couple of bits and practice. The art is to grind the correct angle and then have both cutting edges exactly the same. Of course this only applies to your twist drill used normally on metal, in wood work the preference is for lip and spur type drill bits, and thats a whole different ball park.

 

[engineer one]

seem to remember we were taught to make a wooden guide for one side, and then as nibbo says, use a higher speed grinder.

for normal twist drills, the angle is 55 degrees from memory, and does not take too long to achieve.

it could be done by hand in the same way as a router cutter is cut on a hand held diamond stone. make sure each stroke is repeated on each side of the drill.

since a 2mm drill is pretty cheap to buy, buy a few, and try out the various methods.

paul :wink:

 

[Martingchapman]

Lord Nibbo and Paul,
Thanks for the advice regards sharpening by hand, you are right in that it is not too difficult and just needs a bit of practise, however thats the problem.
Due to the (small) amount of use they get I only need to sharpen my drills about once a year (from which comment you can tell I don't have a lot of spare time for woodworking) so I can spend time practising on some small cheap drills and get the technique right but the next time I need to do it will be 12 months hence so I need to learn all over again. Also you may say well in that case why not just buy new drills when required, that would probably be cheaper than buying a decent drill sharpener, and again you would be right, it just seems such a waste to throw away perfectly good drills for the want of sharpening.
Please don't take this as a criticism of your replies they are valid and much appreciated, as is everyone elses on the forum who has taken the trouble to reply.
Don't really know what to do now given the reported problems regards the DD but the counter comments that it works fine.
Maybe think about it and have a go at hand sharpening using the grinder.

Once again thanks everyone for the advice and comments - Martin.

 

[engineer one]

radical thought mate.

go for one of the routes alf has suggested in the past.

buy a hand powered grinder which you can also use for sharpening chisels etc.(so they tell me :? :lol: ) and get one of those red wheels.

not sure the investment is too great, but at least you get a dual purpose tool that won't lie around gathering dust :roll:

you are right about the whole throwaway thing, but the other problem is you become a collector of gadgets :twisted:

no one i think will take offence at your comments or rejecting our great advice :^o

paul :wink:

 

[pooka]

This will be relevant to Irish readers of this forum only, so sorry in advance for the limited audience for this post: I was in Woodies in Tallaght today, and they have a relocation/clearance sale on. They have very little left but I noticed about 5 or 6 Plasplugs electric sharpeners - I think they are called "4 in 1" or similar and seemed to include two different sharpeners in a set.

I don't know about the quality of these sets, or how much they normally cost, but they are on sale at a 50% discount on the listed price. I think the listed price was €62 or so.

 

[woodbloke]

Why on earth do you need a special power tool to sharpen drill bits?

My first ever lessons at woodwork were how to sharpen tools, it included drill bits just using a bench grinder, no jigs not even a rest on the grinder. My suggestion is to find someone who can teach you how to do it. Then buy a cheap couple of bits and practice. The art is to grind the correct angle and then have both cutting edges exactly the same. Of course this only applies to your twist drill used normally on metal, in wood work the preference is for lip and spur type drill bits, and thats a whole different ball park.

Agree here with His Lordship, grinding HSS twist bits is easy once you know how and have had a little practice, does get tricky below about 4mm tho'. Lip and spur bits are also very easy to sharpen on a grinder and I always make my own from a spare set of HSS bits in the 'shop - Rob

 

[desmoengine]

dedicated drill sharpener?
i recently came across this BSG220 from Proxxon
it looked a well made bit of kit.
dave w

 

[beech1948]

You don't need a special gadget to sharpen drills. Just a bit of manual dexterity and a look at a typical web site about this subject.

Latest one is Mataias Wandel site see http://woodgears.ca/drill/sharpen.html.

hAVE A LOOK, HAVE A GO.
aL

 

[chipmunk]

You really need to see this video before you think about buying a drill sharpener...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqn2VPGYA9c

:lol: :lol:

If at the end of it you still want a drill sharpener then buy one.
HTH
Jon

 

[powertools]

I have the £10 jig (similar to the Ax one) mounted on the side of the bench grinder and it is very good