I had a nice 110V bench grinder with a little swinging bracket on a wing nutted bolt off the right hand side. This bracket had a chasm milled/finished in it that would position any drill bit from 1/8" to 3/8" to the wheel face, good precise sharpening every time. Gave it to my nephew in a weak moment...bought a Drill Dr. after using Lester Codd's. Good tool if you take an inordinate amount of time to understand its 'rules'... Remember... "DOCTOR'S ORDERS..."
I bought one years ago, worked very good, would put a perfect edge on a drill bit. My only concern was it took a bit longer than just sharpening on the grinder. I use the Drill Doctor if the bit is really messed up, use the grinder for touch up. I bought it thinking I would sit at my work bench and sharpen every bit I had.....not! Lol Bones
I bought the Drill doctor 750 and I hate the thing. It’s going back into the box and being returned to the store. If they won’t take it back I’ll probably sell it.
Like many here I hated mine until a friend showed me how to use it properly. I now consider it indispensable.
I'm also one of the people very disappointed with the Drill Doctor and Darex machines. Two places I worked at had Brierley Drill grinders. They are really good, but expensive used, and it looks like they don't make the good ones anymore (of course). We would sharpen drills down to about 1/16" with our unit, as well as center drills and even bottoming taps. It's very hard to find a drill grinder that will work on small drills. And for the love of Pete, they are Twist Drills, not Drill Bit's! (Unless they have a funny square taper shank that fits one of them things called a brace.)
yes you are correct they are drills driven by a drill motor. a bit is a pieces added to a drill by brazing or welding.
i have a 750 and it works great. better finish than a grinder and split points are perfect. watch the videos if you are senile.
The Drill doctor is a toy, I prefer to work with real professional style equipment. I’m going to visit my pal who owns a well equipped machine shop and see what his tool crib guy uses to sharpen and maintain the shops tooling. Yes the machinists can and do sharpen and shape many of their own tools but having some standard stuff like cutting tools and drill bits ready to go in the tool room saves time on the shop floor.
I've had mine for 15 years or so...750, goes to 1/2 inch...hardly used it up until a few years ago. My eyesight isn't the best now days, but that DD sure makes sharpening small bits a breeze. I can still do 3/8th and up on my grinder (one I only use for drill bits), since they are easier to see. Might be a toy to some, but I like playing with it.
I also have a 750 Drill Doctor and it does an excellent job. Little tough on the really smaller bits (under 1/8" or so), but over all it's great. I've sharpened hundreds of bits with it. Just have to read and follow the directions..........
I've got the DD750. Sure, it's not professional grade but gets the job done for me. I've done several boxes of bits and only fail every now and then.
As long as we are being pedantic, every dictionary lists a bit as the cutting part of a tool, which a twist drill is. Why is an auger a bit, yet a twist drill is not? They do exactly the same thing, make a round (hopefully) hole in a piece of material. My routers use bits, which are rotating cutters. A twist drill is just a style of bit. Oh yeah, it's bits, not bit's
Gave away early model Drill Doctor. It never worked right for me. For whatever reason I acquired a knack for sharpening bits on bench grinder.
I used to work in factory maintenance. My 1st supervisor insisted that all the guys working for him had to be capable of sharpening drill bits if they wanted to keep working there. I've used a Drill Dr before, it may work OK, but its a painfully slow process. I suppose if a guy was going to sharpen 20 bits at a time, it would be OK, but for doing one, I'll sharpen it on the grinder by hand much faster. I can have the bit sharpened by hand long before I can dig the Drill Dr out and get it set up. Gene
It works great after you read and understand the instructions.... not professional machine for sure . But much better than me sharpening freehanded...
I use mine for touch up on drills of 5/32 and larger. I will set up the Drill Doctor and do a couple dozen drills at a time. It is not good for regrinding badly damaged drills or ones that have been improperly sharpened to the wrong angles
Just for fun, here's some pictures of an Oliver Drill Pointer I rebuilt a few years ago. It's best suited for drills around 1/2" to 2": The last photo shows the sheared key which was causing weird drill point angle profiles to be generated. The machine rotates the drill while the grinding wheel oscillates in and out, generating a fairly complex (and very efficient) drilling profile. It is imperative that these operations be timed correctly. The machine would be properly set up, and would run correctly because the sheared key had a large amount of friction with its shaft so the two would turn together, and stay in time. But after a while the gear would slip on its shaft, timing would be lost and the drill would come out wonky. It took a full dismantling to discover the little devil that was the culprit.
I believe the 500 is good to 1/2 " the 750 is 3/4" I have I believe it is 750 . I could never get the hang of hand sharpening . I think DD does a great job I split point all the bits and they cut just fine .
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