Chosing a drill grinding attachment or machine

[Joseph Noci 1Participant @josephnoci1]

The nicest drill grinder I used was an oldish Meteor – they are still being made I see, albeit new styles, etc, but they still work the same way. As Clive said, if you have to faff about each time, and good results are not easily repeatable, then the jig is not worth it really. All you are after is a sharp and decent cutting drill to do the job you are busy with – the interest in the sharp drill is not really in the journey to get there! I tried various makes and types and just gave up on them. The Meteor I used was in a toolroom, and so sadly not my own, but it was fantastic. Insert the drill bit in the long-collet chuck, flip the chuck with drill point up into the in-place microscope, align the drill edges with the cross hairs, set the drill point or tip against the reference, flip the holder over into the wheel and swing the holder across the wheel. Rotate the holder 180deg and repeat. Advance the holder to put on cut and repeat.

From fitting a 6mm drill in the collet, to a perfect cutting edge ( on a drill that was just blunt, not chipped) takes all of 30 to 40 seconds…putting a new edge on a 2mm drill took 20 seconds.

Problem lies in the price of those units..

I made a cutter/grinder, and then a 4 (or 6) facet jig/holder with a microscope viewer to set up the drill – It works very well, with perfectly repeatable results, but needs more settup faffing than I like. I did post about it, with many pictures, but have no idea how to link to it, and don't wish to clutter this thread with more guff..

Joe

Link to the Meteor ( present day) stuff:

Meteor Drill Grinders

[BazyleParticipant @bazyle]

Howard, You are right that one needs a jig for the grinder – the point is which design do you recommend? How good is the Worden one assuming you went with that and does it adapt to other grinders?
This also raises the question of whether the grinding should be flat, cone, or curved (which I assume some of the plastic holder types like DrillDoctor produce).

[old martParticipant @oldmart]

We have a Proxxen drill sharpener at the museum, which is quite good when you have had some practice. It can manage up to 14mm, but drills under 3/16" may be too short to hold. I bought an er8 straight shank collet holder and can hold drills down to 2mm.

[Howard LewisParticipant @howardlewis46836]

For my Worden, I made up the Hemingway first version, but found it a bit prone to the drill slipping in the holder that is supposed to provide two locations at 180 degrees. Then made up the alternative version, which was the subject of an article in MEW. (Possibly by Mr Jeffree?) Was not confident of locating the drill flute against the tiny peg, consistently The version that I now use, still uses the inclined base, but with ER20 collets in an inch square holder.

For this, the cutting edge of the drill is aligned, with another shop made fixture, before the collet is clamped. Once clamped, turning over the holder means thatb the other lip is presented at 180 degrees. Four facet drill grinding is now much easier.

The same holder can be used in the standard base, normally used for lathe tool grinding, with another small alignment block, to grind the cutting edges of End Mills or Slot Drills. Three flute End Mills will require a reset for each cutting edge.

HTH

Howard

[John MCParticipant @johnmc39344]

This drill sharpener was a pleasant surprise! I bought it from Aldi (under a fiver, I think, complete with a spare grinding wheel) several years ago as a means of sharpening drills "off site". It works very well. Power is provided from an electric drill, I used a drill with a top speed of about 3000rpm, not really enough but I suspect running any faster would shorten it's life significantly .

Copes well with both HSS and tipped masonry drills.

John

[BufferParticipant @buffer]

Why is it that all the drill grinding jigs I see have the drill pointing up? This seems to need a fairly high grinder and a tall jig. Why cant the jigs be mounted horizontally and use the bottom of the wheel?

Only asking as I am thinking of turning a tripet grinder like the one below into a tool and drill grinder and I have never used a drill grinding jig before.

Thanks

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