Drill Bit Sharpening

Another dying art .

darex = awesome.

Freehand sharpening works, but the bit will never cut anywhere near as straight and accurate as one sharpened with a jig of some sort.

Darex looks just like a drill doctor to me. Looks like it works the same way. What's the big advantage of it over a drill doctor.

Kenny_McCormic wrote: Freehand sharpening works, but the bit will never cut anywhere near as straight and accurate as one sharpened with a jig of some sort.

In theory, yes. But in practice, I've never experienced wander. And with the DD, sometimes it'd take a few tries to get a REALLY nice finish. Free hand just works better for me. If I hadn't been taught how to do it by an old-timer, I'm sure I'd own a DD though.

I used to sharpen them by hand, I can't seem to get one right now (vision?).

The lightbulb just came on, I used to sharpen them on a belt sander, I've been using a grinder...

foxtrapper wrote: Darex looks just like a drill doctor to me. Looks like it works the same way. What's the big advantage of it over a drill doctor.

Dated owns drill doctor. The darex line is the heavy duty commercial/industrial line. The wheels are bigger and there is a ton more metal in the construction.

That's what i remember.

Maybe I should try making a jig of some sort for one of my belt sanders. If I could mount it vertically with a flat table at 90 deg to it that would be a good start.