Author Topic: Drill Doctor  (Read 22472 times)

RobWilson

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Drill Doctor
« on: November 16, 2016, 04:40:10 PM »
Hi Lads


Any of you chaps have ,use a Drill Doctor ?   good ? crap ?



Rob

Offline sbwhart

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2016, 04:47:10 PM »
 Hi Rob

I have a drill doctor it's a nice bit of kit does a good job, but if you can re grind a drill by hand and only have an occasional need to sharpen a drill you have to ? The expense

Sy
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Offline John Rudd

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2016, 04:57:35 PM »
Rob,
I have one of these....
http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?id=20&method=mViewProduct&productid=17453
This what you mean?
Good for drills from 1/8 upwards...
Spent over an hour sharpening all my twist drills..... :dremel:
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RobWilson

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #3 on: November 16, 2016, 05:14:42 PM »
Hi Rob

I have a drill doctor it's a nice bit of kit does a good job, but if you can re grind a drill by hand and only have an occasional need to sharpen a drill you have to ? The expense

Sy

Hi Stew

Its mainly for smaller drill bits Stew ,say under 5mm , my eyes seam to be a bit naff at the moment ,(must go for an eye test) , I am fine grinding 6mm and above by hand no problem , its just the smaller sizes  :palm:

Cheers Rob 

RobWilson

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #4 on: November 16, 2016, 05:15:51 PM »
Rob,
I have one of these....
http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?id=20&method=mViewProduct&productid=17453
This what you mean?
Good for drills from 1/8 upwards...
Spent over an hour sharpening all my twist drills..... :dremel:

Any chance you could bring it North next time your up John ,just so I can give it a test drive  :dremel:


Rob

Offline howsitwork?

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #5 on: November 16, 2016, 05:31:47 PM »
Got one Rob and it's a good gadget. Mine does upto 13mm but they can go larger with bigger collet ( which I forgot to get when on hols in USA - bugger!) :hammer:

Really fancy Stevensons magical drill sharpener as demo'ed at Donc by  a shifty looking bloke in a jumper :lol:

John was showing it off for Arc euro and I recon it's a marvel but wasn't totally sorted at the time. Ketan maybe able to update us on that one?

Ian

Offline John Rudd

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #6 on: November 16, 2016, 05:38:46 PM »
Rob,
I have one of these....
http://www.sealey.co.uk/PLPageBuilder.asp?id=20&method=mViewProduct&productid=17453
This what you mean?
Good for drills from 1/8 upwards...
Spent over an hour sharpening all my twist drills..... :dremel:

Any chance you could bring it North next time your up John ,just so I can give it a test drive  :dremel:


Rob

Yup will do...I'll dig it out from the mountain of crap I have.....just need to remember to put it in the car :doh:
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Offline jcs0001

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #7 on: November 16, 2016, 09:45:28 PM »
Rob:

I have one with the collet to go to 1/2 in.  (Drill doctor).  It works quite well if I do my part and I understand (but have not tried it) that by holding really small drill bits in a pin chuck it will work with smaller bits than advertised.

Mine needs another diamond wheel - I found a very basic one missing a few parts but with a new wheel - at a thrift shop recently so just need to change it over.

John.

Offline Lew_Merrick_PE

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #8 on: November 16, 2016, 10:30:21 PM »
I have had a Drill Doctor for more than 20 years.  I have the collet set for it that will locate a ø3/4 inch drill bit.  I do not use it on bits smaller than ø3/32 inch.  [I have a "hand guide" set that will take me down to ø.005 inch bits.]  The biggest hassle with the Drill Doctor is getting the "fingers" to grab and orient the bit properly -- it often takes me several "tries" to get that right.  As I live just north of the factory, getting parts is not an issue for me.

Offline PK

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #9 on: November 17, 2016, 12:20:50 AM »
I've got one, it does a better job than it has any right to do..  I was pleasantly surprised..
As others have said, it struggles on the tiny ones...

PK

Offline smiffy

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #10 on: November 17, 2016, 02:59:09 AM »
I brought one recently from MSC as they are on special offer at the moment and for what it is it does a ok job .   Mike

Offline PekkaNF

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #11 on: November 17, 2016, 03:46:16 AM »
Does it matter which drill doctor? There seems to several models.

Is this fine for home shop needs?
http://www.drilldoctor.com/drill-doctor-750x.html

Does it works right out of the box and "as seen on TV" or should I buy some other bits as well? 2,4 - 19 mm Dia range seems pretty good for me.

How long does the abrasive wheel lasts? Should I get another as well?

Pekka

Offline John Rudd

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #12 on: November 17, 2016, 09:26:18 AM »
Pekka,
One individual over on another website asked about wearing out the wheel prematurely, my curt response was dont be so heavy handed........but he deserved it.... :coffee:

To answer your question in a more polite manner, it wouldnt do no harm buying a spare diamond stone for it if you think it will wear out.....I didnt when I bought mine, but I might just do that now....
That said, there isnt a lot of dust produced from touching up drills......

Good luck with your purchase... :beer:
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Offline jcs0001

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #13 on: November 17, 2016, 09:48:02 AM »
I've also read that the wheel can be turned around (it's a small cylinder) so as to use the other end if it has been used for small drill bits for most of it's life.  The larger bits use up more of the area on the diamond wheel so preclude doing this.

I'll take a look at mine later today and report back.

John.

Offline David Jupp

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #14 on: November 17, 2016, 09:52:34 AM »
I've used one - biggest disappointment for me was how fiddly setting drill in position can be.  As Lew mentioned it can take a number of attempts.  Much easier to set for slightly larger drills.  It is perhaps better than my old Martek, but not hugely so.

Offline jcs0001

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #15 on: November 17, 2016, 10:22:14 AM »
Just checked to see if reversing the diamond drum would work.  My drill doctor is the 500 - so good up to 1/2in bits.

Both a 1/4 and 1/2 in. bit reach to the rear of the sharpening drum so reversing it should work.  Mine needs a change although visually it looks good compared to the new drum.  Feeling it reveals that it is now very smooth at the back and less so near the front.



It's not easy to see however this is a 1/4 in. drill bit reaching near the back of the drum - this is similar whether set up for 118 deg. or 135 deg.

Have any of you used it for split pointing bits?  I've never tried that and would have to look at the instructions to see how.

John.

Offline mcostello

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #16 on: November 17, 2016, 10:27:18 AM »
Splitting points goes by feel, take it easy. If there is not enough clearance on Your drill bits, just turn the bit clockwise when looking at the cutting end of the drill bit, hope I have the direction right as I am not in front of the machine and am ASSUMING My memory is correct.
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Offline PekkaNF

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #17 on: November 17, 2016, 02:00:05 PM »
Slight hickup....found good prices including P&P and all....but they were US half vlotage models...european 230VAC/50Hz models seem to be somewhere 270€ and over 300€ in Finnish shops. At that price point it does not make sense.

Few amazon searces more, but it looks like I'm going to ditch it. I thought there finally would be a touch up tool to keep all drills sharp.

Pekka

Offline howsitwork?

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #18 on: November 17, 2016, 02:50:23 PM »
Pekka

I got mine on holiday in USA and got a 110 v converter for it. Most work sites in uk run on 110v so they're available, mates in Denmark use 110 volt stuff so must be available on continent.

Wish I'd got the bigger collet as getting one here's a problem. Meant to buy one in states but forgot! I got the 750 model.

Did get a spare wheel but  must try to be less heavy handed as there is a tendancy to push the collet into the machine when using it ( might just be me though!).

Ian




RobWilson

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #19 on: November 17, 2016, 03:30:59 PM »
Evening Lads

Thank you  for all the comments and advice  :thumbup: ,  mmmmmmmmmm maybe I should just bulk buy the smaller sizes and just bin the bit  once dull , it just seams a bit waist full .



I will think on it .

Thanks Rob



 

Offline Manxmodder

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #20 on: November 17, 2016, 03:34:38 PM »
Just checked to see if reversing the diamond drum would work.  My drill doctor is the 500 - so good up to 1/2in bits.

Both a 1/4 and 1/2 in. bit reach to the rear of the sharpening drum so reversing it should work.  Mine needs a change although visually it looks good compared to the new drum.  Feeling it reveals that it is now very smooth at the back and less so near the front.



It's not easy to see however this is a 1/4 in. drill bit reaching near the back of the drum - this is similar whether set up for 118 deg. or 135 deg.

Have any of you used it for split pointing bits?  I've never tried that and would have to look at the instructions to see how.

John.

John, I have been loaned a drill doctor on long term. My mate has acquired a proper Union tool and cutter grinder so doesn't use the drill doctor these days.

I sharpened a couple of old sets of drills with it and was quite pleasantly surprised at how decent a job it can do.

I did split the points on the drills over 4 mm dia up to 13mm and it does that very well also.

In essence there can be a bit of fiddling about to get the drill set up and indexed properly,but for the price of the unit they do a good job. Most certainly a huge improvement over the old Martek that I used to own.. As a couple of others have said previously,be gentle when feeding the drill into the wheel and don't lean on it or the wheel life will be dramatically reduced.

I do wonder whether the wheel might also benefit from being occasionally de-clogged by using a diamond wheel cleansing stick.......OZ.

ETA: I also meant to say that small diameter drills(1-4mm) are often so cheap to buy in packs of 10 that they aren't worth the hassle of re-sharpening
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Offline Manxmodder

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #21 on: November 17, 2016, 03:42:01 PM »
Evening Lads

Thank you  for all the comments and advice  :thumbup: ,  mmmmmmmmmm maybe I should just bulk buy the smaller sizes and just bin the bit  once dull , it just seams a bit waist full .



I will think on it .

Thanks Rob

Rob, again referring to the mate who loaned me the drill doctor. He sharpens small drills with the dremell and a diamond cut off disc. He wears a pair of binocular magnifiers when doing this to be able to see the tip clearly. It is a very successfull technique......OZ.
Helixes aren't always downward spirals,sometimes they're screwed up

Offline PK

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #22 on: November 17, 2016, 04:09:41 PM »
Mine is a 110V model running on a cheap step down transformer.

RobWilson

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #23 on: November 17, 2016, 04:09:56 PM »
Hi OZ

I suppose could give an Optivisor ago  :dremel:


Rob

Offline Manxmodder

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Re: Drill Doctor
« Reply #24 on: November 17, 2016, 06:48:54 PM »
Rob,being able to clearly see what your doing is more than half the battle won.

When I say he uses a diamond dremel cut of disc,he is using the cheek of the disc rather than the edge.....OZ.
Helixes aren't always downward spirals,sometimes they're screwed up