Anyone use one of these?
How do they compare to others?
http://www.sterlingdrillgrinder.com/product_info.html
How do they compare to others?
http://www.sterlingdrillgrinder.com/product_info.html
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Sterling Drill Sharpener
- Thread starter ddickey
- Start date
Looks similar to the one my apprenticeship employer made in house many years before I started there..................
Looks expensive, made in USA, bound to be good --- Swing type drill grinders used to be common, this one looks to be more sophisticated than most.
I have a Pine Drill Grinder - it is similar in that it is a swing style (the grinder head swings instead of the tool holder). It seems to do a great job on drills down to ~5/8". On 1/2" drills the ground face seems flatter than a factory grind. The tool claims to be applicable down to 1/4" (and it would probably work, but the result may look a bit funny - but so what, if it works, that's the idea). Drills under 1/2" I just hand grind (and under about 1/8" I rarely bother). The largest I have sharpened is 1-1/4" and the result is both very pretty and performs very well.
When I'm doing a cut off and repoint (I've a bunch of drills that were scrapped because the PO burnt the corners off and blew out a good 1/2" of the land) - it is quicker to rough out the point on a regular bench grinder and then go to the Pine Drill Grinder.
If this tool had not come my way at a very reasonable price, I would not have gone out and bought one (or any of the other drill sharpening contraptions). Drill bits are not difficult to sharpen. Before I had the PDS I would use my disk sander and set the table to the drill point angle with a half hour of practice I was getting very nice results.
My suggestion is that you only get it if it is really cheap. Regardless get comfortable hand sharpening on a bench grinder - it will always be a useful skill.
When I'm doing a cut off and repoint (I've a bunch of drills that were scrapped because the PO burnt the corners off and blew out a good 1/2" of the land) - it is quicker to rough out the point on a regular bench grinder and then go to the Pine Drill Grinder.
If this tool had not come my way at a very reasonable price, I would not have gone out and bought one (or any of the other drill sharpening contraptions). Drill bits are not difficult to sharpen. Before I had the PDS I would use my disk sander and set the table to the drill point angle with a half hour of practice I was getting very nice results.
My suggestion is that you only get it if it is really cheap. Regardless get comfortable hand sharpening on a bench grinder - it will always be a useful skill.
It wouldn't do for me, I need to be able to sharpen .032 and larger, or buy them already sharp.
In the scheme of things $700.00 for a professional quality drill sharpener is not expensive. Take a look at the Black Diamond, Darex, Giddings & Lewis, Oliver and others in the category. Their higher end models sell for multiple thousands of dollars. The nice thing about the professional quality machines is that they are well built and generally don't get abused. While they may sharpen hundreds of thousands of bits in their lifetime they more often than not have the fewest operating hours of any machine on the floor.
My Black Diamond was built in 1974 and still looks like new today. In the last year or so it's sharpened in the neighborhood of 500-800 bits. Given 2 minutes or less for each bit it's run less than 15 hours. How many other machines in the shop have that few hours in a years time?
In the past I have purchased lesser quality sharpening machines. While they were less expensive they were also far poorer quality. In time they wore out, and like most machines in their class couldn't be repaired. I would rather spend a bit more as a one time purchase for a known quality machine than have to buy multiple lesser quality machines. In the long run you're time and money ahead.
