How to sharpen a drill bit? We can sharpen our drill bits with a grinding machine. Still, each drilling bit has a different way of sharpening them, which I will explain in this article.
Problems with sharpening drills are familiar to every artisan who has to work a lot with drilling metal—wood, Tiles, or Stone.
Read how to drill ties. Click here to read.[link]
If, when working with wood, the drill practically does not become dull and can be used for a very long time.
Making holes in metal is becoming more and more complex every minute.
You can purchase several drills of the same diameter for periodic replacement. Still, for large volumes of Work, this is quite expensive.
It is much cheaper to learn how to sharpen a blunt drill bit correctly; then, you won’t have to buy more constantly.
click here to read How to drill through a wall
How To Tell If The Drill Bit Is Blunt
The difference between a new and a dull drill is very easy to notice. At the beginning of Work, a slight pressure on the tool is enough, but over time, you have to apply more and more effort.
The rate of dulling consists of several factors: intensity of use, cooling, drill rotation speed, etc.
However, in any case, sooner or later, the working tool will require sharpening.
SIGNS OF A Blunt DRILL Bit For Metal
- Increased noise emissions;
- Producing smoke shop when drilling
- The drill heats quickly – the metal darkens or acquires a tarnished color (rainbow transitions).
- Unevenness and “raggedness” of the edges of the hole being developed;
- The need to increase physical effort: You press harder on the drill.
- Changing the state of the chips from spiral-shaped to crumbling and small-sized;
- Increasing the surface temperature of the product;
- The appearance of previously uncharacteristic grinding and crackling noises during the operation
SIGNS OF A Blunt DRILL Bit For Wood
1. Reduced Cutting Speed and more force on the drill
2. Increased Friction
3. Burn Marks
4. Splintering
5. Rough Edges
6. Wandering Bit
7. Difficulty Starting the Hole
8. Increased Effort
9. Smoking or Burning Odor
10. Inconsistent Hole Depth
SIGNS OF A Blunt DRILL Bit For Stone Or Wall
1. Slow Drilling
2. Increased Vibration
3. Reduced Dust
4. Chattering or Chipping
5. Worn or Rounded Cutting Edges
6. Uneven Hole Shape
7. Overheating
8. Wandering Bit
9. Difficulty Starting the Hole
10. Excessive Noise
What Are The Safety Precautions When Sharping Drill Bits
Sharpening a drill is a traumatic process. Follow safety precautions:
1] Work in a well-lit area: This will allow you to see where the drill makes contact with the abrasive. Otherwise, you may burn your fingers or chafe your skin.
2] Wear eye protection: You risk losing your vision if small metal shavings get into the eyeball.
3] Prepare a container of water using a sharpening wheel or grinder. With prolonged contact with it, the metal heats up.
If you hold the drill with your fingers rather than securing it with a bar, periodically dip it in water and cool it.
4] After sharpening, check the drill on a “blank” – an unnecessary metal blank. Two signs that it is sharpe correctly:
A] There is no whistle when drilling for metal
B] The chips come out evenly on both sides of the drill. If the chips are of different lengths, the cutting edges are usually asymmetrical. You’ll have to sharpen the drill again.
Types Of Drills
Various drills differ primarily depending on the application area: wood, Stone, and metal.
You can read the types of drills And their applications. Click here to read more[link]
Their structure is different – wood is softer than metal or Stone. This means that each material requires different drills.
A metal drill has a short, wide tip and an elongated “tail” inserted into the drill chuck. The carving is quite rare.
HSS drills with offset shanks or MK holders are suitable for metal, as are solid carbide drills with these properties.
If you don’t know what HSS drills look like Or what they are all about, click here now to read about HSS drills [link]
Drills with a center point are suitable for wood and thin sheet metal.
Tough materials such as Stone and concrete drills with a soldered carbide tip are used. These have an SDS mount for hammer drills.
A wood drill looks like a spiral with a deep, frequent thread, a shortened “tail,” and a sharp tip.
If you don’t know how to identify a wood drilling bit, I have an article to take you through identifying them. Click here now to read[link]
Which Abrasives Are Used When Sharpening Drills?
The material from which the drill is made determines the grinding wheel choice.
CBN grinding wheels are used for HSS drills, while DIA grinding wheels are used for solid carbide drills.
What Is Important When Sharpening A Drill?
First, the type of grind must be determined. The standard grind, the so-called conical surface grind, and the multi-surface grind have different sharpening variants.
Then, the drill tip angle is essential. The standard is the 118° angle and is used for most applications.
Anything above or below the 118° tip angle is intended for specific applications.
Whether plastic or special steel, almost every material to be drilled can be machined with a suitable point angle and flute angle.
How To Sharpen A Drill Bit With A Drill Grinding Attachment Step By Step
How to sharpen a drill bit? It is possible to sharpen drills Using standard drill attachments of medium diameters (4–10 mm) efficiently and quickly without a sharpening wheel.
To sharpen your drill bits, you can use a drill with an attachable accessory for this task.
It is a straightforward task that will allow you a good result. You will need the following materials:
Materials
- Drilling accessory to sharpen the bits
- Caliber
- Wooden board or metal piece
Procedure
1] Place the accessory on the drill: it has several holes that incorporate the diameters of different drill bits.
2] Put your drill bit into the hole corresponding to its size and connect the tool at a speed of between 2,000 and 3,000 revolutions per minute.
3] Each hole has two stops that allow the drill bit to rotate.
Once inserted, turn it from left to right without pressing too much and constantly.
4] Remove the drill bit from the drill and check on a piece of wood or metal (depending on the type of drill bit) if it works correctly.
Giving a dull drill bit a second chance is simple if you have the right tools.
In this video, you will see how to perform each procedure more illustratively.
Note: Despite the existing design flaws, the use of attachments can significantly speed up and simplify the restoration of the working edges of a metal drill.
The popularity is also due to the low cost of the devices.
How To Sharpen Drill Bit With A File
How to sharpen a drill bit by hand: It is impossible to sharpen a drill bit with a hand file or needle file for two reasons:
- The hardness of the material. Even the best file will wear out before it can fix the cutting tool.
- It is impossible to manually maintain the desired angle when using diamond or abrasive stones.
Sharpening a drill bit with a file is very easy, and here are the steps to follow.
Use a clamp to hold your Drilling bit and scrape the file against the bit.
Ensure you follow the original pattern that your drill came with. Do not change the face or the pattern.
Keep on sharpening with a file on still the drilling bit gets sharpened.
Another way to sharpen a drill bit with a file is to place it on a work surface and hold it against the surface to make it flat.
Hold the file in your Right hand. Then, begin to Scrub the pointed Edge against the file. Do not change the original surface.
Scrub still gets sharp. You can use your tomb or test it on a wood to confirm its Sharpness this is How to sharpen a drill bit
How To Sharpen Drill Bit On A Bench Grinder Or Grinder
How to sharpen a drill bit? Metal drill bits are the easiest to sharpen. Wood drill bits, too, but their tips are usually more complicated.
The main drawback when sharpening them is due to the angle of their Edge.
On the other hand, you also have to consider what type of drill bit [link] you are preparing to repair.
We tell you how to sharpen those intended for drilling metal, wood, and spade bits.
How to sharpen drill bit on a bench grinder? To sharpen metal drills with a grinder, you must follow the following sequence of Work:
- Clamp the product vertically in a vice
- First, treat the rear Edge until signs of wear are removed
- Grind the working Edge to 120°
To prevent overheating of the drill, its contact with the grinding disc should last no more than 1–2 seconds.
The effect is achieved by repeatedly removing a thin metal layer from the working Edge.
Materials
- Emery
- Drill with fine-grain stone
- Caliber
- Wooden board or metal object
- Protective glasses
- Hand glove
How To Sharpen A Drill Bit For Wood With A Bench Grinder Step By-Step
How to sharpen a drill bit? To sharpen a wooden drill bit, you must get a fine-grain grinder. This tool will allow you to repair it properly.
To achieve this, you must follow the following steps:
1} Check the Original angle of the bit And sharpen it by repeating the same angle to ensure it works correctly.
2} Put on protective glasses to prevent the pieces of metal that come off the drill bit from damaging your eyes.
3} We turn on the grinder and Bring the drill bit closer to the grinder, moving it from bottom to top while giving it small taps.
The movement must always be following the curve and in a flat manner.
4} Maintain the angle and swap sides to be equally sharp on all sides.
5} Finally, carefully sharpen the tip.
6} Verify that it works correctly by drilling a piece of wood.
How To Sharpen A Concrete Drill Bit Or How To Sharpen A Masonry Drill Bit With A Bench Grinder
how to sharpen a blunt drill bit? The method of working with a Pobedit drill is somewhat different and will be more complex.
Despite their greater strength, pobedite drills still begin to dull over time, resulting in poor performance, an unpleasant squealing sound, and the drill overheats greatly.
Such a drill can only be sharpened with a diamond sharpening stone; an ordinary stone cannot handle this task.
Sharpening is carried out only if the height of the pobedite tip is about 10 mm.
The greater the hardness of the material, the lower the speed of its sharpening should become; this must be considered when setting up the grinding wheel.
Sharpening pobedite edges requires short touches of the abrasive surface and great care. Usually, it does not take much time:
It is enough to correct the edges ground off during drilling, and the product will be ready for use again. It is also advisable to sharpen the front surface.
It is necessary to ensure that the cutting parts of the Pobedit drill are the same in size.
With any discrepancies, the edges of the holes will turn out uneven; a shift in the center leads to an increase in the diameter of the holes.
The drill should not be allowed to overheat, so it is periodically immersed in coolant.
The Procedure For Sharpening A Spade Drill Bit With A Grinder
Spade bits are designed to be used in wood, but they can be complicated when setting up.
These are the steps you should follow to sharpen them correctly:
1} Pay close attention to the cutting angles to maintain the angulation.
2} Protect your eyes.
3} Bring the drill bit close to the fine-grained Stone and lightly tap it on the tool.
You must maintain the angle at all times so that the original inclination of the drill bit is maintained.
4} Repeat the process on both sides to maintain symmetry.
5} Finish sharpening with the tip.
6} Check that the drill bit is sharp by drilling in a piece of wood.
Procedure To Sharpen A Metal Drill Bit With A Grinder Step-By-Step
How to sharpen a drill bit? Metal drill bits can also be sharpened. We tell you how you can do it easily using a grinder:
1} Check the helical angle of the drill bit to maintain it.
2} Protect your eyes.
3} Hold the drill bit with both hands and bring it closer to the grinder with small blows and movements that should go from bottom to top while turning it.
4} Check if the drill bit is working properly by drilling a hole in a piece of metal.
5} Once the hole is made, insert a caliper to check if the symmetry is maintained.
I don’t want this article to be so long, so I prepared a special article concerning how to Sharpen a metal drilling bit.
The article is Especially dedicated to sharpening a drilling bit for metal. If interested, click Here to read more [link]
How To Choose A Sharpening Angle For A Metal Drill
The metal drill is particularly durable. It is made of high-speed carbide steel, sometimes reinforced with cobalt.
The sharpening angle of a drill for metal varies from 90° to 150. The size of the angle between the cutting edges depends on the metal you will drill.
To drill through steel, the angle between the cutting edges of the drill must be about 127°. For copper, 100° is enough. More details are in the table.
| What Material Are We Drilling | The Angle Between Two Cutting Edges | What Is This Material Made From? |
| Cast iron | 90° | Pipes, machines, shafts, engines, sinks, bathtubs, fences, gates, heating radiators |
| Steel | 127° | Rails, turbines, furnaces, boilers, compressors, corrugated sheets , metal tiles , mixers, sinks, bathtubs, household appliances, pots, pans |
| Tool steel | 118–150° | Mechanical engineering parts |
| Copper | 100–118° | Coins, tiles, ship hull plating |
| Copper alloy | 118–150° | Furniture fittings, railings |
| Aluminium alloy | 90–140° | Construction tools, blinds, dishes |
| Titanium alloy | 135–140° | Sheets, pipes, parts for aircraft construction |
Some Useful Sharpening Tips
Depending on the material’s hardness, the drill’s sharpening angle changes. If you need to sharpen it, the angle is 170 degrees; it is undesirable to deviate from this value.
At enterprises, drill sharpening is complemented by mandatory finishing processing to eliminate minor irregularities.
If there is an opportunity to make improvements, do not neglect it. Finishing is done using round grinding stones with a grain size of 5-6.
When sharpening the drill, be sure to maintain the factory shape of the back surface.
Working with metal drills requires patience, precision, and accuracy, but the result will justify the labor costs.
The drill will be easy and convenient to work with again, and you will not have to spend extra money purchasing new working tools.
Both professionals and home craftsmen should master the skill of sharpening.
Conclusion
It is one thing to know how to sharpen a drill bit, and another to consider is the basic precautions.
Remember, The fire that shoots out when two metal comes in friction can damage one eye, So protect your eye with protective glass.
Remember all drills are used for the same Work, and learn the types of drilling bits. Click here to read now[link]
Some Might Say I have is Stone bit. Can I use it wood drill? If you want to know how to use a stone bit to drill wood, click here to read now [link]
