Two things i never got a knack for, sharpening drills and screwdrivers (well restoring them).

 

I am looking for an economical (read cheap) free standing sharpener. Lite duty use. I see on ebay Chicago Electric and Sears craftsman. Any one have opinions on these units?

 

Thanks

Working as a machinist building commercial fishing deck gear I got pretty good at sharpening drill bits by hand,

 

The "Drill Doctor" that we had worked pretty good also.

 

Ben

If I had a bench grinder I would take a different approach, but I don't have room for the tools I have now

here is a low cost option, not stand alone but small.

http://www.harborfreight.com/drill-bit-sharpener-98061.html?utm_medium=cse&utm_source=googlebase&hft_adv=40010&mr:trackingCode=917A0F9E-782A-E011-B31E-001B2163195C&mr:referralID=NA

 

here is a similar one to the one we had

http://www.drilldoctor.com/index.php?page=shop.product_details&category_id=71&flypage=flypage.pbv.tabs.tpl&product_id=2647&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=142

 

I am sure the harbor freight one would work at least for a little while.

 

Ben

Was tempted to get a drill doctor, but you need the expensive version to sharpen bigger bits. I ended up getting an old Craftsman drill sharpening apparatus off ebay for about $20. If you already have a bench grinder and aren't afraid to use it, that's the way to go. If you want something easy and automated, get a drill doctor. They have one for $55 that does up to half inch bits.

Personally I wasn't that impressed with the Drill Doctor. We got the big one at the shop I used to work for and it takes forever to use it on larger chipped up bits. I can sharpen a bit 10x faster on a bench grinder and a bench grinder has so many more uses that if I had to choose between the two it wouldn't be much of a contest. Get a small one from Harbor Frieght and put a wire wheel where the coarse stone was. Dual purpose - grinding and thread cleanup.

 

GD

If I had room for a grinder I would (then I could have the ever popular torch too) but sadly I dont. Thats the next house. I just have a bunch of dull drills, they dont need to get sharpened often.

at a job I used to have we went through a lot of drill bits. I'm pretty handy with a bench grinder...but for people without that knack, the drill doctor worked pretty good. on the really bad ones, I'd rough in the edge, and then they'd finish with the drill doctor. well worth the money, IMO

I got the harbor freight one some years back, but I didn't like it, at least not with the stone wheel. It could have just been my technique though. It seemed the bits would not drill straight after using it. I have been playing with filing the edges by hand, that seems to work pretty good, a few passes of a file, seems kind of liking sharpening a chainsaw chain but a little trickier.