The styles that take round sanding disks are handy if you've use for them but the belt is the most important feature. Unlike a drill doctor you can use a belt grinder to sharpen (and make) knives and put an edge on anything you can get next to the belt. I have an industrial Rockwell belt sander but still want a couple of the small, cheap belt grinders because they're so versatile (and I can carry them). There are better uses for the money like more small drill bits.īelt grinders are insanely handy and I'd buy one before a bit sharpener, no contest. Smaller bits are more hassle to get right and few hobbyist will do enough volume for a quality unit to pay off. Most pro machine shops CAN sharpen their own bits and mills but usually send out the work and only for bits and mills worth the expense or for something custom they don't feel like doing themselves. I scored a tool and cutter grinder to sharpen end mills and may do bits on it but that's a waste for most people and I mainly bought the thing to learn how to use one and make a few custom tools like piloted reamers. I mostly drill steel and use small bits for pilot holes (the center of twist drill bits "crushes" the work more than "shearing" it) so packs of common sizes plus a few step drill bits works nicely for stuff I don't carry to the milling machine. Most bits in a drill index see little use except for common sizes so buying bits for the task is economic and buying in quantity very convenient. I mostly order online but if you need something special immediately Fastenal, McMaster-Carr, MSC etc can overnight it for a price. I've used a few and decided it's a better deal to buy bulk packs (five or ten bits) in cobalt alloy for common sizes and two each of anything else as needed. He was really old school so he may have even done it by hand if that's possible on a whetstone or with a file?ĭo I need to get quality bits before I think about sharpening them? Buy a set or buy individual ones as I need them? (that's not so convenient but I do have a hardware store a few minutes walk from home so not terrible). I wonder if he took them to work to do them? He worked in an elevator and escalator factory so he may have done. The majority of the others are HSS bits that I inherited from my Dad when I cleared his workshop. I have maybe half a dozen cobalt bits that I bought myself which seem to maintain their sharpness really well. I'm a bit fed up of coming to do a job and having to ferret through all my badly organised, poorly stored bits to find one I want and then it doesn't cut well so I have to find another and maybe go through three or four before I find a sharp-ish one. Also, if they genuinely work well how good do your bits need to be in the first place to be worth sharpening? I've been thinking about buying one of these but I don't know if they are just a gimmick.
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