My cheap drill bit sharpener made a bigger difference than I expected after trying it on 15 old bits

2 comments

2 Comments

I grabbed one of those cheap chinese sharpeners too and I gotta disagree. I tested it on 12 old bits and 3 of them ended up worse than when I started. The geometry just got jacked up on those smaller sizes under 1/8 inch. It worked okay on bigger bits like 3/8 and 1/2 inch but grinding away that much steel on a cheap stone just leaves a rough edge. You still gotta hit them with a finishing stone by hand to get real results.

jennifer_west3d ago

So are we starting a collection of bits that look like they went through a blender now? Sounds like @sams25 got the same entry level disaster I did. I tried one of those and the wobble on the collet was so bad it turned a 1/16 bit into something resembling a corkscrew. Yeah the bigger sizes might survive but anything under 1/8 is just scrap metal waiting to happen.