# Grizzly Drill Sharpening Jig



## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

So a trip to grizzly today to pick up some goodies for the new lathe led to me also grabbing one of these:
http://www.grizzly.com/products/Drill-Sharpener/G1081?utm_campaign=zPage

Nifty little jig for sharpening drill bits. Meant for use on a standard bench grinder, but it adapted pretty well for use on my belt grinder. Single screw was all it took really. Using it is pretty simple, tweak a couple screws to set the angle of the bit tip and how much you grind away, twist down the built in clamp, then swing the bit around to grind the tip down. Time to a sharp bit was maybe 30 seconds total, although admittedly itd probably be a little slower without my frankengrinder.

Pretty small little thing, but worth the money. $20 to buy, and i made that back immediately using it to bring life back to a 1/2 twist drill, which wouldve been $20 to replace. At the rate i go through drills, this little buggers going to come in handy


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

I got one of those with a box of stuff inherited from Dad. I've never taken the time to figure how to use it. I am very good at that, though, so it's just laziness on my part.
I don't use many big diameter drill bits, and the small ones I do use don't get dull very often. 
I've just never seen a reason to use it, yet.

Good buy, especially when it saves you money in the long (or short) run.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*It will save you $$$*

I've used a similar one, a Craftsman for about 30 years and I have sharpened dozens, maybe hundreds of drills from 3/16" to 1". I made a few minor mods to mine to speed things up. It looks just like this one:










Here's how it works on the side of a grinding wheel, however, I use mine on a belt sander/grinder like epicfail does. The angle of the cutting edge is adjustable which I had never used until recently when I needed to sharpen some Cobalt drill fro stainless steel at 135 degrees. Normal twist drills are sharpened at 118 degrees:


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## m.n.j.chell (May 12, 2016)

Ah ... now I don't have to reverse engineer it. Now if I can just remember where I put it.


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

woodnthings said:


> The angle of the cutting edge is adjustable which I had never used until recently when I needed to sharpen some Cobalt drill fro stainless steel at 135 degrees. Normal twist drills are sharpened at 118 degrees:


The angles should be determined by what you want to do with the bit and how you want it to cut in your particular material. 

Has nothing to do with the angles that came on the bit when purchased... :no:

Metal generally likes different angles than wood but the same bit can usually be used for both if you have the few seconds it takes to change the angles to fit your needs at the time.


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*not true*

The 135 degree Cobalt drills are especially made for drilling stainless steel and were recommended by the source where it was purchased.

here's a description: 
Heavy Duty Bits
Cobalt Drill Bits drill through hard or abrasive materials such as :
*Stainless Steel ~ Titanium ~ Cast Iron*
Cobalt Drill Bits are also great at drilling through :
*Aluminum ~ Brass ~ Copper ~ Sheet Metal ~ Wood ~ Plastic*

135 Degree Split Point
Heavy Duty web construction for Strength & Durability
Standard Jobber Length (Fits into a regular drill index box)





​Standard jobber bits are 118 degrees as I stated.
You can grind whatever angle you want, but for my purposes I needed the specialty bits and the proper angles. Metal drilling is completely different than wood, so different rules apply...much lower RPMs, coolants, tip angles etc. I've drilled 1- 1/4" holes in 1/2" steel plate with the proper drills and hole saws, so I know a thing or two about it. I do about as much metal working as woodworking and have a separate metal shop with lathes, drill presses, metal bending brakes, metal cutting bands saws and MIG and Oxy Acetylene welding, ..... not my first rodeo on this subject., but thanks for the "advice" 0


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## FrankC (Aug 24, 2012)

Okay, back to the jig, a lot of us probably have one stashed away somewhere because it looked like a good idea at the time. I found it quicker and easier to just sharpen the larger bits freehand, and buy the smaller bits by the dozen. Now my old eyes don't work so well so I have a Drill Doctor.


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## johnedp34 (Jun 30, 2016)

Here is the Nelson sharpening angle chart. Sorry for the quality.
johnep


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## Jammer (Jul 15, 2009)

I've never sharpened a drill bit.

I only have one question: how long does it take?

One question, A) how long does it take, from "this bit is dull!" to back in the drill and ready for one dull bit.

One question, B) how long does it take to sharpen 10 dull drill bits from "today is drill bit sharpening day!" to "there! They're all sharp!"


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## woodnthings (Jan 24, 2009)

*In my experience ...*

It takes about 1 minute per drill in the Craftsman/General/ Grizzly jig. You just set the length, clamp it down and make a few swipes, rotate it, clamp it and make a few more..... that's it. The closer they arev to the same length, the faster it goes.

I can sharpen from about 3/16" dia. to over 1/2" dia. just as easily.


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## Jammer (Jul 15, 2009)

So, at, say, a hundred bucks an hour, each bit costs $1.66 in time to sharpen.

I'll have to look at Grizzly's prices for sets of new bits, but I'm betting it's lower than that.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Jammersix said:


> I've never sharpened a drill bit.
> 
> I only have one question: how long does it take?
> 
> ...


Depends, if I'm setti g up the grinder for a one-off bit, about 2 minutes to switch out the tool rest and adjust the jig, and about a second to sharpen the bit. For 10 bits, maybe 3 minutes total, with my grinder. 

Using that $1.66 per bit time you quoted, assuming I had to have that size bit today, which I usually do if I'm using it, I could go out and buy a single 1/8 drill from home depot, or about 1/20 of a larger bit I'm more likely to only have one of, like a 1/2. It's all well and good to throw random numbers around, but if you do, let's try to consider the whole story, yeah?


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## Jammer (Jul 15, 2009)

Okay. 

The way I do it, when I need a bit, for whatever reason, I order a complete set of bits from Amazon, and go back to work. Or I order a dozen of the bit I just broke. It depends. Driving to Home Depot for one bit every time the crew needs a bit or a blade or a glove will make you broke. 

In the past, I usually bought a set, but now I'm hip deep in brand new bits in sizes that I almost never use. (Same thing with screwdrivers. When I couldn't find the screwdriver that I wanted, I'd go to Homless Despot and buy a set. When you get ankle deep in screwdrivers, at least you can usually find at least one of the one you need. But I digress.)

Three days later, or five days later, or seven days later, a fine young lad bounds up to the door and delivers my bits. Amazon changed a lot of things, and one of the things it changed was it gave me a tendency to prefer a fast order to a long trip to the hardware store.

What I was really interested in with my question was if it was a thing like honing, where it takes less than thirty seconds, and should, therefore, be a thing you do every time you pick up a certain tool. I have tools I require to remain razor sharp, and I almost never use them without touching them up first. I have other tools that it doesn't really seem to matter until they're almost worn out, like screw drivers. Drill bits seem to fall in that category.

I'm notoriously hard on equipment. Always have been. Since the game's almost over, it's safe to say I always will be. I've never actually noticed a dull drill bit, and, looking back, I'm quite certain that's because I've always broken them long before they'd get dull.


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

I do a similar thing, I try to stock up on my frequently used bits, but for some its just not economically feasible, larger bits like 1/2 are expensive, and sometimes I go through more bits than planned and end up using my last in the small sizes, like snapping my last 1/8 bit before I have a replacement in hand. Times like those, it's a lot easier to pop the bit in the sharpener and get me back in business. It's also pretty handy to touch up the edge on a bit so you can make sure that critical hole you need isn't messed up by a sub-par edge on a bit


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## Jammer (Jul 15, 2009)

Will the sharpener re-point a broken bit?


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## epicfail48 (Mar 27, 2014)

Yup. Does a good job of it too


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