# Discontinued Drill sharpener was what I needed



## bruce317

Thank you for this post. After reading this & watching the video. Got on Ebay & got me a 6677. All kind of prices, got mine for $24.99 w/shipping. One I got looks rust free. I hope.


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## CyberDyneSystems

That's a great and affordable way to keep your twist drills for life.

Do invest in a finer grit AO like a Norton white, it will make things a lot smoother and even sharper. You will need to be more careful about heat buildup with w finer grit, but I have found the contact time is minimal so have never burnt a bit.


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## DLK

I bought one of these last year but I use a sandpaper disk sander instead of a grinder wheel and it worked just fine.
Stays cooler with little danger of burning the bit.


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## bruce317

> I bought one of these last year but I use a sandpaper disk sander instead of a grinder wheel and it worked just fine.
> Stays cooler with little danger of burning the bit.
> 
> - Combo Prof


What grit sandpaper do you use?
Thank You


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## Timbo

Good find Daniel, thanks for the write up and the video.

Reprint of the instruction manual if anyone needs it.

Just found another on ebay, it will need a little clean up but it was cheap enough. I plan to spin a sanding disc on on my wood lathe and mount this on some ply that will attache to the bed.


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## DLK

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## DLK

I used P100 grit sandpaper, but only because I had it in 6 inch round disks with a sticky back.

- Combo Prof


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## bruce317

> I used P100 grit sandpaper, but only because I had it in 6 inch round disks with a sticky back.
> 
> - Combo Prof
> 
> - Combo Prof


Thank you Don.

"Reprint of the instruction manual if anyone needs it." 
Thank you Tim


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## NormG

Great purchase


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## DLK

My combination drill bit sharpening station and disk sander:


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## DLK

BTW. I got mine for US $5.50 + US $14.21 S.H. on a Last minute ebay auction, complete with original box and instructions. Later I saw one at a yard sale, where I could have got sharpening tool plus the grinder for $15. Oh well. So anyway there are indeed plenty out there. I got mine because I forced into buying 20 lbs or so of used drill bits. I have a ton now but only have of them are sharpened. After the first 200 you are ready to do something else. But the good news you get much faster at the sharpening the more bits you do. LOL.


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## craftsman on the lake

> BTW. I got mine for US $5.50 + US $14.21 S.H. on a Last minute ebay auction, complete with original box and instructions. Later I saw one at a yard sale, where I could have got sharpening tool plus the grinder for $15. Oh well. So anyway there are indeed plenty out there. I got mine because I forced into buying 20 lbs or so of used drill bits. I have a ton now but only have of them are sharpened. After the first 200 you are ready to do something else. But the good news you get much faster at the sharpening the more bits you do. LOL.
> 
> - Combo Prof


What I'm doing is picking out what looks like the best quality of each size bit that I need. I make a set from that and someday when they get worn down (It'll take awhile) I'll sharpen more. I wish it worked well for small drills.


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## DLK

What Happened for me is that I got some longer bits in sizes that I needed by sharpening up someone else's castoffs.
Good deal. But I had a ton of rusty bits so I went to town polishing and sharpening, until I was worn out. I have a ton more to go. But thats a good Idea to make up sets of bits of different sizes. Extra bits can be turned into other tools. I wish it worked for auger twist bits.


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## craftsman on the lake

> What Happened for me is that I got some longer bits in sizes that I needed by sharpening up someone else s castoffs.
> Good deal. But I had a ton of rusty bits so I went to town polishing and sharpening, until I was worn out. I have a ton more to go. But thats a good Idea to make up sets of bits of different sizes. Extra bits can be turned into other tools. I wish it worked for auger twist bits.
> 
> - Combo Prof


Great story…. btw. a product called evapo-rust will literally remove all the rust from anything that soaks in it.


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## DLK

> What Happened for me is that I got some longer bits in sizes that I needed by sharpening up someone else s castoffs.
> Good deal. But I had a ton of rusty bits so I went to town polishing and sharpening, until I was worn out. I have a ton more to go. But thats a good Idea to make up sets of bits of different sizes. Extra bits can be turned into other tools. I wish it worked for auger twist bits.
> 
> - Combo Prof
> 
> Great story…. btw. a product called evapo-rust will literally remove all the rust from anything that soaks in it.
> 
> - Craftsman on the lake


I have a 5-gallon drum of it. Problem with evapo rust is that it leaves a black residue you have to clean or polish off.


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## bruce317

> Thank you for this post. After reading this & watching the video. Got on Ebay & got me a 6677. All kind of prices, got mine for $24.99 w/shipping. One I got looks rust free. I hope.
> 
> - bruce317


Got mine on Tuesday, & it's rust free. Very happy with seller. Plan to set it up by end of next week. I just work slowly. After reading and watching video, expect it to work fine.


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## Timbo

I just ran across this on Lee Valley tools, so I thought I would pass this along.

http://www.leevalley.com/us/wood/page.aspx?p=32965&cat=1,43072,43086

If you want one and can't seem to find it, lookks like they are still available, $17.50


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## DLK

Wow looks almost like an identical copy.


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## Peterss

> The sharpener consists of a drill holder with a tooth at the end that helps line the drill in the correct orientation to sharpen both bevels of a drill.
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> - Craftsman on the lake


Can I please see a closeup of the tooth? I've got one of these, or something very like it, but the tip of the tooth has been ground away. I made a replacement, but it doesn't touch the drill bit in the right place like the instructions show. Yours seems to have an extra bit sticking out the side, but I can't be sure from that photo.


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## splintergroup

I have the same thing that I bought from Lee Valley several years back when they had a sale. I can't remember what I paid, but I never used it (yet). I'll have to set aside some time to make a mount for it to work with the bench grinder. I have about a coffee can full of dull bits that are waiting. My initial impression was it would be a pain to use.


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## craftsman on the lake

> The sharpener consists of a drill holder with a tooth at the end that helps line the drill in the correct orientation to sharpen both bevels of a drill.
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> - Craftsman on the lake
> 
> Can I please see a closeup of the tooth? I ve got one of these, or something very like it, but the tip of the tooth has been ground away. I made a replacement, but it doesn t touch the drill bit in the right place like the instructions show. Yours seems to have an extra bit sticking out the side, but I can t be sure from that photo.
> 
> - Peterss


I will do that tomorrow. What part. The piece inder the drill bit or the one over it?



> I have the same thing that I bought from Lee Valley several years back when they had a sale. I can t remember what I paid, but I never used it (yet). I ll have to set aside some time to make a mount for it to work with the bench grinder. I have about a coffee can full of dull bits that are waiting. My initial impression was it would be a pain to use.
> 
> - splintergroup


It's actually pretty easy to use once you do a couple and get used to it. It takes me about 3 minutes to do a bit and it's sharpened pretty good and the angle is good too. it's not too good for bits under 1/8" though. I've used it many times. Nice to have a bit that you're drilling metal with and as it starts to smoke you can touch it up and continue so that you can drill the rest of your holes.


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## Peterss

> I will do that tomorrow. What part. The piece inder the drill bit or the one over it?


Thanks! I mean the piece under the drill, held on with two screws.

Hopefully getting this piece identical is the key to it all. I had a few goes with it and managed to grind reverse relief on the drill bit.

My previous experience with sharpening jigs is that once you've worked them out, they're great. Many years ago I sharpened lots of second hand drill bits to new condition with a Multi-Sharp jig. Tried it again recently and I can barely work out how to use it.


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## splintergroup

Well I spent the morning by dragging out my drill bit sharpening jig (the Lee Valley version, made in Taiwan) and setting it up.

I simply secured it to a piece of 3/4" plywood which I then clamped to my 8 grinder bench, secure enough.

I removed the side shield over the right side wheel, but I really didn't need to as there was enough of the wheel side exposed. I have one of the fine grain brown colored wheels I had bought for this purpose years ago.

It was as CotL described, actually quite easy to use!

I knocked out about 20 bits that were either chipped, dull, or hand ground just to get them to cut.

I basically clamped the bit in place. with the flute rotated against the small stop. I left just a slight amount of the bit protruding in front of this stop (about 1/16").
The rear support was slid up against the far end of the drill shaft and tightened down. I then slid the entire jig so that the bit just kissed the side of the grinder wheel and swung the contraption away so there was no contact while I fired up the grinder.

I gently pulled back on the jig so the first few quick swings of the bit passed the wheel without really hogging away metal. Each pass Had this tension released until I was only moving the swivel by the far end of the bit support shaft.
Next I swung it clear of the wheel, loosened the bit clamp and rotated the bit to the other side, butted against the rear stop. Same process to sharpen this half.

Bit swung away again, loosen the bit clamp, loosen the rear most stop nut about 1/4 turn, tighten the front nut, tighten the bit clamp. This bumped the bit slightly deeper into the wheel.
A few sweeps past the wheel, rotate the bit, sweep again.

Done! Looks good and sharp 8^) Some bits took several rounds of adjusting in the stop before a clean edge appeared. One thing I noticed was the bevel from the bits cutting edge as it trails away from the front was a bit steeper that the factory bit grind angle. Should be a non issue, but the amount of the bit protruding past the flute stop at the working end (as per the instructions, controls the amount of this bevel) made no apparent difference. Perhaps try it with more overhang next time.

I did try one bit that was slightly over 1/8" diameter and it was a real pain to rotate the bit for grinding. Normally I could let the grinder run, but with this small bit it required fingers close to the wheel. Given the dang grinder takes over a minuted to spin down, progress was slow and I'm not too interested in dong these small bits anyway.

Thanks for bringing this subject up CotL! I would probably have waited a few more years before even thinking about it 8^)


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## craftsman on the lake

Yup, it does work well. I looked at drill doctors and techniques online for doing it by hand with files and sandpaper but this thing, as basic as it is, does the best job. I did get a used original off of ebay but it's looking like the modern knockoffs are doing the job too. I'm thinking I'd like to get a finer wheel for the grinder someday but this one was on a grinder from when I was at least six years old so it's about 60 yeas old. Usually this grinder is used to take down some welding bur or shape a piece of metal, so not much need for fine grinding. But, when I'm done the bits are sharp so….


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## DLK

> I did try one bit that was slightly over 1/8" diameter and it was a real pain to rotate the bit for grinding. Normally I could let the grinder run, but with this small bit it required fingers close to the wheel. Given the dang grinder takes over a minuted to spin down, progress was slow and I m not too interested in dong these small bits anyway.
> 
> - splintergroup


Try using a disk sander instead of a a grinder. See my post above. I could do smaller diameter bits. The disk sander stops a lot quicker than the grinder.


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