How to sharpen a drill bit – Best Drilling Guide

Came to know how to sharpen a drill bit? Good to know that you are conscious about your drill bit. A drill without a sharp drill bit is useless. Dull drill bit ruins all the work. So, it is very important to keep the drill bit sharp as the perfection of the work depends on the quality of the drill bit.

There are a few steps that you need to follow to sharpen a drill bit. Below all the steps are explained clearly.

But before jumping into the easy process of sharpening the drill bit, know a few information about the drill bit.

Few important information about drill bit

. A drill bit is usually made with high speed steel

. Usually, cheap drill bits are coated with black oxide

. Drill bits are of different types and their work is also different.

. A drill bit is fitted into the drill with a chuck

. 5 features are always common in all the drill bits. These features are: shank, flutes, cutting edge, point and spur.

. Shorter drill bits are better than tall drill bits

Now a question might have aroused in your mind that,

Why shorter drill bits are better?

Shorter drill bits are better because they can make holes with 100 percent accuracy.

Now let us jump into the easy step-by-step process to know,

“How to sharpen a drill bit?”

How to sharpen a drill bit

Sharpening a drill bit isn’t an easy job. A lot of experiences are needed to sharpen a drill bit with accuracy.

Nowadays, people use some automatic machines to sharpen the drill bit which barely gives any good result.

Once I talked with a person who was still learning his way around drill bits.

So when I asked about his experience of sharpening a drill bit, we had a long conversation regarding this topic. But eventually I got to teach him some practical tips and tricks of drill bit sharpening process. So now what I am going to do is share the exclusives of that conversation:

Requirements:

1. A chipped or dull drill bit
2. A belt sander or bench grinder
3. Cold water

Safety measures:

. Wear safety eye glass for protecting your eyes from any kind of injury

. Hold the drill bit tightly while sharpening it to avoid accidents

. Hold the drill bit carefully because during the sharpening process your hand stays very close to the sharpening machine.

. Wearing or not wearing gloves totally depends on you.

You can avoid using gloves as it can make you feel uncomfortable while holding the drill bit and the drill bit can also slip from your hand.

But if you can hold the drill bit tightly even after wearing the gloves then you can wear them at your own risk.

Step-1: Examine your dull or chipped drill bit

Sharpening means removing the required amount of material from the drill bit to make it work smoothly.

First, you have to examine your drill bit and identify that how much you need to remove the material from the drill bit to make it work properly.

Otherwise, if you remove too little then it won’t work properly and if you remove too much then the drill bit will get out of control.

Step-2: Know how to use the sharpening machine

Bench grinders have two wheels. One is a fine one and the other one is a coarse wheel.

If your drill bit is too much devastated then first you need to use the coarse wheel and then switch to the fine one.

But if your drill bit is not that much devastated, then you can use the fine wheel.

Step-3: Wear your safety eye glass

Make sure to wear safety goggles to keep your eyes safe.

Step-4: Start sharpening

. Switch on the grinder

. Hold the drill bit tightly

. Maintain a 60-degree angle by holding it straightly but not more than five seconds

. Grind the heel of the drill bit, not the edge

. Grind for five seconds then pause and cool with cold water. And then grind for 5 seconds and pause and again cool. Don’t grind for too long otherwise you will cut away too much material.

Grinding for a long time at once makes the drill bit hot and thus result in wiping out too much.

For keeping the drill bit cool, dip the drill bit into the cold water every time after grinding.

. Then turn the drill bit 180-degrees angle and grind the other side of the drill bit. And aim for the 60-degree angle to ensure that the drill bit will drill straight holes.

Or,

You can also grind one side and pause and then grind another side for maintaining a balance and ensuring the accuracy of the sharpened drill bit.

But always make sure to cool the drill bit with cold water after every grinding.

You need to maintain the rule: grind, pause and cool with cold water

Step-5: Test the drill bit

Once sharpening the both sides of the drill bit is done now it’s time to test the drill bit to see whether the bit can make holes perfectly or not.

Take a wooden piece and hold the bit perpendicularly against the wooden piece and check if it can make a hole.

If it cannot make the hole then you have to return to the grinder machine and start grinding.

Sharpening a drill bit is a tiring process. So, for achieving perfection, you might need to return to the machine several times after testing.

So, you have to test and grind a few times for making the drill bit sharp enough to make holes.

Step-6: Put into the drill machine

The last but not least step is to insert or put the drill bit into the drill machine.

If you don’t know how to put the drill bit into the drill machine properly then you can check out this article: how to put a drill bit in a drill

How to keep a drill bit sharp for a long time?

There are few tips that you can follow to keep a drill bit sharp for a long time.

Some best tips to keep a drill bit sharp for a long time are:

1. Keep a bowl of cold water with you while drilling something with the drill machine. Always cool the drill bit after drilling for a while.
2. Before using the re-sharpened drill bit, first make a hole using a new one and then switch to the re-sharpened one later
3. Don’t let the drill bit get overheated
4. Maintain the rule: grind, pause and cool while drilling
5. Keep switching between two drill bits

Conclusion

As now you got to know about how to sharpen a drill bit, you can save your money. But you have to keep practicing for achieving perfection.

Because “Practice makes a man perfect.”

You have to practice a lot to learn sharpening the drill bit perfectly but don’t lose the patient as hard work pays off.