![]() A little hard to describe but it really felt like it was actually cutting and not merely grating away at it. ![]() It felt like I'd drilled into rotten wood. I took out a drill from a set (nothing high-end, just a standard set of 1-13mm drill bits from Bunnings), and picked out a bit I'd never used before. Of course the Swedes on the videos will lecture you about adjusting until its perfect, but if you're in a hurry, close enough is damn good.įourthly, the results are amazing. It felt like less resistance than drilling a much smaller radius through soft pine. Without any force and at slow speed the drill bit just disappeared into the post. The cut was absolutely amazing compared to your usual drill bit sitting in a drawer. It did not have a point but a chisel edge at the tip about 2mm wide. Thirdly, on my first attempt on an 8mm bit, I did not get it perfect but was a little impatient and curious, so I just tried out the drill bit on a thick offcut from a Merbau post (the 90mm laminated posts that are common in Queensland and at Bunnings). It is not frustrating adjusting (in the same way as eg rolling an edge when sharpening an edged tool). Generally at worst all you will need to do in order to correct going too far is lightly re-grind the primary bevel. One thing that would have put it on the second-hand market quickly was if a small error meant you have to start again from scratch. Also, the adjusting is generally just spinning the adjustment wheel to go in further on either the primary or second facets so it's not an annoying type of adjustment. Second, it's not that bad in terms of complexity and time if you follow the instructions carefully. This is not a system for those for whom speed is an issue. I'd want something I can just jam a drill bit into and have it come out sharp enough to keep going. ![]() If you were drilling through metal all day and needing to re-sharpen often I wouldn't be able to bear it. You have to stop, check, assess, possibly adjust etc. To understand some of these comments one has to appreciate the gist of the system is grinding two symmetrical primary and secondary bevels on each side of the drill bit, the purpose being to create symmetrical edges that make a point or tip at the centre, instead of a continuous edge.įirst, although the whole point of the system is to provide accurate guiding of the drill bit onto the wheel, as the instructions suggest, it is by no means automatic. I just did my first two test sharpens on a 6mm, 8mm and 9mm drill bits and tested by jamming some holes in a very thick offcut of Merbau fencepost. While I tried to be realistic in that I will never really be sharpening specialised profiles for aluminium, plastic etc, or consistently sharpening sizes greater than 13mm, but it is nice to have the option. You can do early in the morning or late at night without waking family or bothering neighbours if your shop is at home. The kicker was the combination of the reputable promise of the best possible result, plus when you can do something well on a Tormek it is pleasant. Ultimately, to buy the top-end model plus a higher-grit wheel seemed about the same price as the DBS-22. I read many inconsistent reviews of the Drill Doctors which seemed to be the only real alternative system. (c) make a mistake on a coarse or CBN wheel and you're going to lose a lot of "meat". Anything larger will usually be done on a drill press with a Forstner bit. And realistically the highest volume users are 4-8mm for me to pre-drill standard sized holes for nails or screws or bolts. (b) seems almost impossible on smaller bits. But clamping vertically to fight lateral force seems always imperfect and if you are using soft wood the clamp is liable to bruise or dent the wood, meaning you need to find a shim or piece of scrap. Your only option seems to be to either ream a huge hole or clamp it down like the dickens. Generally speaking you cannot correct a hole where the drill has walked. Particularly drilling into softwoods, I find walking annoying. (a) it provides no solution to a main problem with twist bit drills of the bit walking. Many people assert that you can sharpen twist drill bits on a grinder with practice and I watched videos of people who've made little guides. A bit of research into my system for twist drill bits indicated that to me that: I thought I would share some first impressions but first outlining the thoughts I had when buying, which is how I assessed it. I think it is just my personality of disliking sad old tools and tool parts deteriorating and needing junking - even thought I do almost no drilling into metal.
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