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I'll say this: I've owned three Drill Doctors now, due to my weakness for needing to have the latest & greatest.  The current one is a DD750X I believe, and the previous one was the 1st-generation (tall-ish) 750.  I should have kept that one, it worked great.  This latest one is junk afaic, always leaving either neutral or even negative relief grinds, especially on larger bits.  A quick search will show that it isn't just me; there are countless complaints about the same problem, with suggestions from the manufacturer which are either ineffective or are ridiculous workarounds, or both.


This is why I'm reconsidering the jig.  However, what I'd really like to do is develop the skill to sharpen drills manually on a bench grinder.  There are guys out there who are artists at doing it, and it seems to me that such a skill would "set me free" from the processes, limitations, and costs of single-purpose jiggery.

In case anyone has been holding out, the drill jig is $50 off right now on Amazon.


I dont have one, and have been on both sides of the fence with it, but thought I'd pass it along.

Ever since I was a kid, I've labored under the impression that slicing tomatoes was only impressive if the knife was first used to cut through a tail pipe.

(For those outside the U.S., we had a famously annoying infomercial for "Japanese Ginsu knives" wherein the knife was used to cut an exhaust system in two, followed by slicing a tomato with scalpel-like ease.  Realistically, the Pocket Fisherman was probably more useful, even today, as part of a prepper's go-kit.)

Yep, motors are one thing where you really have to trust the manufacturer and their ratings.  It goes against our grain to see a motor run that hot and not care.  This is why most motors don't have as much data on their plate as Baldor-class motors do - it's not that the manufacturer doesn't know the data, it's that they don't want you to know.

It extends to horsepower too.  In order to know the true HP of a motor, you have to solve:

(Volts x Amps x Power Factor x Efficiency Rating) / 756.  Few manufacturers below the Baldor class will tell you the PF or ER, because if they give you those, they can't claim that their $25 motor produces 5hp when connected to 120VAC mains.  (Actually most motors fail the HP test without even considering PF or ER - just ask Sears with their 6HP shop vacs  .)

"Too hot to touch" is normal for many electric motors.  What's important is that they be built to handle the heat.  That's the main difference between a $50 motor and a $300 motor.  I have induction motors by Baldor and Leeson that run that hot, and are rated to do so all day long, 7 days a week.

My T7 has been the same way since new.

Also, something like Liquid Wrench, PB Blaster, or Kroil may help more, or more quickly, than WD40.

...could you grind two flats on the shaft and use a wrench to turn it...

I like that idea.  You could also chuck the shaft into a vise and put a large strap wrench around the wheel.  That would give lots of leverage.  I think we're all assuming that the shaft is going to be ruined with any of these ideas and that you'll be upgrading to the stainless shaft so this doesn't happen again. 

The rust lines are normal; traces of steel removed during the grinding process can remain embedded in the grit, where they of course rust.  That isn't a problem and doesn't impede grinding in any way.

The slowdown of steel removal is simply the result of your stone wearing in and needing to be re-graded with the course side of the stone grader.  Or, if you want to turn it into a very course grit (e.g., if you have several tools that you're trying to re-profile), then you might want to make a pass with the truing tool.  Once your tools have the edge profile that you want, you should be able to do most of your grinding with your stone graded "fine" and only occasionally need to re-grade it "course."

Yep, as I said, sharpening per factory specs, my grass has done better than it ever has.  No broken ends, no browning or fungus.  In the past I've paid to have them sharpened, DIY on a bench grinder, DIY with one of those worthless cone-shaped drill attachments, DIY with files... some have worked out better than others, but the tiny flat has made more of a difference than anything I've ever tried both for my grass and for my blades.

Most things are better off if you can get them atom-splitting sharp.  But there are exceptions.  Now if I could only find a solution to crabgrass in the flower beds.

YMMV.  I sharpen per the diagram and my grass is looking better than it has in 25 years.  On the other hand, I've had my blades sharpened by a professional shop and found them ruined after 2 mowings.

Be aware that at least some of the major manufacturers specify that the blade not be completely sharp.  A truly sharp blade won't last much more than one mowing before the edge rolls over.  For example, Honda's mulching mowers specify as follows:

Yes, I don't have the right adapter, and it would still be a hassle to get out the vac just to sharpen a bit or two.

I've had Drill Doctors for a long time.  They work great, but they make such a mess that I tend to avoid getting them out.  Using one always (for me) involves following up with the shop vac to clean up all the resulting dust in, under, and around the machine.  Most folks probably don't care, and it's a very cost effective way to get your bits sharp.  There's a bit of technique involved but I don't think it's anywhere near the learning curve of the DBS-22.

But for the mess reason alone I haven't ruled out the Tormek jig.

Well, of course plants don't know whether the blade cutting them is powered by muscles or a motor.  But many plants will branch in 2 or more directions everywhere and every time they are cut.  So if you prune carefully by hand, you can have great control over how/where/to what degree the plant grows.  Japanese Bonsai is an extreme illustration of this.  When you take the gas powered beast to it, they tend to get bushier and bushier, to the point where they don't look right, and the foliage all concentrates at the very ends of the branches (mainly because the thicker-than-normal foliage prevents any sunlight from penetrating the surface).

I do understand the need to speed things up when you have a lot to prune.  We had yews almost completely around the perimeter of the house.  When they began to get big, I bought a nice Shindaiwa (now Echo) hedge trimmer.  Within a few years they went from beautiful to not so much and I wound up selling the trimmer.  A combination of the pruning damage and the ground settling around the foundation caused us to have to rip them all out and start over.  I've decided to prune them by hand, even if I have to do 2-3 of them per evening over the course of a few weeks.

Great post.  If more people understood the way bushes react to pruning, they would still use tools like this.  Those gas-powered "hedge trimmers" are a sure path to destruction of the plant.  DAMHIKT.