Sharpening a left hand drill bit

[Bill D]

I own a few left hand drill bits for drilling out screws and bolts. Can a inexpensive drill sharpener machine work with them? I have a black diamond machine. I have one bit that someone sharpened assuming it was a cw drill. the angles do not work. no relief.
I feel my hand sharpening will confuse my muscle memory.
Bill D

 

[BoxcarPete]

Mail it to Gustafson, got it on good authority he's a southpaw. Should be easy enough for him to sharpen

 

[eKretz]

Your Black Diamond can probably do it with the correct parts but those would be $$$. For an inexpensive way to do it, maybe one of those cheap swing grinders you can stick to the bench for grinding on the side of a bench grinder wheel might work? Dunno. I generally hand sharpen mine on the bench grinder wheel as I'm not worried about whether they drill exactly the right diameter. I use them rarely and for the same purpose as you do. They don't seem to mess up my muscle memory any for grinding right hand drills (I think that's what your meant?).

 

[boslab]

I hand grind, odd I find LH easier?, perhaps I’m a closet lefty? ( not that sort, the other one) I do use both hands a lot, ( not for that, other things like welding)
Mark

 

[eKretz]

I hand grind, odd I find LH easier?, perhaps I’m a closet lefty? ( not that sort, the other one) I do use both hands a lot, ( not for that, other things like welding)
Mark

Hmmm, how's that go? "Methinks thou doth protest too much?"

 

[Larry Dickman]

do it while looking in a mirror.

 

[Strostkovy]

snip off the ground prong and plug the sharpener in backwards

Don't actually do this

 

[michiganbuck]

One good way to sharpen for someone not having the skills for drill sharpening is to dress the bench grinder wheel very flat and shut down..., set the table of the grinder so as to get a 12* clearance. Draw a line or clamp a bar on the table to mimic 30*..Then with the tooth lip eyeball flat across the top, Just bump the tooth to the wheek straight in and make the two grinds come to very near center.. This will make a facet grind..then you roll the heal away with the conventional rilling the drill but not coming quite up the faceted grind.

One can do this same with a V block tilted at 12* and skim across with a surface grinder wheel, or bump a wheel side(re: the book says to not side wheel grind).

The facet grind works very well.. but the heal must be cleared or the heal will rub.

 

[michiganbuck]

snip off the ground prong and plug the sharpener in backward.


On that Method..one might not snip the prong for elictrivically safety...but bolt the grinder unit to the ceiling so everything is like a mirror..and then likely gooder enough to grind left-handed.

 

[Bill D]

snip off the ground prong and plug the sharpener in backwards

Don't actually do this

Similar to plug in the refrigerator into the top socket on the outlet. The lower portion is for heating appliances.
Bill D

 

[mark costello]

Right hand wheel is for right hand drill bits. Left hand wheel is for left hand drill bits. Try it and get back with Us.

 

[kustomizer]

I think you will need an Australian that is left handed and willing to do it while sitting on a backwards flushing toilet.

 

[L Vanice]

The TDR/SRD drill grinders have a simple left hand drill adapter for $125. It is a wedge that goes under the drill holder to change the angle that the end of the drill hits the grinding wheel. I have a couple, but have never needed to sharpen a LH drill bit.

TDR/SRD Drill Grinder – Model 80-M – www.Drill-Grinder.com LH adapter is toward the bottom of the page.

Larry

 

[Turbowerks]

I have a nice black diamond left hand sharpener. Bid on it on a online auction they had two sitting on a bench the auctioneer didn’t know one was left hand (or did i) asked me which one i wanted i said the one on the left … turns out it was a left handed grinder when i picked it up. That how i got one now if i only had left hand drills[emoji2957]


When I find it I don’t need it
When I need it I can’t find it!

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

I’ve ground ordinary drills into a left hand cutting edge in the past. It works just as good as a left hand drill for removing broken screws etc. It takes a bit of thinking about though.

Regards Tyrone.

 

[Lewie]

snip off the ground prong and plug the sharpener in backwards

Don't actually do this

:-) send it/them to Australia for sharpening . Doesn't that "upside down" bit work for right / left hand also? :-)
...lewie...

 

[richard newman]

I’ve ground ordinary drills into a left hand cutting edge in the past. It works just as good as a left hand drill for removing broken screws etc. It takes a bit of thinking about though.

Regards Tyrone.

Great idea! I needed to do this last month, never occurred to me.

 

[eKretz]

I’ve ground ordinary drills into a left hand cutting edge in the past. It works just as good as a left hand drill for removing broken screws etc. It takes a bit of thinking about though.

Regards Tyrone.

Grind them with a little extra rake and clearance and they bite in and grab better too. Helps get those stuck fasteners out PDQ sometimes.

 

[CarbideBob]

For removing screws I take the back end of a carbide endmill and hand grind it into a left hand spade.
Works oh so great on broken toolholder screws and the endmill is still usable for its normal purpose.

 

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Grind them with a little extra rake and clearance and they bite in and grab better too. Helps get those stuck fasteners out PDQ sometimes.

I remember getting 16 broken cap screws out a steel ring that way. The screw heads had all been burst off so I figured the screws weren’t actually in that tight, they were just sheared off flush with the top of the component and there was nothing to get hold of. I could have probably got them all out with a scriber eventually. The guy who gave me the job said “ When shall I come back for it ? “ I said “ Just wait there, I’ll only be a minute “.

You should have seen his face when every one came out really easy, zip, zip, zip. It only took me a couple of minutes to get them all out.

Regards Tyrone.