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Drill Doctor review - Confession time
This is embarrassing. I posted a review in good conscience generally praising the efficasy of the Drill Doctor 750 but panning its performance on smaller drills. I called the Drill Doctor people and was quickly connected with Denice their tech person. She walked me through several scenario none of which corrected the problem of unpredictably poor centering of small drills in their drill chuck/cam unit.
Afterwards I carefully checked the assembly of the chuck until I discovered it was incorrectly assembled - twice. Once from the factory and once by me. There are shallow guides molded into the chuck barrel that the jaws have to engage in order to correctly align with the axis. This is tricky because the jaws are merely hardened sheet metal that dangle from a hairpin spring. The insertion of the jaws simultaneously in their guide slots has to be verified as it's assembled. A judicious nudge with a scribe helps the process. Once properly engaged the jaws stay put and accurately center.
I appoligize to Professional Tool Manufacturing, makers of the Drill Doctor for incorrectly re-assembling their chuck and writing a review declaring a defiency that was not true. I also metaphorically kick their butts for not assembling their chuck correctly in the first place.
So to amend my earilier review:
Ensure the Drill Doctor chuck/cam units are correctly assembled so the jaws engage the slots in the thrust collar as well as the slots in the barrel. Mine were not and when I disassembled it for inspection and diagnosis I incorectly reassembled it in the same way it came from the factory. Without correct assembly it will not sharpen smaller drills so the point is correctly centered.
The spring jaws inside the alignment port sometimes hang up. Be sure to wiggle the drill while it's a bit loose in the chuck so the spring jaws in the alignment port index the drill in time with the cam in the chuck. Only then do you snug up the chuck.
Closely examine the clearance angle on smaller drills. I discovered on my unit the smaller the drills got the closer the as-ground clearance got to zero. While they cut they were slow to feed. I set the alignment adjustment lever to "+" to gain a bit more clearance and the drills cut better. This lever needs some intermediate positions.
Follow these steps not mentioned in the manual and you'll sharpen drills down to the 3/32" minimum so the points are accurately centered.
Sorry for my screw-up. I fully endorse the Drill Doctor as a drill sharpening asset for the home shop.
Afterwards I carefully checked the assembly of the chuck until I discovered it was incorrectly assembled - twice. Once from the factory and once by me. There are shallow guides molded into the chuck barrel that the jaws have to engage in order to correctly align with the axis. This is tricky because the jaws are merely hardened sheet metal that dangle from a hairpin spring. The insertion of the jaws simultaneously in their guide slots has to be verified as it's assembled. A judicious nudge with a scribe helps the process. Once properly engaged the jaws stay put and accurately center.
I appoligize to Professional Tool Manufacturing, makers of the Drill Doctor for incorrectly re-assembling their chuck and writing a review declaring a defiency that was not true. I also metaphorically kick their butts for not assembling their chuck correctly in the first place.
So to amend my earilier review:
Ensure the Drill Doctor chuck/cam units are correctly assembled so the jaws engage the slots in the thrust collar as well as the slots in the barrel. Mine were not and when I disassembled it for inspection and diagnosis I incorectly reassembled it in the same way it came from the factory. Without correct assembly it will not sharpen smaller drills so the point is correctly centered.
The spring jaws inside the alignment port sometimes hang up. Be sure to wiggle the drill while it's a bit loose in the chuck so the spring jaws in the alignment port index the drill in time with the cam in the chuck. Only then do you snug up the chuck.
Closely examine the clearance angle on smaller drills. I discovered on my unit the smaller the drills got the closer the as-ground clearance got to zero. While they cut they were slow to feed. I set the alignment adjustment lever to "+" to gain a bit more clearance and the drills cut better. This lever needs some intermediate positions.
Follow these steps not mentioned in the manual and you'll sharpen drills down to the 3/32" minimum so the points are accurately centered.
Sorry for my screw-up. I fully endorse the Drill Doctor as a drill sharpening asset for the home shop.
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