Drill bits method brand sharpening into 12 ga steel

Drills can easily be sharpened with a bench grinder. Takes practice and about 5 seconds

use cobalt coated bits.

They last much much longer. Oftentimes you need to look at a tool supply store to find them.

You might try carbide but keep in mind they are kind of brittle .So use steady pressure. You might ask the guys at your local machine shop what they recomend

good excuse to need a drill doctor:thumbup:

The new Drill Doctor works really well, takes a little bit to get the hang of it, but does an excellent job once you do. Although I have seen some old timers sharpen bits on a grindstone that were better than new. Never could do that myself though.

tomstruble said:

good excuse to need a drill doctor:thumbup:

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I'll second that, the drill dr. really works well.

drill slower too, keep a cup of cooling liquid water, oil etc. keep the bit from getting hot

i have the old drill doctor. i been trying to use it... with no success !

I drill a lot of 316 SS & have had good luck with cobalt bits, & they resharpen well. Like mentioned the drill dr works great once you get the hang of it. I see your'e in NYC, call Randy at Colonial 800-345-8665 ext 112 & tell him what you need, he'll hook you up plus it ups's the next day free.

Inner10 said:

2 sheets of 12 gauge is less then a 1/4 inch correct?

Can you not use a screw intended for thicker metal?

Like this:

I'd go bananas drilling all thoes holes.

I never had good luck re-sharpening. I spend alot on good bit sets but I've found that buying bulk packs of Triton black-oxide bits are the fastest. I really want to try some Japanese bits for I have heard good things.

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hrm... whats the name of that screw, or where could i get it. It might work. Im almost done with the steel.. but im facing another issue is attaching the drywall. The self cutting drywall screws i have works well when we drywalled over 1 layer of steel, but now that theres 2, the head cuts on the 2nd layer of steel.

I like the TiN Bullet drills for hand work. The key is speeds and feeds. "Keep the heat in the chip" was one of our mantras in the machine shop.

Most people consider high speed equilivent to efficiency, not so in metal drilling. What you want is a nice, curling chip. Try backing off on the speed, hard to do with a small drill. A 1/2" drill motor usually max's at around 580 RPM. I'd start at about half of that.

In 12ga. you should have chips about 2-1/2 to 3" long when you break through. I've done a lot with 11ga. SS.

A trick I learned watching a construction worker drilling into heavy steel beams is to Vary the speed-up & down alternately with your trigger, instead of just one speed. The drill bit will bite & grab on the way down & back up in speed- instead of a constant speed where it just sits there turning & doesn't grab & so it heats up ruining bits...............

The trick with self drilling screws is keeping the speed down and really laying into it.

that's right, your speed should be slow enough to create a spiral of metal coming up. How is it that you're killing the bits? is the heat melting the tips?

Instead of oil use something like this: http://www.amazon.com/Pigi-GOOD1-Bu...ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=hi&qid=1261762349&sr=1-1

I used to install a lot of door hardware for commercial steel doors so sharpening the bits was a necessity. I have the drill doctor and it works great.

mickey69125 said:

Although I have seen some old timers sharpen bits on a grindstone that were better than new. Never could do that myself though.

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I spent a few years in a machine shop back in my 20's. Guess I'd be one of those guys. :thumbup:

As Lone says, it's all in the angle, or backrake. You grind that differently depending on what kind of material you're going to be drilling. That's what makes the difference from the "as manufactured" drill bit. It's been too long for me to remember actual angle degree numbers, but I still do a pretty fair job of it freehand.

The comments on drill speed above are right on.

Plaza, if I remember right, aren't you actually drilling a steel/drywall/steel sandwich? Though a bit of a PITA, it might work better to first drill a body hole through the first layer (using a stop), then follow with either your self-cutting screw, or a smaller drill and then the screw.

If the two layers of steel are in contact with each other, the only real way to avoid their getting pushed apart by the screw even a little bit would be to pre-drill those body holes before mounting the second sheet.