Drill Doctor makes my drill Bits worse!!!!

The Dr is a drill SHARPENER, not a drill GRINDER. If you have a bit that is severely dulled, burned up, chipped, broken off, or otherwise mangled, the Drill Dr is not going to solve your problems any more than a hone can take nail gouges out of the edge of a planer blade. Just like a damaged knife blade, you have to grind the bit back to life with a GRINDER. Once you have the proper shape established, the Drill Dr can put you a razor edge on the tip VERY quickly and effectively.

If you try to grind a totally new tip, there is nothing to keep the bit from backing out as it rotates. The result is no relief at the heel and the resultant rubbing. The bigger the bit, the worse this effect.

Now, having said that, you may have already figured out what the problem is, but just in case.... If you are getting no heel relief, there is a problem with the indexing process. Might be the machine, might be you. The jaws of the grabber on the side mounted index fixture are supposed to grab the space between the flutes, not the solid side of the flute. I leave the chuck loose until the bit is fuly bottomed and grabbed by the jaws, THEN tighten up the chuck very, very carefully. If that is right and it is still not giving proper relief, try turning the bit a few degrees either way when indexing until you start to see some positive results.

The Dr doesn't work well on very small bits either. As the bit gets smaller, the angles and alignment get more and more critical. I have found the practical limit of both my hand sharpening ability and the Dr to be about 3/16". Anything smaller than that, the drills are just to cheap and the process is just too tedious to be worth the trouble.

The only thing that comes to my mind, is when you place the chuck into the side of the case, this accomplishes two things. (A) proper depth, and (B) proper angle.

You have to push the button on the opposite side of the case when placing the chuck in for the above, it will bottom out for the depth, then you have to rotate the bit until the dawgs inside grab the bit to align for proper angle.

One of the best tools I ever bought.

The cutting angles were wrong. The cutting edge was actually lower than the back side of the surface behind it. so that surface drags on the material to be drilled and it doesn't cut. One way to tell if a bit will cut is to look directly at the point. There will be a line in the center where the 2 cutting edges intersect. If that line angles from lower left to upper right the bit will cut. if it angles from lower right to upper left, its sharpened wrond and the bit will not cut.

I called the 800 number, explained the problem and the woman went thru the steps and ground a bit so I could hear what it was supposed to sound like. I was already doing that.

Her explanation didn't help any so I emailed the whole story and was sent a new chuck. It didn't change a thing.

I boxed it up along with a good drill bit bit that I'd unsharpened with the thing. I left the bit in the chuck and included a note explaining the problem again. The machine came back a few weeks later with a note saying they couldn't fix it because I didn't include one of their repair order forms.

I'd ruined about 20 bits by then and was wore slick so it's been on the shelf ever since.

In one sentence, the problem is: It won't grind proper relief. The provided settings don't allow for enough slope behind the cutting lips. Adjusting it way beyond the provided settings allowed it to grind a tiny bit of relief but not anywhere close to the proper shape of a good bit. The 'special' chuck they sent didn't change a thing.

Yeah, I'll sell it. What's it worth?