Drill dull? Is there an easy way to sharpen

During construction work, it is often necessary to drill various materials, and you may encounter the fact that the metal drill is already dull and does not drill metal surfaces. The absence of a sharp drill can stop the construction process for several days, but do not rush to throw out a dull drill and run for a new one. He can return the lost sharpness at home.

This can be done with an electric sharpening tool.

A drill for metal is usually made of alloy steel, this is steel with the addition of refractory metals, such as tungsten or molybdenum. Such a composition is much stronger than steel, so steel sheets can be drilled. It is not easy to process such material, because it is necessary that it does not lose its properties during processing.

Before sharpening, the drill must be hardened and cooled. The purpose of hardening is to reduce the ductility of the metal and increase its strength. Hardening occurs by heating the drill to a high temperature. You can heat the metal on a kitchen gas burner. When the drill is hot enough to turn a bright scarlet color, you can start cooling it down.

If the steel is cooled slowly, it may lose its strength, so for fast cooling, you need to use machine oil that tolerates heating to high temperatures well. When performing work, do not forget about safety precautions and take care to protect your hands from burns with heated metal.

You can hold the drill with pliers, and all work is best done with gloves.

When the drill has completely cooled down, you can start machining it. A compact manual grinder is suitable for this. To prevent the drill from slipping out of your hands and not turning during sharpening, you can fix it in the drill holder. The drill, of course, does not need to be plugged into the network.

Sharpening must begin with the working surface of the drill, the planes of which are ground at an angle of 120 ° to each other. Fix the drill in a position convenient for work and proceed to turning the drill. The tip of the drill will look like planes connected at an angle.

After that, the work plane needs to be slightly narrowed. For this, the leading edge of the tip is turned. In this case, the working surface will acquire a slightly convex shape.

In order to return the drill to full functionality, you need to make the middle tooth of the drill thinner, so we grind it a little and narrow it. The top needs to be narrowed in half, turning it from different sides. Check the quality of work by running a finger or a synthetic napkin over the tip of the drill, if on there is no burr on the metal, the fabric will not catch on anything, if the point is not smooth enough - continue turning.

Between the stages of work, check if the drill has become hot, and if it does, stop working until it cools down. If all the steps have been performed correctly, the drill will be able to work on metal again.

In this way, you can sharpen the drill at home, and it will return to its former sharpness and last for a long time.