Ya my school had nothing other than difficult teachers. I drove 100 miles on weekends to take a course at Saskatoons tech school, 2 of us took turns driving, our instructor was a great guy that we would have lunch with. He was excited to have 2 guys that really wanted to learn, most of the others were sent to take a course of some kind by gov. while on unemployment insurance.
Sharpening Drills.....
- Thread starter Towforce
- Start date
Alawishes
Member
Wow, hard core!! I moved to a new province into Grade 12, with a huge difference in the curriculum. Totally lost in French class so I switched from that to Shop class — changed my life hugely. I spent a couple of years saving up to go to SAIT in Calgary for auto mechanics, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Great instructors who were into their jobs, I think most likely because the students actually wanted to be there.
historicalarms
Ultra Member
Buddy of mine built a bit sharpener that works excellent, I havent seen anything but a photo of it but I have a bag full of 1/2"-1" bits that he sharpened for me and now these Chinese steel bits cut as good as any expensive on-shore bits that I have ever used. I can send 2 spirals out of a hole 15 ft long if I want to, I have to stop feeding to get them to break off.
He used one of those old inexpensive hardware store bit sharpeners as the start but uses a belt sander instead of a bench grinder that they were built for. He uses a very course belt to dress the point up from the wore or chipped state it starts in then uses a 1100 grit belt to finish the sharpening. It probably took a lot of trial & error to get a perfect angle to dress the points up to dead center but he certainly seems to have accomplished it.
He used one of those old inexpensive hardware store bit sharpeners as the start but uses a belt sander instead of a bench grinder that they were built for. He uses a very course belt to dress the point up from the wore or chipped state it starts in then uses a 1100 grit belt to finish the sharpening. It probably took a lot of trial & error to get a perfect angle to dress the points up to dead center but he certainly seems to have accomplished it.
140mower
Don
When I was I highschool I had a job cleaning up around truck repair/machine shop. One day the machinist, a rather gruff German fellow handed me an old drill bit and a gauge and pointed me to the grinder. After one or two more demonstrations than he would have preferred to offer, it was determined that they weren't going to be great, but I could likely make them better than they were, so once a week or so I would be handed a coffee can of bits and would spend an hour or so grinding bits. It's a good skill to learn, I am still not good at it, but they are always better than they were. I do pretty good freehand down to 1/8" most days, although I have to time the shakes a little more than I used to. 