Drill Doctor DD750X Electric Drill Bit Sharpener, 3/32-3/4" High-Speed, Portable - Steel, Masonry, Carbide, Cobalt, Tin-Coated Bits, Adjustable Angles

There is a lot of dead-wrong information on the web about the product, especially in videos. These well-meaning people just don't seem to take the time to read all the instructions and follow them. Also, there are easy mistakes to make that the instructions don't warn about. Those mistakes are probably behind a lot of the negativity. In fairness to the naysayers, I gave 3 stars on easy-to-learn, 4 stars on easy-to-use, and 3 stars on instruction-quality. All that, and yet a 5-star overall rating because this is a great product.If you're thinking about getting one of these, do expect to invest some time in learning unless you're a machinist or maybe a mechanical engineer (they already know a lot of this stuff). I'm retired, so I had the time available. You may not. The fact is, some drill bits, such as smaller HSS varieties, are cheap enough to replace anyway. On the other hand, M42 bits and solid carbide bits, even pretty small ones, just ain't cheap.There are limits on what you can do with a grinder like this. You can't sharpen odd tip shapes without completely reshaping them. Examples are stepped tips, brad points, vortex, bit-starter, and 3-flute. (I knew very little about this when I started.) Some bits have expensive coatings like titanium nitride (TiN). Sharpening either wears down or completely removes coatings. For example, I'll think twice about investing in a set of M7 bits with expensive TiN coatings because the coatings' days will be numbered. That, of course, is not Drill Doctor's fault; it just is what it is.Here is some of the negative stuff from the Web and my answers:1. “I can’t align a split-point bit.” Having a pre-existing split point has no effect whatever on alignment of a bit or subsequent success in sharpening.2. “I can’t align a short bit because I can’t rotate it in the chuck.” Rotate the bit using needle nose pliers in front of the chuck. Rotate CW on right-handed bits and CCW on left-handed bits to maintain tip contact with the stop-bolt.3. “I can’t get the chisel angle right.” After about 200 bits, I’ve found that, 95% of the time, the chisel angle comes out within tolerance. You do have pay attention to three things when aligning: keep the bit against the stop bolt; be sure the chuck stays pushed firmly, all the way into the alignment port; when finished aligning, and the chuck is removed from the alignment port, tighten the chuck hard (otherwise it can move in the chuck when being sharpened, which ruins alignment).Reading this may scare you. It would have scared me when I started. (Even retired people have a life outside of drill bits.) Before you start, just read the entire instructions cover-to-cover. If you want to do that before you invest, you can download the pdf from the Drill Doctor website. Once you’ve read it, follow my three additional suggestions in my third answer above. Look through the ports to see what the grinding wheel does when doing basic sharpening and when applying split points. (Wear eye protection when doing this.) Then, when you sharpen bits, inspect the tip of each one and compare it to the figures in the manual and on the web. It will require some patience, but you will learn as you go, and you will get good at it. Soon you’ll be impressing your friends….If you’re going to do large bits and/or hard metals, I recommend getting the extra 100-grit grinding wheel. Bits of diameter greater than or equal to 3/8” are slow on the stock wheel. Also, when grinding solid carbide, I expect to use the 100-grit wheel on smaller carbide bits and then finish with the stock wheel.I’ve included a picture of a finished bit tip with a split point. The purpose is to provide proof-positive that this thing can be made to do an excellent job. The bits do end up razor-sharp.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ---- Note: Please see the end, because there IS an update to this story ---- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -(unedited original)Wrecked a considerable pile of drill bits with this one. Mine went "ziiiiing-tick" instead of the "ziiiiiing" the video tells you it should sound like. Just a tiny tick, but since I've never even seen a drill doctor before, and not knowing the "tick" was evil, I continued on. First bits were OK, but got worse very quickly. The angle was getting worse and worse on every bit I sharpened. Which led me to believe I was doing it wrong... so I kept practicing and watching the video, and practicing for hours until most of my drill bits were short and wrecked. By that time, the "ziiiiing tick" was a "ziiing-TWACK", by the way.Being the curious guy I am, I removed the guard and side plug and put a strong light in front so I could see exactly why it was wrecking my drill bits, what was I doing wrong? Well, I found the grinding wheel was not firmly held down by the spring loaded twist-on retainer. I don't know if the retainer wasn't put on properly by the factory, or if the spring wasn't seated correctly... all I can say is I could spin it with my finger at first, then it was tight after I removed it and reinstalled it)Any way, the momentum of the wheel allowed it to start grinding each bit, then the wheel would stop in the mid turn of the drill bit, while the motor continued to turn full speed. It's quite loud, so there was no way to know this was going on without seeing it. The "tick" noise was cause by the shaft quickly spinning up the wheel when you finished the sharpening cycle of the bit and it pulled away. Of course every time the wheel was stopped, the shaft spinning it the middle of it ground some more metal away, making the wheel looser and looser, so the "tick" became a "twack". The wheel stopped sooner as it got looser, which is why the bits were becoming worse for me, not better, with practice, LOL. The bits were all sharpened with a backwards angle, because the wheel spinning would grind down the leading edge of the bit and then skid to a stop, leaving the heel of the bit intact.)So , I call the 800 number, nobody there. call again, left message with name and number, nobody returned the call. Left message with receptionist, nothing.I called pretty much every day, actually for well over a week. Left lots of messages. Receptionist left messages for them too. The receptionist was even saying "wow, nobody has phoned you back yet?? " after a week.Eventually, about 10 days later, I finally get a hold of somebody (note that they still hadn't returned a voicemail yet), and I explain it to them. They can't do anything about it, and all I get was another number to phone for the repair tech. sigh)So that guy only takes two days to get a hold of, and I explain it to him.All I wanted/expected was to send in my receipt (receipt dated about 15 days old now) and the wheel/retainer, which is now all stripped out, and get a new wheel and retainer on warranty (PS this machine is brand new). Nope. I have to mail the entire unit to them, they will "fix" it or send me a refurb. The guy says probably a refurb, since he isn't allowed to disassemble them in any way. (! The guy seems nice enough, and explains his hands are tied since Drill doctor won't mail him any parts either.Shipping the ENTIRE unit across the country costs almost twice than just going and buying the grinding wheel at a local store to begin with! Ugh. Phoned the original 800 number a bunch more times, nobody there, nobody phones back. Over a week later somebody actually calls me back (from the first voicemail I assume, 22 days prior), and the result is the same.No, I can't mail the screwed up wheel and retainer to them for warranty replacement. Mail the entire (brand new) unit in to Drill doctor (at my expense), and they'll ship you a refurb. They don't do "parts" at all, apparently.So, end result is, I bought a new wheel, fixed up the retainer a bit to properly hold it down, it works fine. Not "superb" or "like new" , but considerably better than hand sharpening for sure.My view of Drill Doctor as a company, and their customer support? I really *hope* I never need warranty again. That was a terrible experience. You really get the feeling that nobody really cares there, but the receptionist who unfortunately can't do a thing for you.Things break, that's a expected. And sometimes things are DOA, that's life. That's what warranty is for.But when your only warranty support is an 800 number with voicemail, and they can't be bothered to ever phone you back, that's really horrible.The fact that they won't send you a replacement part is not great either, but it was the total lack of customer service was the real disappointment here. Around 3 weeks waiting for them to return a voicemail was a bit extreme, while I have a brand new top of the line DOA Drill doctor sitting on my bench.I am giving two stars, since the machine works fine now, just like it's supposed to... but I can't give it more since it cost me several weeks of phoning, and 30 dollars out of my pocket to finally make it work, from brand new out of the box, and there is little to nothing for warranty support, parts, and customer service.- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - <UPDATE Nov 1, 2011> - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -< PS: Thanks commenters :- I AM just your typical DIY guy, not a shop, or a business... and your support is really appreciated, thank you :- >"Drill Doctor Marketing Guy" Matthew was true to his word in the comments section, and hooked me up with a very friendly Customer Service/Technical Support gal, Harmony, the following week after I emailed him.She very happily, rather than send parts to fix mine up, offered to simply replace my DD750x drill doctor with a current model. No kidding...There are a number of substantial things from my review that Drill Doctor has specifically addressed, which deserves an update.1 There are now real people manning the phones, and replying to emails. And friendly ones too. Their webpage ALSO has a direct link to Matthew's email right on the main page - Plus a web form to make a comment to the president of the company if you need to. I think there have been some tremendous efforts made here, to really grab hold of the concept of "customer service".2 On receipt of the replacement, the first thing I looked at - that loose springy clip-in retainer that caused the problem with the sharpening wheel in the first place... is gone! It is replaced by a screwed down retainer. And it is nice and solid - with two screws clamping the drum instead of the previous twisty/springy thing. Redesigned. Problem solved.3 Their web page Drill Doctor FAQ, first item, says "certain repair parts are available" now. I called specifically about that, *anonymously*, and it's true. Parts you can get at, IE *without opening the unit in any way*, are replaceable... and reasonably inexpensive. Thank you Drill Doctor !(Just for fun, I asked specifically to purchase a twist on springy wheel retainer too - as per the original problem. Nope. Sigh. Oh well, they still score 8/10 on that one, for at least offering latest revision parts.)Since the company has actually redesigned the problem part AND successfully worked very hard to improve every aspect of service I experienced,I'm pretty impressed right now with "new and Improved Drill Doctor"...both the company and the machine... and I'd not hesitate to recommend them to a friend..................... 2 Star ---> 5 Star ....................-- Randy- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

First, I must admit that where I used to work, we had a $4000 Darex professional drill sharpener and did hundreds of bits a month. It always gave excellent results. What Darex has done with their "home" products (Drill Doctor line) is remove many of the finer adjustments and use a plastic chuck. The biggest weakness in the DD is the lack of an angle adjustment on the split point relief fingers. This is found on the Darex pro models. The DD model uses sheet metal fingers to set rotational "clocking" of the bit, but if you are setting up a drill that has had relief cut in it from a prior sharpening on the same unit, the fingers drop into the relief zone, not the drill flutes as intended, causing the drill to be slightly rotated from optimum when tightening the chuck. It does not significantly impact the primary grinding, but it can and will cause the split point grinding to not have the correct point in the web center. The Darex allows a 4 degree +/- adjustment to compensate for this, the DD does not. I found that I have to eyeball the clocking to compensate for the rotational error caused by the reliefs. If you have inaccurate split point geometry, the drill does not like to penetrate steel material without a pilot hole. Other than that, I found it does a decent job as a home drill sharpener. One other point, mine arrived in a paper box, not in a plastic case, although they did provide a canvas storage bag.