Can we sharpen this???

[@nobuckle40]

I have always been impressed with these micro drill bits. Like you I am awed by how they are made.

[@Lappemountainliving]

Cheers!

[@tomt9543]

Cannot believe I just watched a craftsman sharpen a #76 drill bit! WOW! I use these tiny bits down to the #80 size, and buy them in packs of 12. The brand is Gyros, sold on Amazon, and they’re available in Carbon Steel or High Speed Steel. I use stricter the HSS ones, and they run just under $13 for a tube containing 12 of the same size. Great video Sir!

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks for the info. And for the comment! I'm guessing that the cost of these has come down significantly over the last 3+ decades? Cheers!

[@johnbenjamin1565]

It would never occur to me to try to sharpen a .020 drill on a tool and cutter grinder. I have multiple christen drill grinders and they will sharpen small drills. The christens have microscopes on the grinder so setting the cutting edge in the right place to start is not difficult for small drills. Fun to watch you invent ways to sharpen tools. I really like your videos.

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks, I appreciate the comment, and the compliments on the inventiveness!

[@torsiondell]

I use sub 0.5mm drill bits when repivoting steel clock arbors, normally throw away when blunt so nice to see .

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks for commenting!

[@shadowcard6923]

Generally the smaller the drill the higher the RPM actually as it makes it closer to the ideal SFM per material as well as helps evacuate the chips. We run carbide drills in stainless that are under .125” or so at like 4500 RPM and then a feed of like .0001 IPT or so

[@wmcrash]

Word on the street is that tiny carbide tooling is ground with lasers. I am willing to guess it's the same with HSS. I can't imagine the bit holding up to some grinding wheel to get those flutes ground . But then again, I've been very wrong before. That being said, if you got more of these needles to sharpen, maybe rig one of them soldering microscopes.

[@Lappemountainliving]

Great idea! Thanks for the comment!

[@keithwesley2471]

Great video. Most micro drill bits I end up using in a pin vice chuck and hand drilling. I once managed to sharpen a tiny drill bit by hand using a lapping stone. Luck more than skill, methinks!

[@Lappemountainliving]

:) Thanks for the comment!

[@1pcfred]

Little drill bits like that I've found it doesn't matter if they're sharpened "right". Just so long as they're sharp they'll drill. So what I do is just point them up. I know it isn't right, but it works. I've even drilled through steel after just pointing them up. I don't run them slow either. My micro press doesn't do slow. I think it's 3 speeds, 3,000, 5,000 and 8,000? I just leave it in the middle all the time. So 5K RPM.

[@Heasyy]

Nice video, thanks for putting it together! I like the quick pace and conciseness for sure. Could I ask about the stick-out of the drill bit in the drill press - it seemed long to me but does that allow the bit to flex a bit? When you had it in the grinder you had almost no stick-out. Is there any rule of thumb for how far the drill bit should be out when used in a drill (I mean obviously you need to get through the thickness of the material, but otherwise)?

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thank you! In my humble opinion the stick out in the drill doesn't really matter too much. Of course you have to have enough in the chuck so that the drill is secure and runs true. Had I not touched the work surface with a center drill I'm sure the drill would have wandered so in the event you for some reason couldn't spot the hole having less stick out would have helped some. No I wasn't leaving extra out to allow it to flex. The reason I had it close in the grinder was because all my tool/cutting pressure was on one side and with it being so small it would have flexed like crazy and been hard to control. In the grinder I did have the drill flutes in contact with the check jaws. This would be a big no no to grip a drill this way when drilling with it because the drill and jaws are of similar hardness and they could damage each other. However when I had it in the grinder I only hand tightened the check gently to ensure no damage was done. I hope this adequately answers your questions. Cheers!

[@Heasyy]

@@Lappemountainliving Yes perfectly, thanks so much for an amazing reply! I watched a bunch of your other videos, they're all excellent - I subscribed!! Thanks again.

[@garymucher4082]

I usually buy wire size bits in lots of ten. And that is because I use them to drill circuit boards for feed through components. I even made a drill index plate and LAZERed it for each size hole. Then I take any freed through component lead and see what size bit I need to that component. Works really well for my usage... However, I would never try to sharpen such size bits. Too iffy to do that, so I just buy new ones as needed...pretty cheap to buy them. But interesting video anyway. Thumbs Up!

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks for the comment

[@DK-vx1zc]

excellent! Interesting and enjoyable. Thanks for sharing

[@Lappemountainliving]

Many thanks!

[@anthonyflores9846]

I have iPhone and i use magnifier app and you can also use flashlight lens that has broadening and zooming on your camera or typical magnifying glass lmao😂 and with a steady hand you can actually see something like that .0200” drill bit as a 11/16” drill bit. I use a drimell tool with a diamond disc for my small carbide twist drills from 1/8” down to micro drills i purchase from harbor freight I believe smallest is around 10 thou.

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks for the comment! I've decided to go old school magnifying glass

[@jorgemilanese7172]

Hi Andy! Great video! If I understand correctly, this method produces a flat cutting surface in the drill. Is there a method to replicate the original convex cutting surface in a drill, using the KO Lee grinder?

[@Lappemountainliving]

Hi Jorge Thanks! And great question Yes, there is, We could use our HYBCO, 2 way relieving fixture to give a cammed relief to this drill bit. Not a bad idea for a future video!

[@jorgemilanese7172]

@@Lappemountainliving looking forward to it!

[@stefanobertelli2650]

I was hoping to see how you would grind the secondary relief on that drill bit and the web thinning :D Just kidding, thanks for the amazing knowledge you're sharing for us!

[@Lappemountainliving]

LOL... Thank you for your comment!

[@theoldstationhand]

Cool, I'll have to have a go myself now. At about what size would you start thinking about setting up a drill grinding attachment? Thanks for the vid. Cheers

[@Lappemountainliving]

Interesting question. I don't have a clear cut answer. My drill grinder claims to be able to handle 1/4" to 3" but I haven't had much luck with drills smaller than 3/4". Thanks for the comment and thanks for watching.

[@paulerickson1906]

Wow. I could not imagine sharpening anything so tiny.

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks for watching! Cheers!

[@kevinandrew678]

If you have a laptop get a usb microscope I have one with 500x zoom. Really helps working on really small items

[@Lappemountainliving]

Great advise! I don't have a laptop but I am planning to buy a 30X magnifying glass. Thanks for watching!

[@TlD-dg6ug]

You need to invest in a loupe they are super cheap and helpful. And I shouldn't have to say this, but you should be dressing the wheel every time you mount it, and periodically with molybdenum rod

[@joergengeerds360]

I would suggest to add text overlays to your video, translating the imperial measurements you are talking about in your video to metric. easy to do in the edit, and it helps you gaining views from the rest of the world who has no idea what a 1/16-1/32 is going to look like

[@Lappemountainliving]

Great idea!

[@1pcfred]

First off even the Empire doesn't use Imperial measurements today. No one does. We use the International Industrial Standard Inch. But you can just call it Standard for short. The Standard inch is the inch that's precisely 2.54 centimeters long. Imperial was two millionths shorter than that. So that's how you can tell them apart.

[@khalilbahlawan4439]

Totally agree, it hurts my brain constantly trying to convert these fractions to mm

[@1pcfred]

@@khalilbahlawan4439 then get a drill chart. There's one on my Google docs page if you can figure out how to access that. It's a copy of a metal supplier handout. In one column are all of the number, letter and fractional sizes then there's the decimal equivalents and then the metric conversions. It is the Rosetta stone for measuring.

[@joergengeerds360]

@@1pcfred the international standard is metric. and the inch got defined as 25.4000mm, so it is just an inconvenient subset. but what boggles (international) people is the stupid fraction system associated with imperial.

[@CandidZulu]

Guy Lautard has a jig for sharpening small drills in his book, very simple, just a block of metal.

[@Ujeb08]

I would guess they were made with an EDM. no tooling pressure to flex the tiny shaft.

[@Lappemountainliving]

possibly. Thanks for watching!

[@ionstorm66]

Before CNC, it would have just been made with a pattern machine.

[@Lappemountainliving]

I'm going to check that out. Thanks!

[@garymcmullin2292]

I appreciate the adventure given us, but unless you are desperate for a useable bit RIGHT NOW it would seem buying wire bits in bulk is the optimum plan. Hard to make any money fiddling with such a difficult project for the pay off to come.

[@dr.yakupbalaban]

HOW OLD YOU GOOD IDIA.. BEST LIVING☺

[@Lappemountainliving]

Thanks for watching!

[@Sam-ob4of]

*0,508mm in diameter

[@vladnickul]

0.5 mm does not seam that impressive :d