New Tool Day
- Thread starter WVJeep304
- Start date
We had an old engine lathe at a shop I used to work at. Leather Belts for the drive and it had cast in place Babbitt bearings. Big Ol' South Bend.
Had to look up what a babbit bearing even was. Cool stuff
I love the old pictures of machine shops before electricity. A main steam engine with ceiling-mounted main shafts and leather belts coming off to each machine. Pre-OSHA, of course, so no belt guards anywhere. I tried to Google some pics, but my Google fu ain't working this afternoon...
Babbitt material is still used in just about every car engine today. The crank main bearings and the big end of the rod bearings have a thin coat of babbitt on the wear surface. It's still the preferred material for plain bearings, but roller bearings have replaced it in most applications.
Not the greatest, but demonstrative...
Our public museum has a permanent exhibit called "the furniture factory" that shows what it would be like to work in a turn of the century factory, complete with the belt drives and central power unit (all the belts are guarded though). Its one of my favorite exhibits in the whole place. That and the giant steam engine they have restored...and use to "power" the factory. Its driven by electric motor now, but was used in a furniture factory in Cadillac, I think.
Believe me, I thought of that, but some of them are formed leather:
I'd have to make a form and then figure out how to form leather. I don't have time for that, so I'll likely just pay the crazy price...
You might try : rocketseals.com I dealt with them in 1980 for really weird cup seals on pneumatic production welders , they carried a canvas/buna type seal that replaced the leather cup seals the welders were built with. The seals worked great and the people were fantastic to work with. ( Of course by now all the guys I worked with are no longer with us )
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I'll sure give them a try, first. Thanks for the referral, ColoJeep!You might try : rocketseals.com I dealt with them in 1980 for really weird cup seals on pneumatic production welders , they carried a canvas/buna type seal that replaced the leather cup seals the welders were built with. The seals worked great and the people were fantastic to work with. ( Of course by know all the guys I worked with are no longer with us )
I hope they have something that would work for you . The prices were good in 1980 , for whatever that's worth !
After dropping tools a time or two from a ladder, picked up one of these. Another smart and simple Milwaukee solution.
Took an old ratcheting wrench to the grinder to make it easier to remove the u joint straps on the diff ends of the driveshafts. New old tool, or old new tool?
Picked up this Vevor 2mm to 20 mm bit sharpener.
I have a couple of Drill Doctors - also up to 3/4" - but have never really been happy with them. Sometimes they sharpen well, other times it would produce an edge that would not cut at all - hit or miss. In my research on this thing I found out that the reason for this inconsistency is that the Drill Doctors seems to work well on cheap bits - meaning bits with thinner webs - but on higher end bits with thicker webs, they produce an edge that is cut deeper than the relief.
Every review I've seen on this thing was stellar, and it supposedly produces a great result on any bit. So I thought I'd give it a try.
Metric, but also works just fine for imperial. It also includes a diamond wheel for carbide bits. Night and day beef compared to the Drill Doctor. 100% metal, and very well built. This thing weighs 20 pounds.
Without any tuning at all, and not really spending any time learning how to use it, the first sharpening out of the box was really good.
I'm pretty happy with it so far.
I have a couple of Drill Doctors - also up to 3/4" - but have never really been happy with them. Sometimes they sharpen well, other times it would produce an edge that would not cut at all - hit or miss. In my research on this thing I found out that the reason for this inconsistency is that the Drill Doctors seems to work well on cheap bits - meaning bits with thinner webs - but on higher end bits with thicker webs, they produce an edge that is cut deeper than the relief.
Every review I've seen on this thing was stellar, and it supposedly produces a great result on any bit. So I thought I'd give it a try.
Metric, but also works just fine for imperial. It also includes a diamond wheel for carbide bits. Night and day beef compared to the Drill Doctor. 100% metal, and very well built. This thing weighs 20 pounds.
Without any tuning at all, and not really spending any time learning how to use it, the first sharpening out of the box was really good.
I'm pretty happy with it so far.
Interesting, NashvilleTJ. I, too, have struggled with the Drill Doctor (I have two of them, one with the course wheel and one with the fine wheel). Never did much investigation, but I have a pile of bits needing to be sharpened, and I've dreaded struggling with those infernal contraptions. Have you used it enough already to give it a thumbs up?
I sharpened about 50 bits yesterday afternoon (all the way up to 3/4”), and yes, I give it a thumbs up. It’s quiet, solid, and sharpens quickly - even when I had to be aggressive to correct a chip.
There are two versions of this thing, one that goes up to a 1/2”, and the one I have which goes up to 3/4”. The main difference is the addition of the larger collets and chuck. Both versions also come with a second diamond wheel.
This thing is not cheap - I paid about $600. The 1/2” version is about half that. Both much more than the Drill Doctor. But, I feel like I got my money’s worth.
The Drill Doctors I have alway felt cheapy to me - lots of plastic, including the collet, the chuck, and the piece that receives the chuck and positions the bits. The Vevo feels anything but cheapy - in fact just the opposite. As I said it is all steel, and the machine work is very precise.
Now I’m not a bad hand sharpener - I got lots of practice every time the Drill Doctor let me down - but I can’t come close to the accuracy of this thing. I tested a few of the bits, and every one produced two identical twirly-looking-cutoffs (whatever those twirly-looking-cutoffs are called - it’s early…). Anyway, that’s the mark of an accurate sharpening. I could luck into that by hand occasionally, and the Drill Doctors was about 50% - dependent more on the bit, I suppose.
There are a bunch of reviews on You Tube. I did not find a bad one. Just about all the reviewers I watched made the point that it was worth the money. All those good reviews where the reason I decided to give it a shot, and I was not disappointed.
Thanks for that great feedback, Jeff! I've looked at real tool-room drill bit sharpeners in the past, but the $2,000+ prices just weren't justifiable. Heck even the Drill Doctors were hard to justify on a pure-cost basis - I got them more for convenience. It's very frustrating to dull the only bit you have in the shop and stop work. Being able to sharpen it and continue with the project is hard to put a price on.
I just went to the site, and I don't know why, but I got offered a considerably better price due to a "member discount":
Sorry - I'm not bragging about the better price; rather, I'm confused as to why they like me so much. I've only ever ordered from them once (the orange welding screens occasionally shown in my build thread), and I never bought any kind of "membership."
Anyway, thanks for helping me part with another five C-notes - it should be here on Tuesday!
Wow (and ouch), great deal. And depending on where they are you may not pay tax. I got mine from Amazon.
I've always hand sharpened bits on a bench grinder , of course one side comes out good and the other just sucks.
You guys must drill a LOT of holes to justify even a $ 500.00 sharpener . But , these are way cool ! I hope you enjoy them !Similar threads
