Sealey Sms2008 Drill Bit Sharpener - Bench Mounting 80W

We sharpened 6-12mm HSS drill bits using this machine, worked very well. It take the skill out of sharpening and holding it correctly on a bench grinder so anyone can now sharpen drill bits. Build quality is not that great and so the machine needs to be treated lightly. Should have ordered one long ago and am glad I finally got it.

Quick and simple way to sharpen drills. I have come across this machine before and liked its ease of operation, I decided to treat myself to one to make my life a little easier.Great product, does what it says on in the blurb. As long as you don't press too hard when sharpening your drills the wheel will last. Robustly built, only concern is the dust drawer on this latest version.

Excellent product one of my better buys easy to use and sharpened all my drill bits in a jiffy helping me to complete my task without the need to buy more drill bits.

I purchased this to speed up and simplify the sharpening of commonly used sizes of drills (which I mostly use for metalworking, so they have a hard life.) I've never fully mastered hand sharpening, which is a bit hit-and-miss for me, and to hand sharpen split points is a skill bestowed on very few. This sharpener is a solidly constructed item and works surprisingly well for the price. (Compare with the hundred of pounds you could spend on a "professional" drill sharpener.) The diamond wheel of the sharpener cuts quickly and easily and will cope with both high speed steel and tungsten carbide bits. It sharpens to a 118 degree point angle, which cannot be varied (unless there are different angled diamond wheels available - I haven't seen any.) Care is required in setting the drill up correctly and the cutting depth is fixed. (Perhaps a millimetre of drill is removed each time a drill is sharpened as the drill is repointed every time. You can't just "touch up" a drill using this.) Producing a split point is optional, but very desirable, and this function works well. All-in-all, very good value for money.

Works really well

I run a small fabrication company and drill thouands of holes a year in a variety of metalic materials. I've been sharpening drill bits since I was an apprentice back in 1982 and can do them by hand on a grind stone. However as the years have gone by and my eyes have got worse it takes longer and longer to get a decent grind and small drills are a struggle. Hence I need a drill grinder. I have tried many products over the years including the popular Drill Doctor, Silverline, Draper. These all work to a fashion but none smash out a perfect grind every single time and all are highly sensetive to set up. I thought I'd give this Sealey sharpener a go as videos I'd seen showed it givimg decent results andit was reasonably priced. I ordred from Amazon Prime and it arrived next day.My impressions on un-boxing: The housing is a low quality moulding - it looks cheap and un-substantial. The plastic underside cover that catches the grinding dust is a poor fit and not easy to fit back in place. It arrived with two rubber feet missing. The plastic covers that cover the holes when not in use are terrible and I didn;t even bother fitting it. So I was not hoping for much in terms of how it performed based on these first impressions.My impressions on performance: I have a large box of blunt drills awaiting re-grind so tried the tool out on some 6mm and 8mm cobalt bits. My first attempt resulted in the rake angle going the wromg way - no point in test drilling as it would have just burned out in a few seconds. I put this down to my inexperience on using the grinder. My second attempt was much better - the key thing to do is ensure the drill is very accurately set in the collet holder and firmly / accurately gripped by the spring fingers that are used to set the depth in the collet. The other thing is you need to grind with very light pressure and take just a bit at a time off the drill. Keep the holder dead square in the rotating mechanism and just slowly work it back and forth until you can hear no more material being ground off the tip. Then flip it over and do the other side. The same applies to grinding the back edge releif - just take it light. After two or three drills I was actually quite impressed with the tool. The grind is bang on in terms of angle, has a good rake, and a great back grind. I tested these drills out on some mild steel and some 304 stainless both with no coolant / cutting oil and they were razor sharp - drilled through 10mm thick bar in seconds with mininal effort. Can's ask for more than that.My impressions on ease of use: If you know what a good drill grind looks like and you take a bit of care to set the drill in the collet and similar care to keep the drill square in the grinding process then you shoudl soon get used to using this. After half a doezn drills I had nailed how to use the machine and can go from a dull drill to something that is as good as new in under a minute.Overall verdict: For the money - even taking into account its short comings - this is a good tool and the best (cheap) drill grinder I have purchased. Time is money when you earn your living fabricating so being able to very quickly re-grind my most commonly used drill sizes and get the end result that this gives makes this a good buy. That said - the overall quaity of construction and accuracy of the fucntional parts is reflected in the cost of the tool.Would I buy again: Probably not actually. I think I would spend more moeny and purchase one of the more substantial chinese made machines that have steel cases, more powerful motors, use proper accurate metal collets dedicated to the drill size and appear to have far more accurately made metal parts that actually do the holding and rotating of the drill against the diamond wheel. These machine are more expensive - from around £230 upwards - but from what I can see the shortcomings I have flagged with the Sealey machine are not there in these more expensive machines. I have no idea how long the sealy will last but I'm sure it will pay for itself in terms of time saved and re-using cobalt bits. When it does die I'll be in teh market for one of these more expensive and more indusrial grinders.

This is a good tool, but you have to practice with it to get the best results, set the drill up wrong and it’s a disaster. Set up is all important.It does a nice job and does get drills sharp, I’ve personally not mastered the split point sharpening yet, but for any size drill up to 13mm it’s fine. Small drills under 5mm are fiddly to setup due to their short length.I like that fact it does any sized drills eg: 4.2, 4.8mm, 1/4” due to how it holds the drill, a set hole size like other sharpeners is very limiting. Metric, imperial does not matter.Good but need to practice and setup very important to get best results.

This is a fantastic unit! I've just spent the last 30 minutes chewing through old drill bits and they are now the exact opposite of a reform voter!It's intuitive, solidly built and works really well on both my masonry and wood/steel bits. I'd highly recommend it.