Hi all, when I learned the mystical manooverin' of the wrist and elbow that is required to sharpen a drill, commonly called "The drill sharpeners fandango", it wasn't at the "coal face" so to say. It was one afternoon with a 1" drill and a stationary grinder. Once you get the knack of the rotate twist and drop the end bit, it all comes easy. Then you switch the grinder on and mark the end of the drill with RED marker, and lightly do your thing. If you've got the hang of it, then just lightly touching the drill to the FRONT, not the side, never the side, anything but the side, you should see a light pattern of grinding marks across the whole of the cutting face as the grinding wheel touches the drill while you rotate it and drop the end a bit. It is of the utmost importance to say that the grinding wheel should be freshly dressed, otherwise you'll just get the worn face of the grinding wheel superimposed on the drill, and you can forget about gulleting a drill if the edge is rounded.
The other point is when you present the drill to the wheel it should be above the centreline of the grinding wheel, about an inch above so that you get the back off angle at the start of the grind. The drill will be parrallel to the ground at this point. You MUST use a drill point angle gauge. If you dont have one, make one from a bit of sheet metal. Without it you just can't judge accurately enough the two angles. I've seen some people measure the lip length with a 6" ruler to judge centrality. The most accurate way is to lay the drill on it's side and rub the point against a vertical piece of chalked metal and see if the point is central. S'easy! The whole point of the exercise is skill. if you want to be recognised as a skilled craftman then know your stuff. Here's another one for another time, grinding a screw cutting tool bit for cutting left hand two start threads, internal. Really seperates the men from the boys allright.