Picador Type Drill Grinding Jig Modifications

I am looking for articles in MEW relating to modifying Picador type grinding jigs, mine is approximately 40 years old and has gathered the customary dust through lack of use. I seem to recall various modifications published in MEW over the years (I have every copy) but to search the index one has to be aware of which MEW they appear in.

Any help or suggestions where article other than MEW can be found would be appreciated.

Robert Butler

Harold Hall's book "Tool and Cutter Sharpening" has a good description of how these jigs work and a simple mod.

Russell

Graham Meek described some modifications in Engineering in Miniature March 2016

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If its a genuine Picador grinding jig it needs no modification. Just follow the instructions and it will work just fine. The major weakness of the Picador jig lies in setting both drill projection and tip rotation angle accurately and repeatably. Picador jigs have the pivot pin vertical and the drill cutting edges set at 25 past 11 orientation for sharpening.

Takes a certain knack but once you have got the idea your drills will be sharp. I do mine more by eye than by reference to the gauge. I also remove and replace the drill after setting up so that cutting conditions are the same for doing the first edge as they are for the second one after flipping the drill 180°.

Drill holding and location is where "build down to an affordable price" rough edges show. Nothing that a bit of skill and care can't overcome but it does mean things aren't quite as easy as the instructions suggest.

If I wanted to seriously improve a Picador I'd take a close look at the flip over drill holder and integral Vee gauge setter used on the original Plasplugs multi sharp system which uses the same drill cutting edges at 25 past 11 angle setting. A really clever set up that takes all the guess work out. Would have doubled the price of Picador jig tho' and they weren't objectively that cheap back in the days when I got mine, £5 ish around 1973-4 in a closing down sale I think.

The modifications referred to apply to the cheap copies of the American "General" brand device having the pivot pin angled back away from the grinding wheel with the drill cutting edges set vertical. Good quality brand name ones e.g. Spiralux in the UK will work as per instructions. Cheap imports that don't work will have unquantified and unknown errors of construction leading to poor results. Most of the internet and, regrettably, far too many published witterings are "how I fixed" mine stuff. Fine if yours has the same constructional infelicities as that of the writer. Odds of that are .... If you want to sort one of those copy Graham Meek. As ever Graham takes no prisoners and gets it right. Do what he says and it will work properly. Probably better than the original designers ever envisaged.

Clive.

Edited By Clive Foster on 07/05/2018 11:06:33

Edited By Clive Foster on 07/05/2018 11:07:27

Hi Robert,

Graham Meek has also written about this subject here (on MEM), might not be quite like your Picador, but it provides a lot of information.

Thor

Gentlemen

Thank you for the replies thus far. My jig is not a Picador, i was referring to type as it is a generic description. The jig indeed leans towards the grinding wheel. As far as i'm aware it is of reasonable quality - cast iron? rather than alloy and as I mentioned is at least 40 years old - purchased without instructions!!!.

i came across an article by Graham Meek on the interweb having typed in Picador drill grinding jig with description and images but when attempting to print some of the images are missed - presumably to do with copyright? but not useful in the workshop.

Robert Butler

Hi Robert,

I just checked Gray's thread on MEM and all photos were Ok, you could also find much the same here.

Thor

Robert,

If your jig is not made from light alloy, could it possibly be a Reliance?

**LINK**

HTH,

Rod

I have a Picador type drill sharpener which appears the same as the typical type of Picador in Graham Meek's article and is die-cast alloy (Mazak). The pivot was vertical. It never gave satisfactory results for me and only my lack of skill at hand sharpening prevented me from dumping it. I modified it in accordance with Graham Meek's article and low and behold - perfect results every time.

Gentlemen

Thank you, busy in the workshop - it's V. hot in there. Thor's second link (Graham Meek) is the one I found earlier and is probably the most helpful - but when trying to print as mentioned earlier some of the images - the most useful are missing.

Thank you once again for your efforts

Robert

Robert,

An article by Jim Whetren appeared in the August 2008 issue of Model Engineers Workshop P29-31. I also have hard copies taken from MEW for a rotation device for sharpening drills for use with the jig, unfortunately no full ref that I can give you. Graham Meek had a post on the forum http:/model-engineer.co..uk /forums/postings.asp?th=95436&p=1 will try to update my details if you want to PM me

Neil

Neil [Nimble]

A couple of typos seem to have crept into that URL, but this seems to be the thread you were aiming for: **LINK**

http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/forums/postings.asp?th=95436&p=1

Regrettably, the thread now contains everything [?] except Graham Meek's input ... so it makes rather disjointed reading.

MichaelG.

Hi All,

These jigs are obviously very popular, we have had quite a few over the years including the various clones of the Picador and they always sell and do quite well considering they cost very little at car boots. The true Picador ones do significantly better than the others. Other Picador tools like drill bit stands are a bit rarer and also wanted so I assume that there is a Picador collector base out there in the ether!

They are often missing the table clamp part and these sell well on there own if we can find them.

Cheers, Martin

I have the Spiralux version where the tool is angled towards the grinding wheel. I don't use it much because I don't do that much drilling! I have found that it is of little, ie no, use for drills below 1/8 in, which in any case are cheap enough to replace. For larger drills, it does seem to work quite well.

Probably the biggest problem I have had is that the two screws holding the adjustable lip guide (correct term??) on to the alloy body have eventually worn away the thread necessitating a retap in a larger thread, 2BA being what I used.

The comment re hollowing of the grinding wheel side is a valid one, whether or not a cup wheel would be satisfactory I suggest may be debateable as the device requires a relatively large area for the drill bit to swing against. Presumably a cup wheel with a large, ie wide, grinding area would be ok.

Regards,

Peter G. Shaw

I've just watched MrPete222's latest video on YouTube. At 8m40s into it, he shows a Picador-type drill sharpening tool he picked up at a local car boot. What maybe of interest to someone here is that following on from that, he has an original instruction card which he shows to camera and can be read, if you pause the video. If needed, you could take a screen grab or two and transfer it to a more readable form.

Here's the link:

**LINK**

John

First, I have a set of original Picador instructions, if anyone needs those. I have the original device, which I bought some 40+ years ago, and it works very well indeed. The instructions are peculiar to the Picador, and the projection of the drill bit beyond the front of the Picador is very different from other makes.That's because the geometry underpinning the jig is different from the Reliance-type jigs. So if you slavishly follow the Picador instructions with a Reliance-type jig, you will not get the intended result.

Secondly, my own opinion is that one should not grind on the side of the normal type 1 wheel which is found on most basic grinders, because the working face of a type 1 wheel is the front, curved, face. Yes; I know most people use the side, and that's what's shown in most drill jig manufacturers' instructions. I don't wish to start the usual argument, so I will leave it at that. My point is that the drill bit moves very little during its swing. If the drill jig was swung through 90 degrees, so that the drill lip sat horizontal, the drill could be sharpened against the curved face of a wheel. Some jigs are designed to do just that. I have a flat-faced type 6 'cup' wheel with a narrow face (8mm or so), on my grinder, so I use that, with the jig orientated in the 'normal' way, with its foot on the bench. I have a grinder and Picador set up permanently for sharpening drills. Each to his own.

Picador is Picador, and there is no real Picador-type, as the geometry of other makes varies either slightly or a lot, despite what are, at first glance, similar looking styles.

Picador made, I think, 3 sizes of jig. I have never seen the large one, which sharpens drills larger than 1/2 inch, if I remember correctly.

There are lots of other good drill sharpeners out there, of entirely different design, and I have a substantial collection of them. The geometry of the sharpened drill bit is similar, in the good ones, but the means of arriving at that geometry sometimes looks radically different. I understand the more recent Far Eastern pattern copies are not of the Picador, but are more like the Reliance, and they contain a built-in incorrect angle in the base unit. Graham Meek's article sorts that quite elegantly.

Marcus

Hi Marcus, Recently I acquired a genuine Picador jig which came without instructions. I haven't used it yet so I'd be really grateful if you would PM me the instructions.

Clive

Hello Marcus could I also have a copy via a PM. John

Instructions for one of the jigs were posted in this thread.

**LINK**

Gentlemen

Thank you, the problem of printing the images from the article still exists

Robert Butler