Stay sharp: methods for drill upkeep

Ashland, Oregon – Quality. Speed. Efficiency. Personnel. These are all factors in a successful manufacturing operations strategy...and the challenges can be minute or ginormous. At the root of industrial production is the notion of continuous improvement. By evaluating a specific process or function from a variety of viewpoints, new opportunities for betterment can present themselves. It's all a matter of asking the right questions from the right people. 

Over the last decade, there has been lots discussion on what is commonly known as lean manufacturing. To improve quality, eliminate waste, save time, and reduce cost are the common goals that rest on the shoulders of production engineers, operations directors, machine shop supervisors, among other manufacturing positions. The leaps of technology in recent decades have allowed for gigantic leaps for innovation. 

In order to understand the options available for improving operations through new innovations, let's consider an item that all production facilities use: a drill bit. As one of the key tools for plunging into steels, plastics and titanium, the drill has a key roll in creating the end product. There are a variety of ways to keep these cutting tools sharp, but many aren't aware of all options available for maintaining a system of sharp tools. 

One option is purchasing new drills. To put it simply once a drill is no longer sharp and begins to decrease in speed and precision, a new drill bit replaces it in the drilling machine. Simple, right? As easy as that sounds, this tends to be the more costly method for drilling applications. The important factors are volume and material. If volume is high, replacing new drills for each dull bit evolves into a need for increased inventory and excessive purchasing requirements. Moreover, tools made of carbide are often more expensive and have more complex geometries. 

In examining cost, if 15 drills were purchased for $20 each per month, that would equate to $300 monthly and $3,600 annually. For smaller shops, this may be justifiable, but facilities requiring more volume or more complex geometries will likely find this method to be wasteful, if not difficult to manage. 

Another way to regulate tooling costs is to send drills to a sharpening service. There are many of these third-party sharpening services throughout the USA and they are often equipped with high-end industrial grinding machinery. Some are local based businesses down the street and others provide a national tool sharpening service. 

For cost analysis purposes, assume that to sharpen a drill costs $5 each. That would equate to $250 per month. What this figure doesn’t incorporate is the added inventory needed to compensate for tools that are out of the facility being sharpened as well as shipping charges. 

While some factors of sending drills to be sharpened may create hurdles, some sharpening companies also coat cutting tools, which is an added bonus for those in the grinding services camp. 

Another option is bringing a drill sharpener in-house for sharpening drills as needed. There are a variety of tool sharpeners in the market ranging from complicated equipment to user friendly grinders. The upfront cost will more expensive to start, but often these machines begin paying for themselves in under a year. This option provides facilities with the ability to sharpen as needed, reducing inventory requirements and machine downtime.

As an example, consider a drill sharpener that that costs $3,000 as an initial investment and 20 dull drills need to be sharpened monthly. That unit will begin to produce a return on investment in less than a year if new drills are being purchased each time the previous tool dulled. 

With the diversity of drill types from one facility to the next, there are several methods for connecting accuracy and easy. Tool maintenance is no exception. When seeking out what hidden areas can be improved in a manufacturing facility, look closely at factors that have been the same for long periods of time. The influx of technology continues to create new processes that not only are easier, but also less time consuming and less wasteful.

Source: Darex