Speaking of drill sharpening, I recently got a Darex M5. I'd been getting along with an M3 for a long time, and am very used to it. What I got with the M5 was a web thinning/point splitting attachment which looks slick as a whistle. Yesterday I was sharpening a 13/16" drill using my No. 4200 large drill attachment, and I planned to thin the web using the attachment. Uh oh. It looks like the attachment won't take the larger chucks. This means it is limited in scope to drills between 1/8-1/2". Is this correct? I have emailed Darex but I don't think they do email support of the M series grinders any more, at any rate they used to be instantly responsive and they haven't emailed me back.
Grant, this is no help for you. But, I have the M2 grinder; great for my needs. Do you know the difference between M2 M3 M5 etc.? I used a darex M? at trade school, it was just like mine except it had collets to hold the drill bits, mine has two four jaw chucks; one for less than 1/2in. and one for 1/2 to 3/4in. I didn't know of an M series that did over 3/4.
I've always done split points by hand. If this attachment is available for mine, I'd love to get or make one. Maybe copy yours?
I believe the M2 was an early prototype. The M3, M4 and M5 were all the same stuff, just packaged differently. The M5 was the whole enchilada, motor, stand, lights, diamond dressers, 1/8-1/2 and 1/2-3/4 chucks, and the web thinning/point splitting attachment. It had options: a tiny drill attachment (had a lens so you could see) and a larger drill attachment, the No. 4200 which allows 3/4 to 1-1/8" drills and itself has an option, the larger chuck which allows 1-1/8 to 1-1/2" drills, plus other optional attachments like one for step drills and maybe more. The M4 was the basic M5 without the 1/2-3/4" chuck and without the point splitting/web thinning attachment, still included the grinder motor. The M3 was completely stripped. It was just the part that went on the left side of the machine, one chuck (1/8-1/2"), the part that chuck fit into, and the chuck setting piece. I had an M3 which I bought from Glendo and used with their quickmounts. This worked very well for me. I bought first the 1/2-3/4" chuck and later, when I got a bonus at work, the large drill attachment but I didn't know about the bigger chuck or I would have bought that too.
The whole line has been discontinued by Darex, who is now attempting to sell a different drill grinder, having saturated the market with the M series. It's tough on a company when they've sold a good product to most of the customers who might want it. Then they have to innovate or lose revenue. But I think the M series were a good solid drill grinder. A total newbie can learn to use it in about two minutes, and it only takes about a minute to sharpen a drill. I learned after I got the Darex that I could buy the cheapest box store bits and sharpen them correctly and get good performance. I quit doing that, though, because the drills were too soft.
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