I picked up a new mortising chisel for my Delta Mortising Machine at Rockler today. After I got it home and tried to mount it into the machine I found that the drill bit is about 1" to 11/4" too long and with all my playing around with it I scratched it up so I cannot take it back. So I was wondering if someone has cut down a drill bit before and if so what did you use to it and did it mess up the tempering? I have a metal cutting hack saw as well as a Dremel with heavy duty cut off wheels which I think should be able to handle this, but I have not done it before.

In the photo the top chisel is my old chisel and is a 3/8" while the bottom one is the new one and is a 1/4". You can see the difference in the bit length.

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk.'
J. Vernon McGee

“Our greatest fear should not be that we won’t succeed,
but that we will succeed at something that doesn’t matter.â€
D.L. Moody

Allen,

I have shortened the shank on the bits by using the bench grinder and plenty of water. I would imagine you can do the same for the chisels. With that much material to remove, I'd try the Dremel cut off wheel first, just to lessen the amount of grinding. Then finish it off with the grinder to dress it up.

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Lew Kauffman-
Wood Turners Forum Host

Time Traveler and Purveyor of the Universe's Finest Custom Rolling Pins!

Allen, since you are cutting off the shank and not the fluted and, I think you'll be find.  You aren't going to get it that hot.

use an abrasive disk to saw the shank.

I dunno but mortise drills, but regular jobber's drill bits do not have a hardened shank.  The Cobalt ones may

And again I dunno about mortise drills , but regular jobber's drills are HSS and over heating isn't an issue.

HSS has excellent Cherry red hardness. you can weld it and  braise it and grind it with no coolant.  The tempering  temp's for M2 are 1000 to 1100  F  for an RC of 58 - 65 

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Hey~!! It's a hobby~!! It's not supposed to make sense.

I got the bits trimmed up using my Dremel with a cut off wheel and then smoothed out the edges. No problems at all and they work just fine. Thanks for the help.

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Allen Worsham
Corona, CA

allenworsham@earthlink.net

'Graze in every man's field, but always give your own milk.'
J. Vernon McGee

“Our greatest fear should not be that we won’t succeed,
but that we will succeed at something that doesn’t matter.â€
D.L. Moody