General Craft & DIY discussion

What tools do you need or should you have around? What brands or styles do you like & why?

Foxtower & I got talking about tools in the Catalog topic & I realized we didn't have a better topic, so I made one & moved this message (was #14) here.

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Dewalt makes good stuff. I have a treated deck screw gun I got about 20 years ago. It has twice the torque & half the rpms of the drywall screw gun. I don't know why that took so long to come about & never caught on. Seriously, who needs to drive a screw in at 2500 rpms? Power! I need more power! It was the only one that could put in 6" screws that all day that one project called for.

They REALLY ticked me off a couple of years ago, though. I bought a 3/8" drill & it didn't have a trigger lock! Their 1/2" drill does, but apparently OSHA, in its infinite meddling, has decided that a trigger lock on a 3/8" drill is unsafe. (If you figure out the logic of that one, please let me know.)

Anyway, I wound up buying a couple of Harbor Freight cheapies with keyless chucks & trigger locks. As drills, they're pretty much worthless. The chucks can't hold a 1/4" twist bit through oak, but they were $20 each & are perfect for sanding bowls. That creates a lot of dust that eats them in a year or two.

The only Porter Cable tool I have is a hand held jig saw with a guide that is perfect in every way except it blows dust directly in my eyes. I wish I could figure out how to get it to blow elsewhere. Even with glasses on, I get dust in my eyes.

As my kids grew up, they each had a tool box. Before they left home, I made sure they had a decent set of tools & tool box to keep them in. It's one of those things they've come back later & thanked me for. They really appreciated it only after several years of being on their own when they had to buy their own tools or needed to make emergency repairs.

My daughter & her boyfriend had some early arguments over her toolbox. It was hers & if borrowed something out of it, he had to treat it right & put it back! He was funny the first time we did a project together in my shop. He kept asking before he'd pick up any tool. I guess I have a rep.
;-)

- Hammer: a good 16oz smooth face, curved claw hammer. While you can pick one up for $5, they're usually too soft. After pulling a few finishing nails, you'll find the claw tearing out & the head will become dented. I prefer, but couldn't always justify or afford, a good Plumb. I have two; a 20oz version of the above for general work & a 26oz rough face, straight claw for framing.

- Screwdrivers: a good multidriver set that has common screw, Torx, Allen, & star bit drivers with a ratcheting handle is a good place to start, but #2 Phillips & 1/2" flat solid screwdrivers are also a must.

- Pliers: a good 8" standard pair of slip-joint pliers, needlenose, medium Vicegrip, & channel-locks. A good set of electrician pliers & a pair of dikes (side cutters).

- Wrenches: two combo wrench sets; box on one end, open on the other. Just a basic cheap set of both SAE & metric sizes. A good crescent & pipe wrench or two.

- Sockets: just a cheap set of 3/8" & 1/4" drive sockets, but toss the ratchet & buy a decent one.

- Tape measure: a 25' Stanley. I prefer this brand & size because they hold up well. The tape is 1" wide so it can extend over 6' without bending. The shorter tapes are only 3/4" wide. Longer & off brand tapes often don't last long before the return spring breaks.

- Saws: a good, 16" combo tool box saw for wood. A mini or compact hacksaw with a 3-5 pack of good blades.

- Drill: a cheap 3/8" keyed, corded drill with a 25' extension cord. A pack of twist bits & spade bits in some standard sizes, plus a couple of good 1/8" twist drill bits.

- Utility knife, combo square, torpedo level, nail sets, 10" mill file, triangular metal files & a 4-in-hand wood file. Ratcheting caulk gun, not the compression type. Decent flash light, 5-in-1 caulk/paint tool, & 1.5" putty knife.

- Duct & electrician's tape, WD40, & a case with a mix of treated deck &/or drywall screws & various nails. Mini pipe cutter.

There's more. I generally gave the kids the tool box with some of this & then flesh it out to fit their needs. (No, you may NOT borrow mine!) I think all the kids got a cheap jigsaw & coping saw, for instance. One is a real mechanic & I get him something each year. Last year it was a set of 1/2" drive star bits & a really nice set of easy-outs.

If you were going to send a kid off into the cold, cruel world, what would you add or change about this list?

Just add a clamp so your daughter doesn't maim her husband making him hold that thing that needs drilling!

Clamps are good. I probably have a few dozen - not nearly enough. I try to buy a few each year, but decent ones are expensive & I often don't think about them until I need them.

I love my B&D Workmate tables. I have 2 & they clamp & hold things well. They're also very portable & adjustable.

I also have a set of folding sawhorses that are really handy. They fold flat & open up to have a shelf underneath. I HATE the metal folding ones I have. They keep trying to chop my fingers off, so they're banished to the barn for emergency use.

I have clamps, and then I have CLAMPS! C clamps, spring clamps, jorgensen clamps, bar clamps and really cool antique bar clamps. And when my limited supply of three and four foot clamps won't do I have lots of rope to make tourniquet clamps.

I had a workmate once, but when I moved here I hadn't used it much so it went back to the dump... I build things on the workbenches (Tables dragged home from the dump then strengthened) and the radial arm saw table (an inch thick pirce of labarotory table top composite material pulled from a dumpster. Level and lots of places to grab with a clamp.

Yet I only have one sawhorse for cutting firewood once a year.... go figure...

We all work differently, don't we? I guess it's what you learn on or get used to. I did so much work at job sites that portable tables & saw horses just come to mind first & they let me set stuff off to the side out of the way.

My biggest clamp is my main woodworking bench, although I don't like to tie it up sometimes. It is a 7' solid core door on a double 2x4 framed table with 3/4" holes in it for dowels. 3 vices peek over various edges (or can be removed) & it's dead flat so it's the perfect start to clamping a project together. I use wax paper to protect the bench top against glue.

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I know they're not popular any more, but a radial arm saw does some unique cuts & it makes others so much easier. I wish my radial arm saw table was right. One of these days I'm going to have to attack that but it's going to be a huge fight & it's not that far out - maybe 1/16" in the almost 2' of travel, so close enough for most work. I bought it used about 25 years ago from a guy with a heart condition. He made the table from 2 pieces of 3/4" particle board sub floor.

They're glued together with carriage bolts recessed & strips of flat metal sandwiched in between. Of course, the carriage bolts stripped their square head (I HATE carriage bolts. They always do that.) so the table won't come off without some major cutting work on the table & their positions are protected by the metal of both the table & the others he added.

It's going to be a total PITA to get it off & since I have other tools like a Dewalt sliding compound miter & a table saw, I can usually work around the slight inaccuracy. The only time it really shows is on compound angles & the sliding miter has taken over most of that work.

Probably the most common cut that I use it for is dadoes across a long board. For instance, when I'm making a book case. I'll dado the vertical sides where the shelves fit in. The bookshelves I built to cover the entire wall of my bedroom were cut using that saw & came out fine since they're only 1x8's.

I have lots of different kinds of clamps too. For tourniquets, I have some of those ratcheting nylon ties for trucks. I glued a piece of wood to the metal so it can't scratch a project.

A fairly new addition (within the last decade) isn't really a clamp, but a set of aluminum angles that can be used with clamps to insure 90 degrees all the way around. I love those. Grab them & a spring clamp & they'll hold things in place perfectly. I have a set of 4 that I picked up at a show for $20. Well worth it.

Those angles look cool... I tend to put items together completely using framing squares while clamping and check the squareness with a tape measure. It works too!

I love my Radial Arm Saw! What do you mean it's not popular anymore?!? There's nothing like walking up to it, hiting the switch and getting a true cut. Though after years of use I think the bearings may be going as it's beginning to groan when it shuts down.

My big bench is made out of an old 1 inch thick formica kitchen table top beefed up with heavy duty legs. It's coated with glue. paint, oily gunk etc which you won't notice as it's always covered with junk. Hey, until I go I'm leaving my mark! The small bench is a 3' by 4' coffee table not only covered with gunk but full of saw marks where I didn't quite have clearence...

I don't have too many "modern" tools... my portable Millers Falls miter box saw is antique and works great even though it does require effort. Meanwhile the Craftsman table saw, which does the dados and ripping, is about 75 years old and still going strong.

I have 3 full size framing squares, plus a cut down one & a small one. So, I'm a big fan of them, too. Trust me, if you ever use these angles, you'll fall in love. They are so quick & handy.

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I agree with you on the Radial Arm saw (RAS), but I rarely seem them in shops any more. Here's an editorial from "Fine Woodworking" on it:
http://www.finewoodworking.com/item/2...

The Compound Sliding Miter (CSM) saw has taken over most of the RAS duties at the job site. Before they were around, we'd haul a RAS out or even one of those cheesy sliding things for a circular saw to cut siding. The latter were a pain because the siding had to be slid in from the side, didn't have enough width for much of an angle, & they weren't particularly accurate. I never liked them for cedar siding, but they were OK for straight cuts on aluminum or vinyl siding.

I even had a cheesy Dewalt table saw that had an upper cut feature. Instead of a crank to set the blade height, it had a handle that you could loosen & then use to chop upward. It was part of the package from Mel, the guy with the heart condition. I pretty much bought his shop for a song. I hated that table saw from day one. It was plastic & sheet metal, but was handy on the job site for a few years before the motor died unlike the good, old Delta we had back at the shop. That didn't travel at all.

The CSM was just a lot more portable, accurate, & easier than any of the above, though. It also had a much greater range than a plain power miter. As soon as they came around in the 90's, we got an 8" Hitachi CSM that we used to cut siding & all the trim on site, even the pre-finished, floating crown on the kitchen cabinets. That's finicky cutting, but it did it perfectly.

I'm a tablesaw guy. I learned to do most jobs on a tablesaw rather than Radial Arm Saw (RAS) or with a Router or Router Table. Part of the reason was that we had a big, old Delta tablesaw that was pretty much built-in to the shop with an after-market, huge, accurate fence plus lots of homemade jigs & accessories. It was a long term loan from a master carpenter, Bob, we knew who got divorced & sort of stayed with us for few years, then wandered for a few decades.

The other reason was that routers & their tables weren't all that great yet. They were around, but the tables were cheesy & Bob didn't like them. Instead of router tables, folks used a shaper. Those are big router tables with bigger shafts on the bits & very expensive to get into for the casual user, so we didn't.

I was & am fascinated by the tablesaw. It can do so many operations so well & quickly, especially with a few accessories. It's not as dangerous as a RAS, either. The RAS traps work, limits the operator, & has just a hair more give, so bad things can happen more easily, especially on hard woods with knots or hidden defects. They're also inherently more accurate than the RAS.

I'm not saying you can't do fine work on the RAS. My chess/checker/backgammon table with tapered walnut legs, a drawer & homemade boards of maple & walnut was all done on a RAS. My cheesy Dewalt tablesaw had died & I wasn't sure what I wanted to replace it with. I had a tiny shop at the time & wasn't positive that I'd never go back to doing remodeling since there was still some hope for my arm. So I got by with just the RAS for a couple of years.

The big Delta cabinet saws, like I learned on, were known as the finest tablesaws around. I really wanted one, but didn't have the space or the budget for one. I did some research & found that a few breakthroughs in technology had changed the playing field.

The biggest change was in fence design. That's always been the worst point of a tablesaw. If the fence isn't square to the blade & solid, you might as well not cut. Some of the 'fixes' for that were worse than useless.

The other change was a new series of saws called 'contractor' saws. Not as big as the cabinet saws nor as cheesy as the home saws, they combined the best qualities of both into an pretty affordable package. The big disadvantage to most of them was the width of the blade they'd allow. Most wouldn't take a full 3/4" dado or else didn't have a 10" blade. I don't know what the manufacturers were thinking of. Anyway, the Bosch had both, so I bought one.

My Bosch tablesaw was pretty cheap, not far over $600, as I recall, but it's been a decade. It's not real big, all cast, ground aluminum & solid. The table has a extendable wing on the right that is amazingly solid & the fence is a dream. It sets up square every time without a lick of fiddling. It sits on a collapsible stand that is solid & yet I can pick it up & walk off with it in a minute.

I won't say that it is as good as that old Delta cabinet saw, but I like it better in a lot of ways. For a small shop, it is perfect. I don't cut a lot of full sheets of plywood. That's where the big Deltas really shine, for cabinet making. On smaller stuff, the Bosch is perfect, though.

Compared to Norm, I don't have a lot of power tools, but I do have more than the average guy, I'd guess, but then I did it for a living for a lot of years. I have a lot more old hand tools than most pros, though. I like them & the lack of noise.

I recently reviewed Eric Sloane's Sketches of America Past which is 3 books, one of which is A Museum of Early American Tools. I took Sloane to task a bit on that one as he romanticizes old carpenters & tools far too much, IMO.

Hand work & tools are fine in their place, but often power tools are a better choice. If I want a series of holes in a board, I could drill them by hand. I have several sorts of hand drills & still use my breast brace fairly often, but an electric drill press is far more accurate, easier, & quicker. Using anything except the smallest Forstner bits with a hand drill is just torture.

There's a balance that works for me. I don't buy every neat new toy that's available, but try to buy just what I need. If a tool will make my life easier or a job more accurate a few times a year, I might just buy it. Once a year, no. Because it looks cool, no.

I'm with you! Drilling a perfectly centered hole in a round steel rod would be a real pain without a drill press! Ultimately the trick is figuring out how to do the job with the tools you have on hand. Seldom in real life can you actually buy the solution so unless I'm really convinced a tool can pay for itself I don't buy it.

My Table saw fence never quite settles squarely, always 1/16 inch off on the far end, yet my cuts are always square... could be experience...

I guess the old Table Saw, formerly my grandfaters, is a "cabinet" model. It weighs 80 pounds without the motor which hangs off the back, and is mounted on an angle iron stand that I made into a cabinet and added wheels to so I can move what ends up to be about 300 pounds. Where it is I can handle eight foot stock, but I can move it to where it handles 16 foot stock.

Unless I actually need a sixteen foot piece I'll cut it down on the RAS which is set up to handle 16 foot stock and can't move.

I rarely use a hand powered drill or a bit brace... got them oiled and stored until the day I build that old tool museum.... on the other hand I couldn't do without a hand plane.

It's not how many tools you have, it's what you can do with what you have. All the fancy tools in the world aren't going to replace the problem solving skills you need in real life.

My tablesaw fence is set to be 1/32" out, too. It should be just a hair further away from the blade at the far end so it won't bind. It's when it is too far out or in toward the blade that issues arise.

I keep my brace & a few bits in my farm truck or a 5 gallon bucket. It's handy for pilot holes for screw eyes or even the occasional trunnion that has to be reset.

I have multiples of some tools just so I can keep them handy. I must have a dozen hammers on the place, several pairs of fencing & other pliers, that sort of thing.

Oh yeah... thats why I ignored the unsquareness, when it was set square it bound up.

Yeah, tell me about multiples. There's the tool set in the desk, the tool set in the shop, the tool set in the tower metal shop, the tool set in the garage, the tools sets in the portabe kits.... etc. etc.. And I use them all at one time or another!

I got 3 block planes all sharpened, tuned & returned to service this morning after 2 days of work. One was easy, practically new, although a bit battered & rusty. It had been used lightly, but still had the factory mill marks on the blade - never been sharpened. The other two were old & rusty, needing quite a bit of TLC. As old, used, & abused as they were, they'd never been tuned either.

Some people seem to think you buy a plane & use it. They must spend a lot of time cussing planes, not really using them. I've only ever owned one new plane, a cheap #4 I picked up in an emergency for one job from Home Depot. It's actually a nice plane now that I spent a day tuning it. Before that, it sucked. The factory never really smooths the bed, frog, & mouth properly. Actually, I've never seen a truly flat sole, either.

Now I have two more planes to work on. One is a smoothing plane, #4c, 9" long. It's a hybrid of a Bailey body with corrugated base & a Stanley blade & lever cap from an old one I found that had a broken body. I've never used a corrugated base before. Not sure if I'll like it on a smoothing plane. At one time, the base was well tuned from what I can tell.

Bailey & Stanley planes are often one in the same, with interchangeable parts. They had quite a tumultuous relationship in the 1800's & in the latter part of that century into the last, Stanley often manufactured basically the same plane under either name. I'm not sure of the age of any of these pieces. It will be interesting to see if I can find a serial number on the base to date it & figure out exactly what I have.

The other has metal works & a wooden block base. I doubt very much that it is a true transition plane, more likely a replica that was popular in the middle of last century. I don't have any transition planes, real or fake. It will be interesting to fiddle with.

I guess while I've got oily clothes & hands, I'll touch up the rest of my planes, too. I might actually catalog them, too. I have a bunch, but I've never made a list of them. I generally only use a few of them with any regularity; that Stanley #4, a no-name block plane, & my Stanley #7 jointer which is 22" long.

I have several planes... can't even remember where they all came from. A couple tiny block planes, and a couple long large smoothing planes, and a couple in between sizes. I figured out how to use them with the 1952 edition of How To Work with Tools and Wood.

Using a plane is a lost art, though peeling back a clean shaving is such a satisfying feeling and leaves the wood so clean and nice!

People just don't have the patience anymore and too often just grab an electric hand plane, a nasty noisy tool with results that are really dreadful in comparison to a hand plane.

I now have 5 block planes. I swear, they're breeding in odd corners. That's what comes of cleaning up the shop. Two are Stanley 110's, one is a Craftsman, & the other two are too shy to show a name. Only the Stanley's have the adjustable nose.

I will agree that hand planes can make sweet, smooth cut. My jointer, a Stanley #7 (22" long) & now one jack (Incorrect in the previous message. It's a 5c with a #4 blade.) will peal off full width shavings that are so thin you can almost see through them. When I line up planed edges, they actually stick together a bit just because they're so smooth. Sandpaper would just mess them up.

Still, I have a couple of electric planes. I use the hand power planer for stuff like exterior doors, especially old ones that have paint on them. I don't want the paint messing up the blades on my good ones & it's fast - good enough for remodeling work. Also, it can be set to the 3 degree angle & deals with cross grained veneers & such better. It's a really cheap Black & Decker that I've had for 20 years & never replaced the blades on, even though one has a nick in it. Doesn't seem to make any difference as the other 2 take up the slack. I did have to replace the belt in it a few years ago & was surprised B&D still had the part.

I have a relatively cheap ($300) Dewalt 12" planer for face planing boards that I love. I'm pretty good at edge planing, but have never been all that thrilled with hand face planing. It's a lot of finicky work & knots or odd grains can be a major problem without a scraper plane, which I don't have. Since I like highly figured wood, that's more the rule than the exception. That's when a rotary blade shines, but even that can cause tearouts.

I use it all the time to turn cheap, oak fence boards into beautiful finished wood. Buying it planed from a lumber yard at $5/bd ft is crazy when I can get it for less than $1/bd ft from my neighbor or the local fencing company. Sure, I have to let it sit a year or so out in the barn, but then I just run it through the planer a few times. Blades are expensive & don't seem to be re-sharpenable, though. (At least, I've had no luck at it & I'm fair at sharpening most things.) At $60 a set, a set usually lasts me a couple of years. I have no idea how many linear feet that comes out to be, but once they're too dull (I usually touch them up once or twice.) I turn them into scrapers & such.

I have a craftman joiner planer with the original blades. It does work for mass production just fine, but if I only need to fit one or two boards it's easier just to grab a hand plane.

I had a thickness planer once, but hardly ever used it so I sold it. REALLY noisy and I never had a source of wood to justify it. That Dewalt must be nice if it can plane old oak which gets harder with age!

I've always wanted a power joiner planer, but could never justify either the cost or the expense. For me, the tablesaw does pretty good & a hand plane picks up the rest. I can also run pretty wide boards through the face planer & edge plane them in batches, but I rarely do. It is a pretty good machine, although a little under-powered like so many modern day tools. Lots of speed, not much bottom, though.

You're right about the noise. The planer is the only tool in the shop I use ear protection with. A good vacuum system for it is also a must - that or use it outside. It fills up the 55 gallon drum on my dust collector amazingly fast. I don't like using it much, but it's handy at times like this.

The Dewalt blades are pretty good, but they're so hard that sharpening them is about impossible. It's the difference between putting an edge on my grandfather's old pen knife - good carbon steel - & my Swiss Army knife - hard stainless steel. The latter just never gets as sharp, but holds what it has longer.

I ordered another set today from Amazon where I found them for $45 with free shipping. If a set lasts me a year - & they usually do - that's not worth too much sharpening effort. Still, I wondered about trying to plane off the paint. As I suspected, it dulled the blades a lot more quickly than normal.

I use hearing protection for most everything..even driving tractors. It helps reduce the physical stress reaction so I can focus on the task at hand.

My shop vac, found one day when I was working in a well to do neighborhood on trash day, has about twenty feet of hose collected from various locations, and while it sits connected to the radial arm saw catching most of the dust directed by the curved plastic back, I can just grab the hose and connect it to a number of places like the table saw, planer/joiner, or even the hand sanders, or wheel it to where it's needed. I've had it for at least 12 years now... and to think someone threw it out!

I'll do you one better on your shop vac. I bought mine used from an old guy who sold his shop due to a heart condition. I got the radial arm saw & a bunch of other stuff from him. The shop vac is OLD. The body is solid metal & it is loud. Has a cloth filter & the hose is a 25' pool hose that I bought new when the old one started breaking. I got it all back in the mid 80's, replaced the hose some time in the mid 90's. I also use it for collecting from the RAS & for other vacuuming. I've tried it with hand stuff, but always thought it was too noisy & more trouble than it was worth.

I have a dust collector with a 3" hose that sits on a 55 gallon drum. It serves the line of tools in the middle of the shop; bandsaw, tablesaw, & face planer. My new tablesaw HAS to have a dust collector, although I've thought about changing that. There's a curved dish with a rear output around the blade & it gets clogged up just often enough with splinters to be a real pain. Not enough of a pain to make up a bag collector for the bottom yet, though.

I probably should use hearing protection more often, but it's a pain & my tractor isn't that loud. I don't like being hemmed in either. Glasses & hearing protection make me paranoid. I can't tell what's going on around me properly.

Yep, you suck big time!!!!

LOL!

I'm glad you realized that was a joke! I'm no good at the funny faces :>

As I embark on building a farm implement and a another sculpture I'm glad I have a "DRILL DOCTOR", though it didn't work out quite as I'd hoped when I bought the thing a few years ago. It did alright with medium to large drills (the ones most often dulled by steel), but didn't work very well on small to tiny drills (the most often broken). Yet then it didn't work as well overall as just using the 1000 grit wheel on the lapidary unit.

It was only after I ripped it apart, exposing the diamond wheel, that it has become really useful! The diamond wheel does a much better job than the lapidary unit and is easier to deal with than the ten inch grinding wheel. Using the little drill clamp that comes with the drill doctor is much more handy when you can see what you're doing, and if need be you can vary the drill bits cut from gentle to aggressive.

In the future when the diamond wheel wears out I would most likely just buy a replacement diamond wheel.. but the Drill Doctor may decide to change everything so like computers older models aren't supported, in which case I'd just build a unit if I can find a small wide diamond wheel.

I've thought the Drill Doctor looked cool, but never got one. With drill bits being so cheap, I just buy new little ones & tend to buy industrial 1/8" bits because I use them so often. Also, my oldest boy can hand sharpen twist drill bits by eye on my father's old grinding wheel perfectly. Not sure how he manages that. An artist friend of ours taught him while he was working with him. Both of them sharpen all kinds of bits like that because they dulled them up so fast.

I'm not very good at it, although I manage to keep up with my lathe tools. I HAVE to sharpen them often, often halfway through a bowl. I get twist drill bits right about half the time. I can keep spade bits going & often shape them for other purposes, too. I really wish I could sharpen Forstner bits, though. I got a set from Harbor Freight cheap years ago & it's been great, but a few of them are getting dull. At the hardware store, a single one costs more than the set. Do you know of anything out there that will sharpen them?

A good 3/4 inch drill runs upwards of $30... well worth learning how to sharpen! Even the less expensive ones you save a lot of money on by just being able to use them until they are stubs. Hey a buck is a buck!

Sharpening drills is like anything.. practice practice practice! Of course, mostly I "practiced" when a drill dulling in the middle of something and I had to get a good edge on it to complete the job. I find that the finer the grinding wheel the better the result! I like the diamond wheel from the Drill Doctor as it's fast, fine and easy to get at.

I also have a cheap set of forstner bits... no clue how to sharpen them. I use only them for wood and plastic and they've lasted more than 20 years and no sign of dulling... though they are certainly cheap enough to replace now-a-days with chinese versions. Your hardware store version may actually last much longer.. no doubt better steel.

I find the bigger drill bits are worth sharpening & easier, too. I haven't even thrown out an old 3/4" one that is slightly bent. They are terribly expensive. It's the 3//16" & 1/4" ones I have the most trouble with. After that I seem to be able to line them up for the easy, single touch they need.

I'm not sure a hardware store's Forstner bits would be any better. I guess I should just try one & see.

I have trouble sharpening the 1/16" and 1/8" bits... can't see them!

Cutting metal today. I use an old metal Stanley skill saw with a 7" abrasive cutting wheel. (I figure my newer plastic body skill saw would melt from the sparks!) The wheels are fast but wear out quick... four cuts through 2" OD x 3/8" wall pipe and the wheel is worn down too small for pipe on one pass... then I switch to cutting thinner and thinner pieces until the 7" wheel is about 3 1/2 inches and can't clear the saw body. I figure it costs about thirty cents a cut.

I don't have an acetylene cutting torch or a plasma cutter.... maybe someday, but the abrasive wheel works for most projects I've attempted and I don't know as I would bring the cost down unless I did lots and lots of cutting. (not to mention I couldn't use such things in a grenhouse full of firewood safely!)

And the abrasive wheel sure beats the heck out of a hacksaw or a sawsall!

I have an old, cheap circular saw that I use the same way. I do have an acetylene torch, but my cuts with it tend to be very rough (I'm not very good with it.) so the saw is often better. I've found the blades last a lot longer if I do shallow cuts. Of course, that means you have to go over the same place several times. That requires a guide. Tough on pipes, but doable. I use a hose clamp around chunks of wood.

I bought a cutter that uses smaller, thinner blades & runs on compressed air. It's a cheap one from Harbor Freight, but works OK, although it uses a LOT of air - very inefficient. Those blades are cheaper, but cut a lot thinner, faster line. The cutter is a cylinder with the blade perpendicular to it. I think it's for light sheet metal like car bodies, but it works on thicker stuff, although it can be tough to hold on a sheet of metal. No way to guide it.

Yeah, I have acheap Northern sheet metal cutter... scissors design that cuts smoothly and does save effort, but I only really use for salvaging sheet metal by removing the rough edges.

The tool of the day was the drill press. My first drill press was part of a combo set made by Millers Falls Tool way back when. It has a big 8088 drill that could be attached to the drill press, a table saw, a planer and several other gizmos. The drill press worked OK, but the 70 year old drill just didn't have the power anymore.

The replacement was a present, a cheap Skil bench model. It has the power, but being cheap means it's just not a solid as a precision drill press. What happens, especially with big drills is the inherent looseness of the platform creates a vibration, and then the bit gets chattering and next thing you know I have to resharpen because the bit gets chips off the edges.

It does work though! The pile of pieces I cut yesterday have been drilled and machined (had to make slots in the wedge clamp pieces) and ready for grinding day!

My sheet metal cutter is more like a circular saw like this one.


I love my drill press too. Another Harbor Freight purchase. They don't sell belts for it any more, but I did manage to find some to fit. One of the best attachments I got for it was a mortising set. That is just awesome. They're super handy.

I just wish I had one that would grab less than 1/8" bits. Maybe I'll get one that holds a 3/8" drill. I've had one & hated it. Cheap aluminum with too much flex. An old steel one would be great.

Take an old chuck from a dead 1/4 inch drill with the shaft attached, stick it in the drill press and you got yourself a tiny bit adaptor!

I use an old chuck from a 1/2 inch drill to add to my 3/8 drill and make it take bigger bits! (mainly when I'm too lazy to drag out the 1/2 drill)

I've used mortising sets.. very nice to add tenons for joinery! I don't have one for my own drill though... maybe sumday...

I took 1/2 inch bolts, cut off the head and have made a wire brush and grinding wheel attachment for the drill press.

Yep, a drill press make life so much easier in many ways! A great tool!

[insert cuss words] Seriously, I have several 1/4" & 3/8" chucks around. I don't know why I didn't think of that. How stupid of me! Thanks.

I've made up different things for my drill press, too. I paid special attention to brackets for holding things on firmly after I tore up my finger a few years ago. I was boring a compound angle hole into a piece of wood & a clamp slipped. My hand, which was well off to the side, wound up getting sucked into the Forstner bit. Chewed my finger up pretty badly.

Having the lathe has taken some of the chores of the drill press, but it's one of the handiest tools in the shop for sure.

Isn't it funny how simple solutions can elude us....

When I acquired the drill press I purchased a clamp that attaches to the table... while I've drilled a few holes in myself holding stuff with a hand drill, I wouldn't consider challenging the torque on a drill press!

Grinding today! The greenhouse never made it over 30 (at nite and on cloudy days it's only ten degrees warmer than outside) but I had moved the bench grinders out there yesterday (so I don't set off the smoke detectors in the shop) when it was 60 in there so I finished up the grinding I needed anyway.

Aside from the lapidary unit which I only use with metal for sharpening, I have two bench grinders; an old craftsman and a cheap chinese version giving me four different grits, plus a homemade double wheel grinder with the square wheel and half round completely exposed for inside curves, plus an angle grinder as well as assorted drill and dremel bits. (I don't use the old hand crank grinder for grinding... I added a wire brush and just use it for quick cleaning. )

Before I did welding I didn't do that much grinding. Now I spend more time grinding than cutting and welding and have been doing a good job at wearing down the wheels. Of course, if they get too out of shape I now have a dresser for squaring them up which helps wear them down.

The dremel and drill grinding bits don't last long at all! I use them when I need to get inside things.

And of course with all grinders I keep a water bucket handy for cooling stuff off between passes!

A 2" Forstner bit going through ash can certainly catch hard on a compound 15 degree angle, as I found out the hard way. The clamps felt solid. Oh well. Live & learn. It's a shame I need to learn the way I do sometimes, though.
;-)

I've got an old hand crank grinder, too. I can't crank & hold anything steady enough to do it myself nor can I ever seem to talk anyone else into cranking. Oh well, it looks nice.

My father's old 6" Craftsman grinder (1950s?) is pretty nice with a grind stone on one side & a wire wheel on the other. It goes too fast for anything except rough shaping & sharpening. I have a couple of different grit wheels for it & they swap out pretty fast.

I have a cheap little 3" Harbor Freight variable speed grinder with an emery wheel & a smooth grinding wheel (180 grit?) for touching up my lathe tools & finer edges.

I do have a motor & a double grinding wheel for it. I got it at an auction with something else. It runs, but I've never used it. One wheel has a buffer on it. It's on my 'round to it list, but I haven't had the need.

I have a 7" & 2 - 4" angle grinders. I rarely use the 7" except for touching up the tractor mower blades. One of the 4" grinders usually has a circular blade with chainsaw teeth on it. It's great for quick, weird wood removal.

I have a Dremel tool, but don't use it often. Usually I'll use a file or a whet stone. I have lots of different stones in all sorts of shapes. I'm still not much good at sharpening carving tools, though. I really need to learn to do them better.

I hear you about that old hand crank grinder... I can't hold a piece and crank it at the same time except with the wire brush on it. Yet it is wicked cool!

Hmmm... I'll have to check on a "chainsaw" blade for the angle grinder... sounds like it could come in handy!

I have two dremels... one a "real" dremel, another a recent purchase that was a good deal, $40 for an off brand dremel with flex shaft and about 100 bits. Sometimes a dremel is just the thing, especially for cutting things in tight spaces. For example I was digging a post hole and hit multi strand chicken wire three feet down... couldn't get leverage for cutting it with a hand tool (the bolt cutters wouldn't fit), but the cutting wheel on the end of the flex shaft worked great!

I sharpen carving tools with a whet stone, then remove the burr inside the curve with 600 grit sandpaper glued to a dowel. For regular chisels the lapidary unit's extra fine stones pretty much replaced all the stone sharpening for flat blades. Now the stones sit in a drawer collecting dust.

http://community.ebay.com/t5/Antiques...

over at an ebay chat board someone pictures 2 tools and asks what they are.
I thought I'd link it as I would like to know too.
Anyone familiar with these?

Interesting, but I have no idea. I don't think they're carving tools, though. They're too long no matter what the medium, even if it was wet clay for pottery, I would think. I wonder if they're for something special like clearing clogs in a cotton gin, cleaning moving parts, or something like that? I'd be interested to know the answer.

I thought maybe some sort of scraping-out tool. Scraping out something soft, with that notch anchoring the blade to something.
wow, this is vague.

Jim wrote: "A 2" Forstner bit going through ash can certainly catch hard on a compound 15 degree angle, as I found out the hard way. The clamps felt solid. Oh well. Live & learn. It's a shame I need to lea..."

I don't know if this will be helpful but, chair wrights used to make angled bores with spoon bits. A spoon bit is shaped like a spoon and is sharpened on the edges. They are pretty cool, because you can start the bore perpendicular to the piece's surface, and then once it is biting in tilt to any angle you want.

Hope it helps.

J. wrote: "I don't know if this will be helpful but, chair wrights used to make angled bores with spoon bits..."

Not a bad idea. I've certainly thought about getting some, but have you priced a spoon bit lately? They're crazy expensive, if you can even find them. Last time I ordered one, it got back ordered & never arrived. I took it as a sign.

Do they come that big - 2"? I'm not familiar with their sizes, but the way they cut makes me think they'd be a bear over an inch. I don't think they can or should be used in a drill press either, not even on the slowest speed. Unfortunately, I don't do enough drilling with a hand brace to be very good at angles, either. I'm more of a do it once kind of fiddler, not a dedicated maker of one sort of thing.

Jim,

Mea culpa, I overlooked it being a 2" bit. Spoon bits tend to top out at about 3/4".

With "old school" tools I generally don't order new tools. I find that you can get much better deals at flea markets, yard sales and sometimes auctions because people don't know what they are. Lots of tools used to be very common then something changed and they fell out of favor. A generation or two later people just don't know what they are so they sell cheap. I've gotten keyhole saws, adjustable planes and even froes for a few dollars that way.

Me too, J. I've never seen a spoon bit in decent shape for a good price, though. I'm not seeing good deals on such things in the past couple of decades & it's getting worse all the time. Back when I was a kid, you could get great old tools & other antiques cheap or even for free, but now folks want ridiculous prices for some. I bid on some Stanley multiplane parts & irons a few months ago & didn't get them. They sold for way more than I'd pay for them even in good shape & these were in poor condition.

I don't normally buy old style tools new, either. I think with that spoon bit it was to bump the price up to get free shipping & handling. I got an $8 paperback the other day because buying it saved me $5.50 on S&H.

In other news, I found a set of clamps on Amazon yesterday that I bought. The Denali 30-Piece Bar Clamp Assortment for $120. They're not the finest clamps out there, but similar sets run $300 - $400 & it's way more than that if they're bought separately. The link is here:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NDMO94/r...

The Bessey BTB30 Tradesman Clamp Kit (very similar) is $410. Better, but not that much better for what I normally need.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000...

While I have quite a few clamps, they're kind of magical in a frustrating way. There always seem to be too many to store properly until I need them & then I never seem to have enough, so I grab them when I find a good deal on them.

When I bought the clamps, I found out that shipping was going to be $50 & I could get free shipping if I spent $30 more, so I bought two sets of scrapers & a burnisher. I've used scrapers for years. I make most out of an old hand saw blade & some out of planer blade. Instead of a real burnisher, I've used a cheap, round shafted screw driver. While they've worked, I've always primarily used sandpaper.

Sandpaper is fast, especially with power tools, but I've been a bit disenchanted by it lately. I've been trying to stain some bowls & that really shows some of the imperfections left behind by the sandpaper. White wood with a red gel stain really shows up any swirls left behind & I seem to always leave a few. My eyes aren't what they used to be.

Sandpaper is a product of the Industrial Revolution. A lot of great woodworking was smoothed with scrapers, so I thought I'd give them a go. I'm pretty impressed. In some cases, they're as fast or possibly even faster than sandpaper on a drill or other power tool. They're not as good for flattening the base or rim of a green-turned bowl, but that's about it.

They take a bit of tuning, especially the cheap set from China. They were unusable out of the pack. I had to file them flat, then put a new hook on them with the burnisher, but after that they worked fine. They actually seem to be better for smoothing out the bumps that I sometimes get inside bowls when they wood gets thin & I try one pass too many. The wood wobbles a bit, especially if it has some knots in it.

Does anyone else use them?

Jim wrote: "I have lots of different kinds of clamps too. For tourniquets, I have some of those ratcheting nylon ties for trucks. I glued a piece of wood to the metal so it can't scratch a project.

A fairl..."

This is a very helpful picture.
Thank you for posting it.

Glad you brought this topic back up, Jaye. I made a box the other day. It wasn't designed very well, more for me to try some odd joints than for looks or practicality, & wound up using those clamps I mentioned. One little box used 10 clamps! I was really glad I had a big selection. It made the job a lot easier.

another change of subject.

Due to a water pipe disaster (overhead, in cellar), I've got quite a few rusting things in the cellar.
One I've been looking at for a while is a vintage companions key hex. One of those things that looks like a thick jack knife.
Someone at work told me to soak it in Coke.
Is this a good idea, or is there a downside to it?

Busted pipe & flooded basement. Yuck! What a mess. I've never tried Coke for derusting things. Never had much luck at derusting, personally. They make stuff like Naval Jelly to do the same thing. It's been years since I've tried, so there are probably better products out there now. That said, Coke probably does pretty much the same thing. It's just a weak acid, but has the scrubbing bubbles. I'm obviously not an expert.

I will say I've never been impressed by the performance of hex keys overall & rusty ones in particular. If a nut is at all stubborn, they tend to round out - either the key, the nut, or both - even when both are in perfect condition. Once they've rusted, that changes their size a bit. Once I've scraped or sanded them to get rid of the rust, they're usually just a tiny bit smaller & round out easier. Replacing it would probably be the way to go. That's what I do now.