Tool Thread!

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I picked up a couple of files from my my mail service today (bottom of photos).

 

 

 

These are called vixen files. They are designed to be non-clogging when filing softer metals, such as lead, brass, or aluminum, but work surprisingly well on mild steel. The curved tooth design helps to force metal shaved off to be expelled from the teeth as more metal is shaved off. They also can give a surprisingly smooth surface despite the coarse teeth.

 

I already have an old 10" vixen file that my Daddy gave me decades ago (no telling how old it was when I got it) but it was finally getting a bit long in the tooth (pardon the pun) so I bought these; an 8" and a 14".

 

I got the two loooong screwdrivers off a bargain table at Ace Hardware around a year ago on the off chance I might need one someday and because they were cheap. The shanks are 20" long and are 24" long overall.

 

I finally got a use for them. I have to install a new outlet and box in the back of a very narrow broom closet. I can reach the back wall in the back of the closet with one arm but I can't both in at the same time (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). With these puppies, I can use one arm to hold parts and use the screwdrivers from outside the closet.

 

Edit: The installation went well. Those screwdrivers were perfect for the job and paid for themselves right there.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I've been looking for a center finder for centering a drill press over a center punched hole location but haven't much (more like no) luck finding one I liked. So, I ordered a 1/4" transfer punch and made a small modification to it.

 

I forgot to take a picture of it before I worked on it but this is what a transfer punch looks like.

 

 

They are used to mark the center of an existing hole in a piece laid over another piece.

 

To make the punch easier to use as a center finder, I wanted to grind the shoulder down a bit to improve visibility. This is the set up I used to do the grinding.

 

 

The stand holding the Dremel is a hybrid of a Dremel work station (the stand only; the rest was pure crap) and a Milescraft Tool Stand (the business part only; it's stand was crap). I have a grinding sleeve chucked into it. I use the top of my washing machine for worl like this to save my back. The tape keeps crud from getting into the washing machine.

 

Here is how I held the transfer punch onto the wheel to grind down the shoulder...sorta. Here, I had to use my right hand to hold the camera but, when actually grinding the shoulder, I held the punch with my left hand (ignore the dirty nail and old lady skin) and rotated it with my right hand.

 

 

This worked out well enough, I'm going to get a second, smaller diameter punch (probably 1/8"), grind off the shoulder, and cut it shorter to use to for setting up the drill press for drilling with smaller, shorter drill bits.

[Velcade]

On 2/20/2019 at 6:25 PM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

 

These are interesting...  I picked up a drywall bit for my Dremel.  Makes cutting boxes a breeze.  Set the cut depth and away you go.  The dull tip doesn't cut the box so you can trace it out quickly and cleanly.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

On 5/30/2019 at 11:03 AM, Velcade said:

 

These are interesting...  I picked up a drywall bit for my Dremel.  Makes cutting boxes a breeze.  Set the cut depth and away you go.  The dull tip doesn't cut the box so you can trace it out quickly and cleanly.

That works great for drywall that has been installed or is being installed over an installed new work box but, when installing an old work box into existing drywall or prefinished paneling, the hole needs to be cut first before the box can be installed. They do make templates for use with roto-zip bits like the one you pictured (and I considered getting one) but they aren't cheap and can be awkward to use, especially when working in tight places. The templates I made are easy to use one-handed, even tight places, and, except for the t-levels, didn't cost me anything. I just use a different tool (a multi-tool), some screws, and wood that I already had.

[Real_PhillBert]

I almost forgot about this thread!

 

I had some extra store credit left at Menards that's been sitting around for a while, so this weekend I picked up the 10" and 12" Knipex Cobras for about $7 out of pocket:

 

[Dash Lambda]

I just bought a new set of Menda Nylon spudgers.

 

I've never been so excited to get a few black plastic sticks in the mail.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

7 hours ago, Dash Lambda said:

I just bought a new set of Menda Nylon spudgers.

 

I've never been so excited to get a few black plastic sticks in the mail.

LOL. You got me. I had to look up spudger. 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I recently bought a folding lader to keep in my truck. This is how it comes from the factory. it's supposed to a five foot ladder but it's actually a few inches longer (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble).

 

That big, stepless top is a bit useless, so I also got a tool platform to go on top.

 

This is how the ladder and the tool platform look when fully folded in.

 

The shell on my "little" F150 Screw has a tool box on each side of the shell where windows normally would have gone. I'm going to store the ladder under the driver's side toolbox (that gray boxlike thing in the upper left corner of the photo) in a length of PVC fence post. Here, I've temporarily taped a cap onto one end of the post (it got glued on before painting) before inserting the ladder into the post to see how much needs to be trimmed off the length.

 

After cutting down the fence post, I fitted and riveted some 1/16" thick, 7" long aluminum plates inside the posts near the ends to allow me to drill through the bottom of the tool box, through the plastic of the fence post and into the plates inside the post so I can rivet the post to the bottom of the tool box (rivets would have pulled through the PVC hence, the plate). That actually will be the simplest and most "sanitary" way to fasten the post since my arm isn't long enough (not even close!) to reach the closed end of the post to hold nuts for screws. Straps to hold up the post would have been a pain to make and install and would have looked clunky.

 

Here, I've painted the post and the other cap that will slip on and off.

 

 

Before flipping it to the position it's at now (upside down), I painted a couple of coats on about a foot of the top of the open end of the post since that part will protrude past the end of the toolbox. I also painted the radius where the sides meet the top since that will also show when the post is installed and would have been hard to paint once the post was flipped upside down for painting. I barely had time to get four coats on the sides and bottom before it got too hot to paint (actually it was one to three degrees too hot for the last two coats but it should be alright since it went over the two coats that were applied just within the recommend top temperature, 90 degrees). I needed to get all the paint on yesterday because the paint had to be recoated within an hour of the previous coat or 48 hours after and we are going into a heatwave that would have made painting impractical.

 

I normally use Krylon Fusion for painting plastic but it's being discontinued, I couldn't find any Satin Black, and it's top application temperature is only 80 degrees (keep in mind this June in AZ). I don't like Rustoleum (I've had trouble with it ever since they changed the formulation back in the early '90s to make it more environmentally friendly; pity it became less user friendly) but the gal at Ace Hardware (unlike home centers, Ace hires only people who know their products) said she had successfully used Rustoleum's 2x paint and primer on plastic so I decided to take a chance on it.

 

It now gets to set on my driveway for seven days for the paint to fully cure since it's paint on plastic. I wasn't totally thrilled with it since the spray is too coarse and dispersed for applying thin coats with full coverage, it's a bit too glossy for my taste, and it has that seven day cure time. Still, it's done and I can recover from  yesterday now (I've said it before and I'll say it again; old age sucks!).

 

When I test fitted the post in the truck (I set it on a couple of cargo bars to hold it in the proper position, it was literally a jam fit between the tailgate and the removeable cap so I'm seriously considering shortening the ladder by an inch (easier than you would think; just a bit tedious) then cutting another 7/8" off the end of the post before I install it so there is less chance the heat will distort it over time. I just wish I had thought of that before I painted the post (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble).

 

I'll report back in a week or so after I get the thing installed.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Today was like Christmas in July. I picked up all kinds of goodies today. First, I hit Ace Hardware (poor Ace Hardware) for some silcone spray and microwave cleaner and saw they had some more clamps on sale. Being the clamp whore I am, I just had to snag them.

 

 

 

They're cute little things. I wish Ace would put their Bessey F clamps on sale.

 

From there, I went to my mail service and picked a couple more goodies I had ordered. The first one is a MilesCraft Drlll Mate.

 

 

Years ago (around forty), I had a Portalign drill guide that was similar to this one. Back then, the Poratalign was considered the best (and pretty much the only) one around. The problem was, the guide rods tended to rust very easily, even if kept oiled, and it never worked well even after I cleaned the rust off. This guide rods on this one look to be made of better steel. Just the same, I put some Liquid Wrench Silicone Spray on them since the stuff claims to have a corrosion inhibitor in it (we will see about that). The drill guide seems to be very well made.

 

My only complaint was the clam shell packaging (aka Rage Wrap). I first tried scissors to open it. That killed my hands so I tried aircraft snips. They work well on sheet metal but the packaging rudely laughed at them. Then I tried a knife; the laughter intensified. That's when I got mad and, after saying a few words Mama told me not to use, I took the blasted thing to my bandsaw. That chewed through the welded plastic like a hot knife through melted butter. I wished I had though of that a long time ago. 

 

The other item I picked up was this cute little case.

 

 

Adorable, isn't it? However, imagine my shock when I opened it and found this inside.

 

 

Ok, truth be told, it was the case I was surprised to get since Home Depot didn't show it on their web page. The router is a 2 1/4 HP liitle (?) thing that comes with a fixed base and a plunge base. I used to use routers like this back when I was working cabinet shops back in '69 and '71. The only time I've used one since then was with my Daddy's little Craftsman 1 HP router (back in the day when Craftsman still made good tools) on a homebrew router table. I now have it but every time I used it, I was frustrated by the lack of pony power. Home Despot Depot was selling the Bosch with an added edge/circle guide and I was going to need a decent router in the not too distant future so I pulled the trigger on it. This is the edge/circle guide (it came in a separate box).

 

 

The edge guide came with two lock screws for the plunge base and two more for the fixed base. I put the screws on the bases to keep them handy and not get lost. That worked fine on the plunge base but ran ito a problem with the fixed base. With the screws installed, the base would not fit back into the case properly (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). Here are the screws:

 

 

I was about to cut holes in the case where it was in the way of the screws when I hit upon the idea of taking the little heat gun I have for shrinking heat shrinks and softening the plastic enough to let me push dimples into it with a small block of wood. It's not exactly pretty but it worked.

 

 

Sadly, when I made a Taco Bell run this evening the driver's side window lift mechanism on my F150 decided to break so I'm going to have to get that fixed early next week (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). For now, I have the open window covered up with a plastic trash bag taped on with gaffer's tape to keep dirt, bugs and the *&^%$#@! feral cats out of my truck.

 

The reason I wanted this router was, besides more power (omigosh, I'm channeling Tim the Toolman Taylor), is I've been wanting a decent router table that could also be set up to use a jointer. I didn't like the router tables I saw on the market, or even just the table tops, so I'm going to make my own. Since I'm old and feeble, I have to design it in a way I'll be able to move it in and out of the shed I'm getting once I get rid of a dead palm tree.

 

I've pretty much decided on a Bosch gravity rise table saw stand. It easily folds up into a vertical package that can be rolled around like a hand truck, then stored upright in far less space than it would otherwise. I'll need to build a stand from aluminum extrusions to get the table top higher up.

 

I needed a router with some oomph to it (more than my Daddy's wimpy Craftsman) to make the router table top. I'll make it from two layers of Baltic Birch plywood (one layer is phenolic faced) I can get from Woodcraft (hopefully from the one not too horribly far from where I live). The router will used to clean up the edges of the table after gluing it up and to rabbit the edge of the center hole where the router motor and Incra router lift plate will go and to make the dados for the T-tracks and miter track. Once the router table is built, I'll temporarily use the motor in the router set I just bought until I can make up my mind between a Porter Cable 3 1/4 HF router motor or a Jessem 3 1/4 HP motor. The latter comes with a remote speed control, power switch and DRO (Digital Read Out).

 

The fence will be made mostly from 1/4" aluminum plate, an aluminum extrusion, a couple of pieces of Phenolic faced 3/4" Baltic Birch plywood. The outfeed fence face will be adjustable so I can use the router table as a jointer.

 

Other tools I plan on getting after I get my new shed (hopefully, an 8' x 12' Tuff Shed) will be a 10" Ridgid table saw on a gravity rise stand, a 3/4 HP 13" drill press (that will have to stay in the shed although I'll put it on wheels), and a Ryobi 36v (two 18v batteries) 10" dual bevel miter silding saw mounted on a Ridgid gravity rise stand (the stand is designed for miter saws so that will be a bolt on operation).

 

Methinks I'll be busy this winter if my allergies behave (they were horrible last wihter and still are giving me fits, along with the sinus infection I picked up crawling around under my mobile home hanging conduit and pulling Romex last May).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

On 6/9/2019 at 8:43 AM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I recently bought a folding lader to keep in my truck. This is how it comes from the factory. it's supposed to a five foot ladder but it's actually a few inches longer (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble)...

 

 

Here's an overdue update on the ladder storage tube. The painted fence post wound up setting on my carport for a couple of weeks or so because I was laid up (old age sucks) and the heat warped the plastic (mutter, mutter, mumble, mumble). That surprised me because RVs use the fence posts all the time hanging under their RVs to put sewer hoses, tools, and ladders like mine in without any problems. On to plan B.

 

I ordered a piece of 1/8" x 5" x 5" aluminum tube to replace the fence post. I picked it up today but I was too pooped to do anything with it by the time I finished with everything else (not to mention it was hot as...well, it was hot) so I just left it locked up in the back of my truck. It will keep just fine there for now.

[The King of the Undead]

I am fixing a bostitch cap 1512 of air compressor pressure switch.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

3 hours ago, will4623 said:

I am fixing a bostitch cap 1512 of air compressor pressure switch.

Pictures or it didn't happen. 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

3 hours ago, Arange said:

This is porter, one of the angle grinders. If you are interested in a full name, write to Me...

Porter-Cable?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I drove and waddled to my mail service today to pick up some more goodies. This is a brief/equipment case I got from a Fleabay vendor.

 

 

It's kinda sorta a match for the little case I keep my impact driver bits in (I have four more of the little cases for future use).

 

 

The panels are ABS but I have several cases that have ABS panels and they have been holding up just fine for several years. This case will outlive me.

 

A short while back, I showed off a router set I got. One of the things in the set was an edge/circle guide but it didn't have a case for it. I had thought about getting a Pelican case to keep it in but, besides being rather heavy, they were just too darned expensive. Then I found this case on Fleabay for a much more reasonable price and pulled the trigger on it.

 

Here I have the guide, the dust collection hood, and a hose adapter laid out inside the case (there is also a pivot point for when using the guide as a circle guide but it's in my router case and I was too pooped form waddling errands to pull it out; old age and 111 degree heat is just a bit much for this old broad).

 

 

 

I'll probably play around a bit with the layout before I start working on the foam.

 

Speaking about the foam, I was very pleasantly surprised to find out it is pick apart foam (that wasn't mentioned in the product description) so that will simplify making the pockets needed for everything. I'll be working on it over the weekend and I'll post the results here when finished.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Here is the promised update to the case I got for my new router edge/circle guide. After plucking and pulling foam, then adding some back to get the heights right, this is the result.

 

 

 

I did make one change from my original plan. I couldn't figure out how to cut a neat round hole for the hose adapter (you can see how ragged the straight, diagonal cuts are). A hole saw would have been ideal but I didn't have any the correct size (and didn't feel like going out looking for one). I briefly considered using one of my new Forstner bits but that would be messy and would probably tear the foam more than cut it. I didn't want to pluck a square hole because it would have looked like...well, it would have looked bad. After wracking my last functioning brain cell for a while, it finally dawned on me that the adapter didn't have to have its own personal parking place so I plucked an undersized square hole inside the recess for the dust collection hood and stuffed it in there. The fit is tight enough to ensure the adapter won't rise up and damage the dust collection hood.

 

This is how the foam looks without the guide and hood obstructing the view.

 

 

 

I almost forgot about the pivot pin used with the guide for cutting circles (it was stored in my router's case). It was too short for the top to hold it in when poked into the foam so I glued a block of foam to the top of the foam in the bottom part of the case, then poked the pivot pin into it.

 

 

The pin is a bit strange but is really clever. It doesn't require a hole in the work to use the pin. Instead, you draw cross lines from the center point of the circle, set the disk of the pin onto the surface of the work and align the slots with the cross lines, then tape it down. The guide can then be placed onto the pin.

 

 

[Lord Mirdalan]

@Lady Fitzgerald

But does it shine golden light on your face when you open it?

[Lady Fitzgerald]

3 hours ago, Lord Mirdalan said:

@Lady Fitzgerald

But does it shine golden light on your face when you open it?

It doesn't need to. I'm illuminated from within.

[mr moose]

I like tools, I'll post some pics later of stuff I have been working on/with.

 

 

[Guest]

My latest purchase

 

It's going to be put to good use in the coming weeks ^o^

[Lady Fitzgerald]

9 hours ago, Arange said:

yes

 

Porter Cable used to be a huge name in woodworking power tools but I don't hear much about them anymore. User reviews of the 3 1/4 hp Porter Cable 75182 motor only router motor, the most popular high horsepower motor for router tables (and one of two motors I'm considering for the router table I want to build) for the past few years state that, ever since production of that router motor was moved to Mexico, the quality has gone downhill, whicch may explain the decline in Porter Cable's popularity.

 

Stanley and Black & Decker (now merged into one company) were also once big names in power tools (and tools in general) but now produce garbage under their own names.

[Guest]

-

 

 

[Lord Mirdalan]

1 hour ago, Oso Sin Nombre said:

"BIG" screwdriver

-snip-

For those really heavy-duty jobs.

[mr moose]

These are actually a bit old, when the place was still clean-ish

 

 

This is the woodworking side of the workshop.    I love all manor of tools and restoring them.

 

As I get time I'll upload photos of specific tools (mainly the fun ones).

 

[Lady Fitzgerald]

16 hours ago, mr moose said:

These are actually a bit old, when the place was still clean-ish

 

 

This is the woodworking side of the workshop.    I love all manor of tools and restoring them.

 

As I get time I'll upload photos of specific tools (mainly the fun ones).

 

Hi, from one tool whore fan to another!

 

Dool! If only I had that kind of space!

[Lord Mirdalan]

On the topic of tool restoration, I've been working on a Unisaw:

(Background omitted for extreme messiness)

 

Here's how the inside looked:

And how it looked a few weeks ago:

It's running now, I just need to finish the fence.

Edited July 30, 2019 by Lord Mirdalan