There’s a hole in my pocket…

Spent the morning down at Carbatec, drilling lots of holes and screwing in a stack of screws at precise angles and depths 🙂 Even sold some Kreg Pockethole Jigs apparently – bonus!

Drilling Pocketholes

Getting ready, and to the demo was dead simple with the Festool gear – used a couple of empty systainers as tool boxes, secured to the top of the Cleantex and wheeled the whole thing in, plugged in, ready to go. Vac started and stopped with the drill, no dust, very little shavings escaped – it was all good.

Display

I also got to try the Festool drill/driver (T-12) with Ec-tec – rather interesting, with electronic control over the cut-out torque. When the torque exceeded the setting, the drill simply stopped and beeped at you, rather than having that grinding sound of the mechanical solutions of cheaper drills. (Am using my corded Bosch drill in the picture, if that is confusing you!)

So an interesting morning. Be sure to catch future demonstrations – at Carbatec Melbourne on the last Saturday of the Month.

And thanks to the Roving Reporter for the lift while I am still down a car!

Shellac Stick

Tried my hand at making a bit of a shellac stick based on a flimsy memory of what Terry briefly discussed during the Hall Table course.  I got something that vaguely resembled what I remembered of the final product, but it was a rather burnt, small version.  Guessing I should have tried researching it a little better before just giving it a try!

I did pick up a cheap soldering iron that can be dedicated to melting shellac stick into faults, and at under $8, it isn’t an expensive option.

Shellac is great for filling holes and knots (and self-inflicted defects).

The theoretic method is: Start by making a pile of shellac flakes – about a handful on a piece of tin, then sprinkle a conservative amount of metho on it.  Ignite it then mix with a screwdriver until the shellac starts to lightly bubble and cook.  Blow the flames out, then roll the shellac to form a cigar shape.  This is the shellac stick.

To use the shellac, hold the stick over the hole/defect then use the soldering iron to melt the stick so it drips into the holes.  Once hardened (takes a few seconds) it can be sanded, and finished over.  More can be added if required.  The nice thing is that you are not specifically hiding the defect – many, many projects are accentuated by the clever use of defects, and showing a defect off is a great way to really show your skills, and deflect the observer from the rest of the project!

When making the stick, you have some control over the colour/brightness.  The basic rule-of-thumb is simply the longer it is on fire, the darker it gets.