Tool Sale Tab is now open

Hopefully some bargains in there that are tempting!  See top right of the website if looking for the tab.

I’ve only put up a few items so far.  Plenty more (mostly smaller, some larger) items to be added as soon as I can get to them.

 

Toy Library (for the slightly older kid)

I recently became aware of a tool library that has started in Brunswick, called (funnily enough), the Brunswick Tool Library!

The principle behind it is very similar to Toy Libraries – for an annual fee, you can come in and borrow 7 tools/week.  Unlike a hire company, there is no daily rates, no need to try to have the job all ready for when you hire the equipment to get maximum use out of it.  You can borrow one or two items occasionally, or an unusual tool that you can’t justify owning for that very occasional need.

The fee isn’t exorbitant either – $60/year isn’t going to break the bank.

I’m sure, based on their likely success, that their catalogue of tools (and quality versions) will continue to grow.

Hopefully they have the insurance side of things all sorted (you’d assume so!)

So a great idea, worth supporting, and perhaps…..worth cloning!

An Oldie, but a Goodie: Tool Descriptions

Thanks Frank 🙂

Drill Press

A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room, denting the freshly-painted project which you had carefully set in the corner where nothing could get to it.

Wire Wheel

Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, ‘Oh sh –‘

Circular Saw

A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

Multigrip Pliers

Used to round off bolt heads.

Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters.

Belt Sander

An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

Hacksaw

One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle… It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

Vice Grips

Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

Oxy Acetylene Torch

Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub out of which you want to remove a bearing race..

 

Tablesaw

A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

 

Hydraulic Floor Jack

Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

 

Bandsaw

A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to cut good aluminum sheet into smaller pieces that more easily fit into the trash can after you cut on the inside of the line instead of the outside edge.

 

Two Ton Engine Hoist

A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

 

Phillips Screwdriver

Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids or for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads.

Straight Screwdriver

A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws and butchering your palms.

 

Pry Bar

A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

Hose Cutter

A tool used to make hoses too short.

 

Hammer

Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent to the object we are trying to hit.

 

Utility Knife

Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts.

Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

Son of a Bitch Tool

Any handy tool that you grab and throw across the garage while yelling ‘Son of a bitch’ at the top of your lungs.
It is also, most often, the next tool that you will need.

New Veritas Plane

If you have ever been tempted by a Veritas plane – the quality machining, the fine cut, the aesthetic look of polished metal and black finish but couldn’t afford the limited edition planes, then this may be the one for you.

It is a low angle block plane, and turns a curl exactly as you’d hope.

I refer to a small selection of tools as being apron tools – those you live with in your shop apron, ready at a moment’s notice.  This plane is more of a pocket plane, but perhaps not quite for the reason you’d expect.  But you’ll see why I think that in a sec.

Before going further, just check out the quality of the shavings, and the thinness. You can see the colours through even where it is, and if you held the shaving over a book, the text can be read easily.

Not sure if I have ever used the word wispy on this site before, ever. 1 million words, and this the first use of wispy, but that is about the best description of these shavings.  If you drop one, it takes forever to hit the bench.

The other interesting thing about this plane, is you can get it into places where many others cannot reach, due to a relatively unique feature.  A picture tells a thousand words, so guess this next one is the best way to describe that feature.

Heh – sorry.  Yes, it is a miniature of their block plane.  A perfectly functional miniature block plane.

Part of the range of miniature planes from Veritas.  I have the shoulder plane as well – haven’t seen the edge plane or router plane before.  Would make a cool set.

The price of the block plane isn’t $300, or $500 – the pricing around their full sized versions.  This one will cost you around $55.  As seen at Carbatec.

 

The Dishwasher

I’m not going to go into the technique to produce a tambour again – that is covered on this site already (and the latest copy of ManSpace, due in the new year).

I’m using the Amana Tool Tambour Bit Set, from Toolstoday.com

Tambour Bit Set from Toostoday.com

A great set, which produces an awesome result.

Now that is a tambour!

It is a pretty cool, flexible piece (of timber).  It is quite a bit wider than required, leaving me with plenty of capacity to get it to the right size (width).  Getting the right length is even easier….just remove slats

Routing the track

After gluing a few pieces of timber together to create what will become the track for the tambour door, a piece of MDF cut to the path of the track is attached with carpet tape.  The router with a template guide and straight bit then follows around the edge to cut the required track.

Checking the track

The track is temporarily clamped in position, and the tambour door inserted to check for fit, and how well runs.  A couple of adjustments to the width of the tambour had it running well.  The track is still to be sanded, and I will wax it to make it work even better.

Rear of door

The track is in place, and I have probably used a few more slats than necessary, but it will be fine that way – no gaps.

Tambour Door

The finished door, ready for the track to be glued up.  It is to be the dishwasher – more of an industrial version.  Still have a shelf to add, and a spinning jet arm.  Came up really well though – very pleasing.

Scratchin’ out a living

When you are used to using power tools and machines for your woodworking, it is easy to forget that sometimes a handtool is the best tool for the job.

They are quieter (much, much quieter), safer (although any sharp thing can cut), and often can get into places denied to power tools.   They also can have a different method for removing material. Where both can slice, only a handtool can scrape.  (Now I’m sure someone will tell me I’m wrong…..)

Scraping has its benefits.  It avoids tearout, as the blade is not parting material ahead of the blade – lifting and cutting.  Think of all the adverts on TV about shavers, where the blade lifts and cuts the hair.  If you are lifting timber, there is a chance more will lift than you intended, and tear out.  Scraping has the blade at a different angle of attack, with the cutting edge trailing behind, rather than leading the way.

Scraping is used in a number of hand tools.  For planing a surface with torturous grain (burls and the like), you can get planes with the blade set vertically for a scraping cut.  You can use scrapers (a piece of steel with a fine burr to perform the actual cut) as an alternative (and superior to) sandpaper.  And you can use a scratch stock as an alternative to a router.

It is a very simple tool – a piece of spring steel with the required profile cut into it.  And a holder.

You can make your own, or check out this one from Hock Tools (Ron Hock being very well known for the quality of his plane blades).

Hock Scratch Stock

This is available from Professional Woodworkers Supplies in Australia, who sell items from the Hock Tools’ range.  The body is made from a laminate of bamboo, which has good water resistance, and shape stability.  Instructions for using the scraper can be found here.

Where noone would consider manufacturing their own router bit, this comes with a second piece of tool steel so you have plenty of opportunity to create just the profile you want.

I came across an interesting concept while looking at these scratch stocks (and especially the supplied profile).  It used to be quite common for this profile to be used on the leading edge of a kitchen bench….underneath.  The purpose was as a drip arrestor.  Any liquid spilling and running over the edge would gather at the bottom of the curve of the profile and drip off, rather than continuing on its journey into one of the drawers (often the cutlery!)  Simple idea – pity it seems to be forgotten by modern kitchen manufacturers.

A very simple concept, a very simple tool, the ability to make your own profiles, and the ability to deliver that profile just where you need it, right out of reach of powered tools.

New, new tools

There are always new tools in the marketplace, vying for your hard-earned. However, so many of them are just a re-visualisation of an existing tool – a new type of spanner, a new power screwdriver, a new drill rather than a brand new invention.

Not that I am knocking new releases of previous inventions – given I have just ordered the brand new Festool CXS drill, I am hardly going to say that new versions of previously existing tools is a bad idea! But that is a story for another day (when the drill arrives from Ideal Tools – tomorrow hopefully!)

However, at the Brisbane Wood Show this year, Arbortech revealed their newest invention: the TURBOPlane.

TURBOPlane

This is very cool on a number of levels.

– A wood show being used to release a brand new product

– A brand new, Australian product

– And a cool tool in itself.

It fits to your standard angle grinder, and provides a surprising degree of control and finish, while still allowing rapid stock removal.

Fits a standard angle grinder

It fits any 100 or 115mm angle grinder with speeds up to 12000 RPM. Despite the speed the angle grinder runs, you have a significant sense of control over the process. It opens up the door to shapes that would otherwise be difficult to achieve, without moving over to handtools, or carbide abrasive discs which can cause deep scores in the timber (and lots of dust).

Carving into surfaces

The TURBOPlane can carve both convex and concave shapes, and because it does not have teeth on the outside edge does not need the same guarding as their Woodcarver, and is not as aggressive (the Pro-4 Woodcarver is effectively chainsaw-style teeth cut into a solid disc.) Whether you are shaping the seat of a chair, creating a tray, or carving bowls, wooden horses etc, the control from the TURBOPlane will quickly win you over. It can run right up to the edge of the object (or recess), as it will not cut on that edge.

Rapid stock removal

I haven’t had time for a long play with it yet, but first signs are good 🙂

In the meantime, here are a couple of videos from Arbortech on the blade in action.

Ready for the next revolution?

With the addition of the DVR motor to the lathe, it was transformed into a stunning machine, powerful, energy efficient, futuristic even.

So the next revolution? (Sorry about the pun!)

Teknatool are developing a DVR drill press!

No more belts, pulley slippage, belt vibration.  No more bogging down of a drill bit as the bit meets resistance and because of the pulley ratios, the motor is stalled.

The ability to easily tilt the drill head over and angle it to the workpiece which is maintained on a flat surface, rather than having to angle the workpiece to a fixed head.  I know there are some drill presses that can achieve this, but few and far between.

Instead of drilling a hole at whatever speed that the drill press is set for (and just how often do we change the belt speed for a single hole)? you’d have no excuse not to dial in exactly the right speed, each and every time. It is going to be a great drillpress!

 

Thinking about it, with the motor onboard the head (direct drive), then the plunge mechanism moves the whole lot – chuck and motor combined.  There is no limit then to the amount of plunge that is available.

DVR Drillpress

Looking forward to seeing the DVR motor included on other machines – thicknessers, saw tables, bandsaws etc.  Instead of a router mounted under a router table, how about a DVR motor?  Seriously awesome!

The Schwarz is coming

MGFW

Melbourne Guild of Fine Woodworking has managed to drag the Schwarz to our shores in 2013, to run a number of Master Classes.  These include The Anarchist’s Tool Chest, Hammer in Hand and Shaker Wall Cabinet.

The Schwarz

Each course would be absolutely fascinating, and you’d learn a huge amount about handtools and techniques.  The cost for a 5 day course is $1760 (the first two), and the 2 day Shaker cabinet is $695.  Needless to say, I am SERIOUSLY tempted!

May the Schwarz be with you.

Honey, I shrunk the kids!

Stu’s Shed Pictures

Bigger is normally regarded as better, and often that is quite a justifiable position.  Larger router bits can handle higher loads, have more chunky carbides, can handle higher feed rates.  But they cannot do everything.

Something I have been struggling with for a while, and especially when working with smaller designs is that the large router bits are, well, too large.  When pattern copying a fine design for example, the large bearing rounds off a lot of the detail.  So it is with definite interest I discovered the miniature router bits from Toolstoday.com.

The bearings are 3/16″ (4.76mm), so it is capable of really getting into tight spaces.  Some other small router bits use a non-bearing pin to achieve this, but this leaves the guide pin rubbing against the workpiece at 20000RPM, the friction of which quickly leads to heat buildup, and burning of the edge.

There are a number of different profiles in the range, so it isn’t just a matter of being able to copy more intricate patterns with a straight bit, but also being able to apply edge treatments in tight spaces. The router bits are 1/4″, so able to fit in standard routers either directly, or with a 1/2″ – 1/4″ collet.

Amana Miniature Router Bits

Flush Trim bit

The flush trim bit is always an integral one for a set – it is particularly potent when used to duplicate a template.  You may choose to use this miniature version in combination with its bigger brother.  The larger one can cut the majority of the outline around the template, then follow up with the miniature one to push right into the detail areas.  Might as well not force the bit to do any more work than necessary!

Rabbet bit

The rabbet bit would be useful in making small boxes, and very small picture frames.

Chamfer bit

The first of the edge treatment bits, the chamfer bit can be used for edging, and producing a miter joint.  The one pictured above produces a 45^o chamfer. There is a second one in the range that produces a subtle 7^o chamfer.

Round over bit

A couple of different radius round over bits are available.  These are particularly useful in toy making, used to soften edges of toys.

And  the classic profile, the Roman Ogee.

Roman Ogee bit

The profiles may be no different to the other common ones in your router bit set, but the size will make a big difference in what you can achieve, in situations where you would have had to find an alternate (and often with a compromised finish) option.

I know tools are not meant to be ‘cute’, but these miniature bits are, at least as far as any router bit can be!  So if you want to shrink your router bits, you can either get an electromagnetic shrink ray from the ’80s, or get these from Toolstoday.com

Amana Tool Miniature Router Bits