Unexpectedly handy tools

[J. Clarke]

Couple of lignum vitae cutoffs.

[Mark & Juanita]

Thanks, I'm going to look into that.

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Larry Blanchard]

believe=A0it=A0or=A0not

A wheelchair is not a prerequisite for the utility of those tools. I s= eem to have a singular talent for dropping small parts, and sometimes large pa= rts, behind my workbench, under a storage cabinet, etc.. Besides the two yo= u mention, I've also got a humungous magnet I got out of the "free" box a= t a garage sale - for when I drop a "large" part :-).

But most useful low cost tool in my shop is an old Goodell-Pratt push d= rill I use to drill screw starting holes.

--=20 It's turtles, all the way down

[Patriarch]

Mark & Juanita wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I've had one without the ratchet for over 15 years now - now idea who is the manufacturer. But it fits all the bits, including Torx, and lives in the 'travels in the truck' tool box all of the time.

It's a keeper, all right.

Patriarch

[Upscale]

Similar to the one that LV added to its inventory in July.

[Upscale]

I've got one with the ratchet. Don't always use the ratchet, but when I have to drive some big screw by hand, the ratchet with the addition of a ratcheting wrench driving the bit is invaluable.

[Woodhead]

Steve has it right. Additionally, I scatter them all over the shop and I'm breaking the leads pretty consistently. I consider the sharpener a "must-have" power tool!

[Dan]

On Mon 03 Jul 2006 11:26:25p, "Andy" wrote in news: [e-mail]:

My epiphany came when I reached into my apron and it wasn't there, and I cussed myself for leaving it laying by the miter saw - again - and realized just how much I'd come to depend on it. Just for running a nice clean pencil line all the way around the board. Hunh.

Second on that list is the Bosch SCMS. I still say I don't NEED it, but man I sure use it a lot. Especially since I built it a little rolling station with fold-down wings.

Third is that tape measure with the numbers on both sides of the blade and the built-in pencil sharpener. I use both of those features all the time.

And that's my short list.

[Lew Hodgett]

RE: Subject

Without question, the thinking chair.

Lew

[Mark & Juanita]

there is little doubt there will be a next order].

+--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+ If you're gonna be dumb, you better be tough +--------------------------------------------------------------------------------+

[Upscale]

Not exactly the same as the one I bought from Lee Valley about 10 years ago, but parts of the bits that protrude do have hexagon sides which are very handy in conjunction with a ratchet wrench. I'd say those two tools are the most used out of all the hand tools I own. I'm sure it will be a purchase you'll never regret.

[Bill Leonhardt]

I've got to weigh in on #2.

I recently took a 6 panel door (used, thus no cost) busted out the panels and attached legs from a ruined banquet table I pulled from the dumpster (also no cost). The door is amazingly rigid and flat. I had read about doing that in a couple of places, including the REC, but I was pleasently surprised at just how handy this is. I use it:

1. To cut panels with the circular saw depth just slightly more than the panel.
2. As an assembly/glue-up table. The lower height is nice.
3. The open areas where I busted out the panels are great to clamp odd shaped things down for cutting or routing.
4. It seems to be just the right height for my grandson to use a handsaw and miter box.

------

One other VERY handy tool, not yet mentioned:

I have a wire wheel on an arbor turned by an old refrigerator motor. I use it a lot. Just the time saved in rust removal makes it a real time/effort saver. NOT that I ever let my tools get rusty, oh no, but I seem to need to remove rust I a regular basis. Cleans threads really good, too. The other end of the arbor has a beat-up grinding stone for crude grinding. Lets me preserve the "good grinder" for sharpening.

Bill Leonhardt

[mac davis]

you have a bathroom in your shop? *g* Mac

[bridgerfafc]

I worked for a while as a machinist's helper. I don't do that anymore, but I have both metal and woodworking tools in the shop. I have pretty much full crossover- that is, I use pretty much all of the metalworking tools on woodworking projects.

I used a dial indicator on the table saw the other day to make a series of small fence adjustments to center a groove in each of a big stack of boards that were *almost* the same width, but that I couldn't run through the planer to make them all more the same. caliper the board, tap the fence, saw, repeat. the indicator allowed me to be plenty accurate and more importantly return the fence to nominal zero reliably.

[Mike Marlow]

Ha! That's so funny - or at least coincidental. I was just thinking the other day that I want to find one of the old class room type crank pencil sharpeners because I get so frustrated with our electric sharpener. It never sharpens evenly around the pencil unless you twist it while it's in the sharpener. Even then it doesn't simply grind down a nice point.

[Mike Marlow]

Perfect!!!

[Mike Marlow]

What's a scrap pile? That stuff's wood brotha.

[Mike Marlow]

Bah! These are all junk. Not a single manufacturer of these makes nice clear graduations on the scale. I've looked at them all and they all use some sort of fuzzy ink.

[Doug Payne]

(while you're buying chisels or something :-)

Also nice pencils which seem hard to find these days:

[Frank Boettcher]

I've found them to be the easiest to use to 1. check thickness of wood during planing operations. 2. check the depth of counterbored holes.

1. set blade height on table saw. 4. set cutter height on routers. 5. check the diameters on that pile of drill bits that you can no longer read the engraved size. check the diameter of round dowel stock in a pile all sizes. 5. scratch that hard to reach place in the middle of my back.

They are always in my apron pocket.

Frank