Revisiting the Boring till

 For the last little while been sorting, de-rusting and taking inventory of drilling tools and implements.

I have been working out of that till for a few years now, time to address some shortcoming.

How my Boring till looks like today.

Some of the tools boards I am making shown

at the bottom

Don't get me wrong, it works fine as is, but I have a multitude of small accessories required and lots of wasted spaces at the bottom, which keep accumulating stuff.  Time for some holders.

As usual when I go about designing something, I first round up the usual suspects.  Drill bits and assorted implements used, in this case.

Then I sorta separated them in what I thought would be best ??  In other words it had to fit what ever piece of wood I'm using :-)

I have this plastic drill index box on the right hand side , which I find very useful to quickly find out the size of some errant bits,  easier than trying to decipher small markings.  So it has to stay.

On the other side I want to relocate my awls holder off the current shop wall, that left me with a given dimension for a board.

Starting to populate board with various bits and accessories

in some logical manner.

 Then I decided that maybe I can get away with squeezing another narrow strip up front :-)

I was going to make it to fit the length of the two other, 

but decided not to cut short and filled it up.

This is what my final layout looks like.

The empty spaces are for two missing sizes of Yankee adapters 

and two sizes of VIX bits, on order from LV :-)

In hindsight not sure what I was thinking about when putting in the circle cutter.  

Solely used on Drill press.

While I am at it, may as well organized the same variety of bits.

Got all the Jennings and Irwins I could find together.

Now to assemble sets.

Complete sets of Irwins from No 4 (1/4 in) to No 18 (1-1/8 in)

The whole set fit within 14 inches.

So maybe two rows of 7 inches?

 

Made boards with the spacings figured around earlier for the stem.

Then attempted to make spacers sizes for the bits themselves.

It quickly revealed which ones are in dire need of sharpening.

It also shows how two rows behind each other would look.

It is a bit thicker than needed but I was going to cut four half strips from it.

That bit shown in progress of being unwrap for the first time

was a disappointing surprise.  Factory sharpened, undamaged, 

choked up, did not cut through.

I was not surprised to find some bits in need of sharpening, some of these came out of Evaporust before becoming shiny objects again.  But the New Old Stock one got me surprised.

Nice factory edge but the only thing that is obviously different from the old ones is that the grind on top of the routers is much more vertical.  Guessing the ease at which angle the grinder used fit within?

The resulting cutting edge act more like a scraper than a incline edge lifting up the wood chips. It does not go far before choking.

Apparently more recent Irwin auger bits were not individually hand sharpened and tested as they used to?? Probably automated grinding operation. All good or all bad, pick one... machines can be so consistent :-)

Also made a smaller screwdriver holder with a piece of scrap from the above holders

Assortment of Stubby screwdrivers

R-L

Vaco reversible common/Phillips, Stanley Phillips No 2, Fuller Robertson No 1, 

Benchmark Robertson No 0, Yankee ratchet common screwdriver

Th reversible besides the Yankee for size comparison.

And there was my recent marking gauges board, so if you were wondering were are they all going to fit in??  That space under the window.

Lots of wasted space and not easy to add remove holders on the wall.

Brace bits holder is wasteful.  I like the idea but the supports need 

relocating to be more efficient

My latest bright plan for that space is to lined it with about 4 or five rows of French cleats.  Then I can add/remove to my heart content various holders.

So I will recycle some currently set up with hooks for peg boards by attaching the other French cleats in the back. Since the holders would be spaced out away from the wall the thickness of the French cleats are, I also gain some clearances for my fingers behind the tools mounted.

One examples of many holders set up for pegboards mounting.

 

So in the end, the Boring till is getting an upgrade, the wall under the window is getting re organized and my various drilling bits are getting organized and sharpen.  Should keep me occupied for a little while.

The area in question, including under the boring till.

 

This exercise also highlighted some limitations of my current set up.  I long lamented the lack of spaces for my banging objects AKA mallets, need another holder.  I obviously need some chisels up front of bench.  I rarely used my Rockler bench cookies at that bench, should also make some provision for holding the pair of cordless drills/driver.  They are cordless so fit within a tail less shop :-) 

They do get used a lot and need a home, which mean, will need to add an outlet nearby.

 Also seriously thinking about removing the built in bench on the other wall.  Right now it is overflowing with wood which need to go somewhere else.  That would give me space for a shaving horse and a pole lathe, if I ever get the time for it??

Meanwhile, finally got the door out of my garage and installed.  

I can finally now proceed with the deck and carpet replacement in dining room/living room

After Christmas.

The door to the basement is also installed, big improvement.  NO draft, more light and noticeably warmer in the corner.

My windows I previously fixed are now clad in aluminum.  Will never have to touch them again. 

Remains to put back the shutters after they are cleaned, painted etc... In the Spring.

The Dove? I am an old Cold War warrior

Peace on earth Brothers and Sisters

And now that I can walk around the garage again, the sad shape of those poor neglected machines shows a lot of red rust. Not too alarming, but should be attended to soon...

Yes, it's overdue for some loving attention

That and I need to bring in 220 Volts service inside garage, service panel is at the other end of the house, of course.   As encouragement for me to resurrect my good old Unisaw, I treated her to a new miter gauge, my present from me for my birthday and Christmas. :-) 

Its a miter gauge with a built in box jig and flip stop.

But Honey it was on sale :-)

The review that got me convinced to try it :-)  Bought from banggood

Another review from Woodhaven

Being shipped, should be here before Christmas, but 220 wont happened before next year...

Bob, keeping busy, cause you know, now is not the time to end up on the naughty list :-)

The return of the Post Drill

 It has been a while I had a chance to touch it since Spring.

Now that I am finished with a lot of higher priorities projects and with Jean gone for a few days, I can now go back to it.  I was getting a bit anxious because it is a very messy project, I must go outside to degrease/derust/paint.  We are already late September, won't have many more nice days to work on it outside.

Its been laying around in the garage for a while and it shows

Dusty and with cobwebs.

Brought Jean's small compressor out to blow the dust and dirt out.  It spent the summer in the greenhouse used to blow up pool's toys.

After some final (?) Scraping and a last coat of Krud Kutter paint prep, I brushed a gloss black oil based rust paint.  

I like the way the paint flows and leveled out.  

Easier than trying to spray and better results.

I had some brief short-lived ideas about doing a paint strip job in gold and dry brushing the raised cast letters in red, but reality set in and I must be done SOON 😁

So I'll go with simply dry brushing white paint on it.  All I had was a high temp white spray paint can.  Went to the store shopping

Came back with a paint can of the same fancy rust paint but in white.  A bit overkill yes, but I'll take it. Also got two small foam brushes for the lettering

Oh, that hand drill?

I just happened to be passing by a yard sale or two on my way to the stores:-)

My dry brushing techniques leaves a lot to be desired.

First of all, it was hardly "dry" , had to load paint on the brush often for it to works .  Made a mess with using the foam brush first, which i made messier trying to wipe it off and start again.  So yeah, scraping and repainting later made it better, but I'll touch it up a  bit.

While it is no doubts a very good rust paint, it tends to dry strangely.  Whenever you need to go near it, you will get black marks on you.  Whenever you try to scrape it, it never seems to be dry and you still end up with black marks on your clothes.  Honest Dear, that is my story :-)

The work table, I am not yet, painting the bottom gloss black.  It is currently flat black.  I need some judicious filings to make it sit 90 degrees to spindle.  The cast bracket is slightly twisted, NOT trying to straighten it.  Should be able to correct with some filings and perhaps brass shims??

Top surface will be sanded

the solid steel post also is in need of sanding

The brackets for the post and table 

Found this detail while cleaning the part.  

It is in the back and probably not much visible, but I thought I give it a try.

A lot harder than I thought :-)

Done with re-re-touching the paint, as good as it is gonna get :-)

Some sanding on the rods, reassemble the small parts, lubricate thoroughly, then ready to be mounted on the beam..  I will add the remaining heavy parts AFTER it is up. 

Previously found a period correct oil can oiler

Next, while the paint dry, (eventually) time to go revisit the beam in my shop.

Its been holding up in the shop for more than a year by now.  It has done all its stupid wood tricks and settled by now.

I am going to bolt the post to the main floor joist (where clamp is)

add a spacer to blocking on RHS and lock it with a carriage bolt

Bottom of post is secured in a post cement block.

You can see how much it has twisted since.

The bottom of the post rest in a cement post block for a 6x6.  It is heavy, you will not move the post if you kicked it, while still allowing the post to twist as it needed it

Cross board held by a clamp is by calculated height

for the bottom of the back board on the Post drill.

Final height may vary :-)

Managed to finished another small project, in between paint drying.

The small foot stool which had a broken corner block for its leg.

I previously cut and fitted the two new corner blocks, remained only to attached and colour matched them.

I only needed one block, but I ended up with two and rebuilt one corner from the ground up.

I decided after I glued my blocks, that I should stained it darker brown to match.

Would only be ever seen if looking under stool 

Next it will get recovered... later

For now, it is back into service

Then, since I have now a temporary shelter, I can actually walk all around my poor Unisaw.

The bottom wheeled rack I made years ago is in dire need of paint

I am NOT taking the Unisaw off its wheeled base.

When we came back here in 2011, they broke the button at the end of my T-Square fence.

Never had luck getting a replacement.  Found something close at Busy Bee, but the hole is slightly smaller.  Mine originally had an elongated button, my replacement are rounds like my older Beisemeyer fence I once had

Tapped the hole bigger with correct tap size.

Made effortless cut in that hard Bakelite like plastic.

The molding line was filed off to make it more comfortable.

Screw tight, no looseness

Work like a charm

Magnet is what hold it up.

Winter project, bring in 220V in garage

Added lite to the temporary shelter, next is alarms/security.measures

Bob, scratching his forehead  wondering where these black marks came from on his forehead ?? :-)