Confessions of a tool junkie

[T42]

Gah! I'm trapped in the Dilbert continuum.

[robgul]

Gah! I'm trapped in the Dilbert continuum.

I worked for AT&T (in the UK) back in the early 90s - Scott Adams (creator of Dilbert) was employed by the firm in the US and the whole management structure and nonsense was his inspiration for the cartoon strip.

Rob

[drossall]

Ah - the old B&D "attachments" that turned the basic drill into other tools - IIRC I had a circular saw and a hedge trimmer.

I've still got some of those. I've never seen fit to replace the basic, 2-speed B&D corded drill that I bought after we got married, and I started to need to do some jobs around the house. Later, a friend who was upgrading to Bosch gave me some attachments that he could no longer use. To be fair, I've not really needed them either yet, but you never know.

[Ham]

Ah - the old B&D "attachments" that turned the basic drill into other tools - IIRC I had a circular saw and a hedge trimmer.

I've still got some of those. I've never seen fit to replace the basic, 2-speed B&D corded drill that I bought after we got married, and I started to need to do some jobs around the house.

My dad did the same (with a Stanley Bridges - there's a name to remember). To be fair he did eventually get around to doing some of those jobs. By proxy. When I got big enough to use the things.

[Jurek]

Too many tools.

The other day I needed to drill a hole through the frame of my front door to pass a mains cable through it.
Somewhere, I knew I had a 250mm x 8mmØ drill bit (which, TBF, at that length, is pretty unusual) still in its red, telescopic RS box.
Could I find it?
No.
Searched the drill box.
Searched the drill drawer.
Searched the auxiliary drill box.
Searched the cutters box.
Nothing. Nada. Zilch.

With heavy heart I took myself off to B&Q knowing, with some certainty, that I'm unlikely to find anything in there longer than the (inadequately short) 150mm bit I already had in my drill box.
Somewhat surprisingly, I found one at 165mm.
While I didn't think this was anywhere near long enough, my inner optimist persuaded me to part with north of £8.00, on the off-chance that it might work.

No sooner than I was back indoors, that I looked in the drawer yclept 'Holes and Taps', and there it was.
Shiny and unused, in its original RS box - all 250mm's worth of 8mmØ HSS bit. 

And lo!
The front door frame was perforated, and mains cable passed through accordingly \0/

And the 165mm bit was relegated, unused, to the auxiliary drill box.
Until next time, readers.

[T42]

Ah - the old B&D "attachments" that turned the basic drill into other tools - IIRC I had a circular saw and a hedge trimmer.

I've still got some of those. I've never seen fit to replace the basic, 2-speed B&D corded drill that I bought after we got married, and I started to need to do some jobs around the house.

My dad did the same (with a Stanley Bridges - there's a name to remember). To be fair he did eventually get around to doing some of those jobs. By proxy. When I got big enough to use the things.

I still use my old B&D 1969 2-speed, mostly to spin a polishing buffer made of old jeans.



I still have the orbital sander, saw and hedge-trimmer attachments.

[Rowan]

what sort of flap wheel do you have where you can add your own materials ?

[Jurek]

One which requires the operator to wear full-face protection...... 

[T42]

You got that ^^^ right.  It's an 8mm steel rod with half a dozen lengths of dowel that trap offcuts of old jeans. It's held together with zip ties.

[spesh]

Too many tools.

Gonna have to stop you right there. That simply does not compute.   

<ponders the spare room with its stacks of power tools in their cases, tool boxes, boxes full of tools, boxes of fixings, et cetera>

Nope, still doesn't compute. The excess tools are merely the ones I haven't used yet.   

[hatler]

Is it possible to have 'too many fixings' ?

And if so, that will necessitate some sort of definition of 'too many'.

Thoughts ?

[spesh]

Again, there's no such thing.

Sod's Law dictates that if you have what you think is a merely "sufficient" stock of screws, nails and fixing plugs, you'll find yourself running out of the particular item/s you need for a DIY project on a Sunday afternoon after the shops have closed.

Well, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it...

[robgul]

Ah - the old B&D "attachments" that turned the basic drill into other tools - IIRC I had a circular saw and a hedge trimmer.

I've still got some of those. I've never seen fit to replace the basic, 2-speed B&D corded drill that I bought after we got married, and I started to need to do some jobs around the house.

My dad did the same (with a Stanley Bridges - there's a name to remember). To be fair he did eventually get around to doing some of those jobs. By proxy. When I got big enough to use the things.

I still use my old B&D 1969 2-speed, mostly to spin a polishing buffer made of old jeans.



I still have the orbital sander, saw and hedge-trimmer attachments.

... ah, I forgot that item - that was in use until only a couple of years ago when I bought a couple dedicated machines - one for polisher/brass wire brush and the other with two grades of grindstone

Rob

[T42]

Just discovered CutList Optimizer https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com/. Anyone else tried it?

[Redlight]

A song for this thread:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_ucLvBG0qY

[andrewc]

I know nothing about machining, but some people on another forum think this chap is something else, so I thought I'd share the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ_1ju9tfh0

[andytheflyer]

I know nothing about machining, but some people on another forum think this chap is something else, so I thought I'd share the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ_1ju9tfh0

He is mesmerising, but don't ask him to turn you up a 7/8 UNC bolt...........

[Tim Hall]

I know nothing about machining, but some people on another forum think this chap is something else, so I thought I'd share the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ_1ju9tfh0

He is mesmerising, but don't ask him to turn you up a 7/8 UNC bolt...........

He's got a video somewhere that shows him getting something flat to within half a micron.  That's 500nm. That's the wavelength of visible light.

[robgul]

Just discovered CutList Optimizer https://www.cutlistoptimizer.com/. Anyone else tried it?

Yep - brilliant.

Rob

[robgul]

Just spent a superb 3 days at Axminster Tools on their 2-day router and 1 day band saw courses.   I was stunned that I was able to build a small cabinet with blind dovetails, normal dovetails, slotted shelf and raised panel door - all with a router (and some jigs) - and cutting shapes and stuff with the bandsaw (although the focus of the course was largely on fitting blades and running it safely)

Highly recommended . . . . . don't be sucked into buying more toys like I was    (new router, t-track and nifty straight-edge board clamp)

Rob

[T42]

MrsT wouldn't let me near a course like that unless I left my credit cards at home.

[robgul]

MrsT wouldn't let me near a course like that unless I left my credit cards at home.

It was fine - I got 5% discount so that's all good!      Bought a storage case for the router today - Screwfix's finest.

Rob

[T42]

The first couple of routers I bought I made cases for, but after the first few uses I built a shelf for them instead. Too handy.

[pcolbeck]

I bought a cheap watch repair toolkit from the Internet. £30 so its all chinesium and isn't going anywhere near my Breitling. However its already paid for itself opening the backs and letting my change the batteries on a variety of Casio and Timex watches I had in the draw of dead watches. I might even watch a few videos and see if I can get a Seiko 5 that's gone very erratic working properly again (usually something to do with the mainspring getting caught up on something apparently).

[T42]

Got one of those too, and a cheap demagnetizer. Haven't used either in anger except to take the back off a Vostok diver's watch, admire all the twiddly bits, then put it back with a fervent uh-uh.