I have been making little cut outs for Tova to paint and put in her garden. I have been working on a method to keep a wall hanging from curling on the edges and I've been planning a couple of more involved things. Planning for me means some drawings and sometimes prototypes and just generally mucking around. None of this is a shop tip.
The shop tip relates to drill bits.
Get or make a drill bit index. I am sure that most of those bit sizes are seldom used but at the end of every project I can put the used bits back in the index and KNOW where they will be for next time. This drill index came from my grand father's shop via my father's garage workshop. If you buy an index you can spend a little or a bunch but having drill bits organised is worth the expense and effort.
The second part of this drill bit tip is:
When I break or lose a drill bit I buy 2 or 3 replacements especially the smaller size. Why so many? Clearly the bit I broke was one that I use, sometimes often, example 1/8" and 1/16". It is a pain if the bit you need breaks Sunday evening while you are finishing off a project. I have a box above my bench with an assortment of regularly used bits so that I am never stalled in mid-project.
Another update.
In December 2011 I assembled a wooden clock kit for my wife as a Christmas gift. For several years the clock worked fine in winter and not at all in summer. Seasonal performance was expected with the huge variation in humidity we experience here, but the clock didn't work last winter at all. I decided to dedicate the necessary time to fixing it last week, after the chaos of the holidays. I made a couple of spacers from thin wood and greased an axle with bee's wax and fiddled with the pendulum for an hour or so and now it is working again. More pleasing still is that the clock has worked unfailingly for over a week.
Back to the shop. I have another fish to finish and a knife handle to make as well as a cabinet to hang.
cheers ianw
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