Learned my lesson...

G

Guy Thomas

Joined
Feb 1, 2000
Messages
1,370
Got home late last night from work, had supper and thought I'd zip out to the garage and drill some weight reduction holes in the handle of a kitchen knife I'm making. Well to get to the point since the steel is only 1/16" thick I thought I could skip some intermediate sized holes and move from the pilot hole up to a much larger size. In my eagerness to get some work done I also neglected to slow the drill press down and promptly ended up burning up the tip of my 1/4" drill bit
frown.gif
("Haste makes waste" as they say!)-Guy Thomas
 
I know what you mean about getting in a hurry.
I decided to drill some large holes in the tang of one of my knives. Well instead of securing it down I just started drilling. The drill had just broken through when it caught and the whole thing started spinning around on the drill like a lawn mower blade. Luckily I jumped back quick enough that I didn't get hurt.

[This message has been edited by Fall (edited 05-19-2000).]
 
I did the same thing awhile back and sent pieces of the cheap bit that I was using sprayed all over the shop. Good thing I was going slow and had eye protection. One of those pieces bounced off my face shield. I get Ti coated bits now, but I still have lots of the cheapies left. Want some? :>

------------------
Oz

"This is your life, and it's ending; One minute at a time."
http://www.freespeech.org/oz/
 

This is a prime example of one of the many reasons to wrap the "business" end of the blade with duct tape. Not only does it prevent scratches on the blade, it does a pretty good job of preventing "scratches" on the knifemaker.

One other bit of advice, always, always, ALWAYS clamp the blade to the drill press table prior to drilling.

One of my life long ambitions is to pass from this world with the same number of fingers I was born with...so far, so good.

C Wilkins
 
Speaking of clamps, I was using one of the vise grip type clamps that you attache to the table of the drill press and it works great! I have infinite praise for C-clamps, the great third hand that they are, but they are a royal pain when fiddling around with positioning things on the drill press and trying to tighten in the right spot.
Oh, and Oz, cheapskate that I am I'm still trying to figure out what to do with the ruined drill bit that I have, can it be ground past the overheated portion somehow and resharpened? (that would require shortening the sucker by nearly half an inch!)-Guy Thomas

[This message has been edited by Silent (edited 05-19-2000).]
 
Get a foot pedal for the drill press. As Darrel said before, even a light switch out of an old refrigerator will work. Keep your foot on top of it when you are drilling "shaky" holes.

I keep the belts on my drill press a little loose. They will slip a some and let you know what's coming.
 
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