OT: metalworking project

Neat.

Mine is just a bent piece of welding rod. It works ok for driving them, but sucks at starting. Still, it's better than twisting them by hand.

Richard

ps: I'd offer to trade you one if you want? :^)

My tool isn't foolproof about starting, but I got the hang of it after two or three tries. Your bent welding rod approach has the advantage of accomodating a range of screweye sizes while mine really only works well with the size screweye it was made to accomodate.

How about one of those universal sockets with all the pins that push back?

A nice idea. I should be tarping up a number of things right now. Maybe I'll get a round toit now. Don, Roy J. tells me that you live in the twin cities. Do you belong to any metalworking clubs there? (I'm 8 miles SE of Baldwin, Wi.)

Any interest in a blacksmithing club?

Pete Stanaitis

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D> While having absolutely no relevance to either politics or guns, I

That might work well if it has the necessary depth. But I couldn't have bought one in the time it took me to make what I made, get back to the job at hand and get 'er done well before suppertime.

I'm in Fridley, don't belong to any metalworking clubs. I'm really not a club kinda guy. I belong to a couple of shooting clubs but only to have access to ranges. I'm willing to serve and contribute, but I purely hate meetings and the posturing bullshit that nearly always attends group dynamics. I am able to play well with others but I'm perhaps unreasonably selective about who I care to play with. We're kinda hermits, in a way.

None at all but I surely do appreciate your inquiry. Thank you! I've thought about coming to visit you now and again. Might be fun. Maybe we could do that this autumn or winter? You're an easy drive from here. I've no skill nor interest in blacksmithing but we both enjoy learning about any craft and seeing it practiced.

If you'd like to use mine I'd be happy to mail it to you. I've no doubt that you'd return it when done with it and I won't need it for a while.

I can relate to that. The first useful job I did with my cnc mini mill was to make some plastic washers for a job. Don't even recall what they were for. LOL.

I could have used it last night hanging fluorescent fixtures. My bionic thumbs are not what they used to be ;)

I could see making one if I had a bunch more to put up. I used a drywall screw to start a hole with my cordless screw driver then I did the screwdriver sideways thru the eye method to tighten.

Thanks for that very OT post!

Wes

On Fri, 09 Oct 2009 22:48:52 -0500, the infamous Don Foreman scrawled the following:

Cool tool, but I woulda used a hex (or triangular) drive configuration.

P.S: What are you feeding to the loons to experience this phenomenon?

-- Seen on a bumper sticker: ARM THE HOMELESS

I found a version of what you made as an adapter to a Yankee screwdriver:

Don Foreman wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

I belong to the New England Model Engineering Society club in the Boston area. I've been amazed at how well it runs. I haven't had tme to make a meeting in a while, but the dynamics of a club of hermits is unlike anything I've seen before. I don't recall EVER seeing any "posturing bullshit". The meetings usually involve a guest speaker, and those have been a bit mixed, but many are really fascinating. The talk by the professional safecracker was my favorite.

Doug White

I just bend open an eye, cut off the pointy end if it's a wood thread, and chuck that up to a drill.

Steve

That IS slick, though. You gonna market it, or at least make some for the guys in the group?

Steve ;-)

The narrow tapered blade on the Swiss Soldier (and my $5 Chinese copy) is a drill bit that makes good starting holes for screws, even in hard oak or pressure treated SYP.

jsw

It looks a lot like a tool I made to turn violin pegs in their holes when fitting them to an instrument for the first time. I would have been more successful with it if I'd had a cordless screwdriver to drive it rather than a variable speed drill.

RWL

Geez. What an interesting topic. Can you summarize some of what you remember? I don't even own a safe, but I've always wondered how it was done.

RWL

Glad to have you visit. Just email me off list ahead of time to check the calendar.

Thank you for offering to loan me the tool. But I will make my own. Alway need an excuse to start the lathe and mill.

BTW, I just bit the bullet and bought my first VFD. Haven't taken it out of the box yet because there are just too many "get ready for winter" things to do.

Pete Stanaitis

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D> None at all but I surely do appreciate your inquiry. Thank you!

On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 21:58:05 -0400, the infamous GeoLane at PTD dot NET scrawled the following:

Here's the hex drive style I prefer, Don.

I'll bet that would work for installing new guitar strings, too, especially for 12-strings.

Screw-eye driver The next time you've got to install cup hooks or screw eyes, get out your old brace and bit and make the job easy. A brace with a two-jawed chuck will get a good bite on the screw eyes, and a starter hole in harder woods will help get things going.... From Fine Homebuilding 30, pp. 10 January 1, 1986

-- Seen on a bumper sticker: ARM THE HOMELESS