"Tips" sounds a little pretentious, like I'm about to tell you guys how to do things. What this is, is a couple of things that I've tried and have worked well, so I'll share:
- drill press key. Even though I had a special place for it (a hole drilled in the top of the belt cover), I was always setting it down somewhere else and then wondering where-the-hell it was. My solution was to put it on a leash - a spring-loaded, retracting leash:
- drill press vise. I rarely clamp work to the drill press table and even more rarely do I clamp the drill press vise to the table. It is such a nuisance bolting it through the table slots and getting it adjusted. The easier way that I found was to mount the vise to a plate, which can be easily clamped and adjusted:
- task light. Bench work sometimes requires much brighter light. I've tried various forms which either didn't reach far enough, or didn't stay in place, etc. I cobbled together this one from the junk pile:
- bench vise. My bench is fairly high (38") and with the vise on top, the vise jaws were really too high. So I mounted the vise outboard and lower:
- wrenches. Commonly used wrenches should be readily available and readily identifiable. I hang my most-used box and combo wrenches, in size order. They are hung on 2 panels, one for SAE, the other for metric. The front panel is hinged like a door:
Bob