Stories of family, creativity, and diverse distractions.

Category: Shop Projects Page 3 of 5

Making stuff from wood, metal or plastic.

Restoring a Gerstner Tool Chest: Part Two

In part one of this set, I discussed how I acquired my Gerstner tool chest and the how I started the restoration process. I carefully taped over the hardware I couldn’t remove and cleaned the chest with Murphy’s Oil Soap and with a rag. I scrubbed it fairly hard to get all the dirt off. A bit of linseed oil to brought the shine back up on the chest.

Restoring a Gerstner Tool Chest: Part One

A few years ago, Walt and I were at a model engineering show checking out the many cool engines and tools. There were a couple of dealers who had older Gerstner tool chests for sale. I managed to sweet talk one of them down in price a bit and walked away with a rough looking but solid tool chest – for my studio.

My Favorite Tools: Gunsmith Screwdrivers

Have you ever had trouble with an ordinary slotted screwdriver, and the screws it purports to drive? Did it slip, and mar the object you were working on? Perhaps it left the slot scarred up, promising an even more difficult job the next time you have to take out that screw. I have had those troubles too. And the reason is simple: ordinary screwdrivers aren’t made to fit screws! That’s where gunsmith screwdrivers come in.

Shop Tip: Mark the Top Side of the Case

When I got a new cordless drill, I splurged and bought an accessory kit for it. The kit had a set of drills, a couple sets of screwdriver bits, a quick change countersink/driver gizmo, and some other stuff. It was pretty nice, except for one thing that made it really annoying: the case.

A Cool Old Tool – The Unbrako Socket Screw Calculator

A good friend found an old toolbox on a property he purchased. He gifted me some of the contents, and one of the items was this neat old “Unbrako Socket Screw Calculator”. If you have really sharp eyes, you might have seen it sitting in the lid of my toolbox in this post. It’s a very simple device that provides a machinist with all the measurements they’d need regarding socket screws. Let’s take a closer look.

Another of My Favorite Tools: Layout Fluid

We’ve all heard “measure twice, cut once”, right? But if you don’t mark the measurement, you might as well not bother measuring at all.

To mark wood, you could use chalk, or a pencil. But those don’t work very well on metal. You need something more precise. You need a scriber, and layout fluid.

Double Your Pleasure, Double your… um… steam?

As a maker, I see faults in the things I made that nobody else will ever notice. Awhile back I posted about a steam engine I built. I learned a lot, and I was really pleased that it ran well. But as always, I saw the faults, and I wanted to make another, better attempt.

Leftovers again? Making candles from scraps

We have some of those giant citronella candles to use in the back yard. They work very well to reduce the mosquitos, but they produce a lot of scraps. So, of course, I wanted to use them up. I’ve talked about using leftover fabric and food, but here’s another type of leftover.

After a couple of evenings, we had all these chunks of wax left from the candles.

A Big Project For A Small Lathe

My lathe is rated at a seven inch swing, meaning that it can accommodate a piece of metal 7″ in diameter. You could maybe mount something that big somehow, and it would be able to rotate. But you couldn’t get a cutting tool to reach the outside diameter of the piece. In truth, the lathe really can’t work over about 5″.

A friend of mine is a cigar afficionado, and smokes outside on his patio. He was lamenting that he needed a better ashtray. He wanted an ashtray with wide enough grooves to accommodate a fat cigar. It must stay on the table even in high winds. And it had to look “industrial”.

Why I Like Owning A Machine Shop, Reason # 52,372

One of the things I really like about owning a machine shop is that it lets me find creative solutions to difficult problems. And often along the way I find myself forced to find creative solutions to new problems that crop up while solving the first problem! Today’s project provided a little of both.

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