Friday, April 22, 2011

Where's the catch?

I swore I wouldn't do it, but as I returned to the tool cleaning fray and looked down the barrel of 50+ auger bits needing cleaning, I wilted. And put them away unsorted and uncleaned. *slaps self on the back of the head* Bad, bad me. But honestly, it wasn't even as much fun as painting the Forth Bridge, and a bored tool cleaner is a tool cleaner doing a lousy job.

However, I did get all the other brace bits done, including the expansive bits. I seem to have acquired four of them. Pretty sure I've never actually uttered the words "How much for this expansive bit?" in my life, they've just sort of... appeared. Disappointingly they're all the same Patent design too, which is a bit boring. (Boring. Hur-hur.) On the other hand, it did mean that dos incomplete/ratty examples were able to become uno complete and totally unratty one. Which was nice. So I'll keep that one, and try and convince someone, or rather two someones, that they need an expansive bit in their lives. I'm hoping the sliding top wooden boxes they're housed in might be slightly alluring.

The other bit came in quite a different box, and in the spirit of sharing, I thought I'd take a pic of the rather nifty design of catch. No, it's not beautiful, but it is functional. Rendered in brass sheet and something other than a rather grotty piece of ply for the top, it could look quite good, I reckon. Handy if you need a lid but not hinges - or a way to close it without having a catch, um, catch on something in, say, your toolbox.


And that's two more bad word puns than anyone should inflict on the reader in one blog entry, so I go. Maybe I'll gather up sufficient insanity to start in on the chisels...

3 comments:

  1. So which design patent have you got, Alf? I've got a "Steers Patent, C E Jennings NY" which I inherited. I found it struggled to bore holes in anything other than the softest wood. I've a sneaky suspicion that expansive bits were a good idea in theory but not so effective in practice, certainly at the wider settings.

    Evergreen

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  2. What a catchy little catch!

    Must find a wee project to add it to, maybe a couple of boxes to hide, yes I said hide, the two expansive (auger) bits I have.

    I don't know about anyone else, but even after thinking I've sussed the geometry of them and sharpened accordingly, I still can't get them to drill, nay gouge, anything close to a decent hole. (sound of deep intake of breath)

    Sorry, the above boarders on a bit of a rant.

    Any chance of a blog entry on the howfores and wheretofores of expansive bits?

    My 2% of $1's worth of observation is that there's not enough cutting going on near the centre.

    Stephen R
    from New Zealand (the Shaky Isles)

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  3. I like that box, and a clever design it is! Thanks for sharing!

    Post Tenebras, Lux
    Dirus Canis
    The Wolf and Moon™

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