Posted on What tools do I NOT need?
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#1 posted 382 days ago |
I find that every tool in my shop, probably hundreds now that I have been into wood for over 40 years, I use sooner or later. And I am always finding new ways to use old tools. Like the other day, I was trying to learn a better way to level frets on my guitars, and StewMac had a video with a crazy expensive straight edge that allows you to tell if you have a high fret. “Precision machined”, they said. Well, so are my $9 a hundred razor blades, and they cover three frets, as Stewmac recommends, and I can tell if I have a high “rocker” fret, as they call them, by simply lightly setting the blade on three at a time and rocking it back and forth. Their $32.00 crowning file? I took a piece of walnut stock, found a straight router bit with a roundover contour just slightly larger than my frets, and routed a .030” round groove in the walnut. Cut it to size, tape on 400 grit, crowns frets like a champ after the initial filing with the Harbor Freight mini files I bought for $5.00. Their metal polish? Won’t even talk about it. I use the German metal polish I found at a flea market three years ago for $7.00 a tube and I still got half the tube. Shees… OK, I’m done ranting now. I do favor the new smaller line of li-ion battery drills out now. I like them so much I retired my honkin’ Milwaukee and Porter Cable battery drills and bought two of the Rigids with 3/8” chucks. Turns out I only need that 1/2” chuck maybe once a month. My old artheritic arms thank me everyday. If I need to hog out a 1” hole in oak I bring out the Milwaukee. But that is maybe once every few months. -- Paul, Tennessee, http://www.tsunamiguitars.com |
