Can we get a tool appreciation thread going? Got this drill press a few days ago with a fucked motor(150W so useless anyway) for $50AUD, spent the same and 6 hrs in a traffic jam to get a 3 phase motor and VFD. This motor is brand new too, still had the plastic cover over on the shaft and none of the cable knock outs removed. tfw drilling round objects is now possible, tfw mounting a sanding wheel and using the VFD to over speed the motor to 4,000 rippums and grind my axe without ruining the metal.
What tools could you not live without /diy/? What are your most recent purchases, power or hand?
>>994220
i think i picked up that drill press from harbor freight for <$50 USD brand new.
but yeah a drill press(even a mini one like in the pic) is necessary
a bunch of random sized clamps is good to have
good quality vise grips
a nice table mounted vise
>>994245
Same, shitty drill presses like that used to sell for $50 at canadian tire before everything went to shit.
I'm getting into precision work now and realizing that the tables on those things are nowhere close to straight. I think I'm going to eventually make my own micro drill press.
>>994245
Not only a bunch of random sized clamps, but you can never have too many. In smallish and larger sizes. I say skip the midsized ones. I've never said my 24" clamps are just right.
>>994220
Don't tell me the only thing holding that on there are those two zip ties. Also, it sounds gay and all, but you really should cover that belt. Shit's dangerous. Lastly, careful about putting side pressure on a drill press spindle, such as when you use it to sharpen your axe. Drill presses typically have bearings that are unable to resist side pressure effectively, being designed to mainly deal with thrust along the axis of the spindle. You'll start getting lots of spindle runout and significantly oversize holes if you're not careful.
I can't live without my CNC, or 3d printers.
Pic related
>>994220
>Tools you can't live without
My best friend.
>>994337
I've had the spindle apart to check which size bearings I need(since they're already fucked from the last owner), they're just bog standard bearings, you know the ones that are designed for high side loading and not at all for axial forces. the most likely thing to happen is the chuck flys off since this spindle only has a B16 taper. needless to say i'm thinking up a way to rebuild the spindle so it's better all round. check out: http://vincechanblog.ca/cnc/cnc.html seems like a good starting point with the preloaded bearing at the end. A morse receiver would also be much better for milling/grinding operations.
as for the zip ties and belt guard ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
>>994437
;_;7
>>994284
Making your own isn't worth it. Matthias confirmed.
holyshit $50 even $50 aud is a fucking steal for a 3phase and vfd
that thing looks fresh as fuck
btw, just reworked the drill press since the zip ties weren't really doing that well.
I used a 6 mm plate, 4 M6 bolts into the casting and 4 into the motor.
>>994733
here's the pulley setup, since I had one I used a timing belt idler to set the belt tension, now I can have any ratio and it's not a pain to move the belt.
>>994734
That looks much better and safer man. Glad you improved. Some belt catcher for if it breaks might not be too difficult though, could be really painfull if it flies into your face at full rpm. Even just a plate in the front would save your ass.
>>994748
thanks, yeah will look into fabing something soon, I keep hitting the back of my hand on the spindle pulley so just something around that would be great. I don't have access to any sheet metal tooling though so it's going to be a hack.
2x72 2.5kw belt sander.
literally could not do what I do without it
>>994368
>another cuck who fell for the sherline meme
I will be finally rid of that 8 directional column soon.
Hahahahahahahaha yeah the sherline is a wicked beast when it comes to tramming.
Check out the a2z Corp CNC frame, I'll be replacing my sherline with one of a2z's frames they are super sexy.
Peace fellow crooked mill anon
>>994752
All the knife makers on youtube call those belt grinders. It caught me off guard
I really want to build one.
![86530[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/H2Eve7k.jpg "86530[1].jpg")
I got a couple roofing squares that I can no longer live without.
I had the regular L shape square, being a big clumsy fuck I tend to drop them and then they go out of square.
Roofing square, no fuck problem there. Its a solid lump of metal. Use them for layout work, cutting 2x4 (as a fence for my circular saw) jigs, all sorts.
Speed square, ive been looking for one for quite sometime and nobody brings it in this fucking 3rd world shithole
I use a chisel most of the time, And i work as a welder. It's a great mini crowbar, Useful for hitting shit with, Cleans away the small sprays from welds really good. It's a multi tool really
>>994734
Too bad you didn't save the pulley off the old motor and mount the new motor so you could change drill speed by moving the belt. I have the same drill, motor still good, and changing the belt position makes a big difference in drill speed.
>>994220
Dremel
>>995319
He has variable speed drive. Much better than changing belts!
>>995290
yeah I agree any tradesmen shouldn't be without his persuasion device I have a few chisels that are just for beating the shit out of stuff with.
>>995319
see >>995365 also the shaft sizes are vastly different so no chance of mounting the original. also since the new motor is 1HP even at 50 rpm it's still too torquey to stop by hand.
>>995399
this, cold chisels are also great for disassembly since they're so blunt and relatively soft they don't fuck up surfaces like a screwdriver would.
>>994896
>linisher
most people give me a blank look when I use that term. "liniwhat?".
That one >>994752 by the way, was built by Owen Bush. Not mine, >>994754, I'm afraid.
Mine was by Aly from Downland Engineering, but I couldn't be bothered going outside to get a photo of it.
Still cant, but here's a photo of the same make. Bloody fantastic machine. Invertek inverter lets me run as slow as 1 metre/sec if I want to, so I can use it on steel, or dial it way back and use it on plastic or wood.
Head assembly's interchangeable, so I've got the flat platen, and 35, 50, 80, 150, and 250mm contact wheels.
mine's had a few modifications - wet spray fixings so I can do work post-HT work without cooking the metal, and guards replaced with Lexan for maximum visibility.
>>995365
Not really, because changing belts does more than speed change. Variable speed drive simply lowers the horse power, but gear reduction by moving the belt increases torque. Very helpful when drilling metals.
>>995557
You're not too bright trying to stop a drill with your hand. Also, not a viable method for testing torque. I have that same drill with the original motor, 1/6 hp. Haven't had trouble drilling through any material, including 1/4" thick steel.
>>994368
>mach3
why
>>995576
I've never really looked at how a belt sender is assembled, these look really simple/diyable. Something to look into I guess.
>>995584
I've only used it with TiAlN twist drills with the original motor, the ones that will take a single continuous chip out of just about anything if you let it, 150 W was just not enough even on the lowest gear which was too slow for steel. When I drilled a 1/4" plate I made from 1 mm sheet metal it kept stalling between layers, would just sit there buzzing. Replaced the run cap since it was 30 years old, no difference, no winding damage so god knows why it was so weak.
It was OK for bits under 6 mm but again was just a pain in the dick having to cut so slow.
>>995590
Whats wrong with mach3?
Since it's a tool thread could anyone id this for me. I have no idea about the brand. I rarely need a jigsaw so i was thinking of getting a used one and came across this. All i can see is that it's 500w so i'm guessing it would be better than a new Einhell shitsaw for the same price.
>>995672
If you rarely use one it shouldnt be a problem using a no name jigsaw right?
>>995674
yea but more info is always helpful. I had an Einhell jigsaw before. One cog broke while cutting 10mm plywood and i don't really want that again
>>995672
Jigsaws are dirt cheap, why would you ever buy a used one? Its not like a higher end one will cut better.
>>995691
It's more about quality and where i am there are no dirt cheap tools. A fucking hand saw is an investment. At least a good one
>>995694
do you really need to cut thick wood all the time? a piercing saw is a much better investment for angled cuts.
My 3d printers.
The poor things run nonstop; I've put a good 500 printing hours on each of them in the last month making investment casting parts.
I keep telling windows to "update later" because it always reminds me in the middle of a 20 hour part.
>>996012
If you had windows 10, it would force the update on you and reset regardless.
What printers are you running? You can unplug Ramps from the host PC after you have queued up a print cant you? It would reset the print if you tried to reconnect, but it doesnt require a connection to print.
>>996053
One is a repstrap, the other is a heavily modded Velleman vertex, and I just need to wire up this i3 to get her going, but I'm a lazy shit.
I'm using repetier, and no, you can't just unplug the printer, since the code is being sent from the host PC. Technically I could just use an SD card, but these prints are all different and I don't want to fight with an SD
And I wouldn't fall for Memedows 10. I'm still using windows 7. No issues. Windows keeps asking me to upgrade, but I keep telling it to fuck off. Before I leave unI I swear to god I'll install windows 8.1 on every machine I have.
>>996066
don't upgrade. you'll regret it. i upgraded to 8 then to 10 and then ended up backing everything up and installing ubuntu. windows 10 is utter shit.
>>996069
Windows 10 is pretty awful. It made my i5 sandy bridge laptop painfully slow. Noticeably slower than my Win7 install. And it was on an SSD. Having to manually stop all the telemetry every single time it force updates and resets it, was just the final straw.
>>996066
Here you go, next time you have your PC free run this batch file
https://gist.github.com/xvitaly/eafa75ed2cb79b3bd4e9
It should remove all the telemetry they recently added, and kill off the WIN10 upgrade nags.
>>996090
>It made my i5 sandy bridge laptop painfully slow
I'm pretty sure *you* did, not Windows.
You're not the only person in the world who bought a Sandy Bridge.
You probably forgot your storage drivers, and were accessing your SSD using programmed IO and in-order command queueing.
>>996098
I understand ACHI and TRIM, and the optmization process for SSDs is largely automatic even in windows 7. Especially when you use something like Samsung Magician.
It ran like shit when I did the in place upgrade. So I went through the media creation, did a clean install.
It was shit, and there is literally zero reason to upgrade.
These. Useful in everyday fixes.
