Category Archives: Tools

How not to use a drill press

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My friend Chris and I are making some tutorial videos on the use of some basic machine tools.  The photo shows just about everything I could think of that a person could do to endanger themselves while using a drill press.

 

To be very clear: THIS IS NOT HOW YOU SHOULD DRESS WHILE USING A DRILL PRESS OR OTHER MACHINE TOOLS.

 

I am intentionally doing a number of things wrong.

Known Safety Infractions

  • No safety glasses
  • Work piece is not clamped properly
  • Wearing a tie
  • Long sleeves not rolled up and out of the way
  • Long side of work piece is situated such that if the drill binds, it will swing into my torso, not the column.

I’m sure there’s something else I am doing wrong in the picture, but it escapes me at the moment.

The drill press was off when we took this photo.

 

 

“New” Jointer…

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A couple of days ago, I finally opened up the bench top jointer I bought about 9 months ago.  I assembled the machine and ran a few test cuts.  The last time I used a jointer was in high school wood shop on a couple of assignments.  I took a few minutes to read the operation section of the manual, particularly looking for the section with feed and speed type data.

I found a suitable piece of wood- two 3/8″ pieces of plywood glued together and  I set the depth of cut very shallow (on the order of 1/32″) and made a couple of passes until I had cleaned up the edge.  Admittedly, I could have cleaned up the edge in one shot with a 1/8″ depth of cut, but it being a new machine and that I was very much of practice, I decided a few light passes to get the feel of the machine would be better than a single heavy pass and risking break it or me.

The volume of chips the jointer made took me by surprise, since I’ve never seen a jointer without a dust collector firmly attached to it.

Pictures are here:

Chip Pile 1

Chip Pile 2