Tools, Glorious Tools! #7 - Four Shop Made Everyday Hand Tools

g'day Chris here and welcome back to clickspring in several of the most recent tgts I've started to cover the shop setup process and there's a few more of those videos to come but for now it's time to get back to the serious business of the home shop which is of course making tools and if you've just pressed go on the purchase of some new gear then here's four projects to get stuck into that also happen to be my four most used everyday hand tools I just want to kick things off is the marking scriber now this really is the perfect first lathe project and I covered it in detail in a make video a while back so be sure to check that out the main takeout that I'd like to recap here though is that it's very much a free-form project there's no drawings so the cuts and dimensions are entirely up to you and whatever you think looks good the main thing is to have some fun getting accustomed to the new machine but along the way you're going to notice a few interesting things like for example the way the chips curl off the tool differently at different cut depths and speeds the way I cut even with a file can sound good at one speed and yet terrible at another and have a shape of the Chip And even for some materials the color of the chip changes under different circumstances now performance numbers are certainly the key to getting the very best from a labor Mill but it is interesting how much of Machining comes down to making good use of these raw observations absolutely massive subject and it might even be the thing that keeps all of us so hooked on Machining but either way an instinct for good cutting conditions is definitely something worth cultivating right from the very start now brass Rod is a nice forgiving material and it's relatively inexpensive so I'd suggest go a little overboard with this first project burn through a little stop trying out some different ideas and get a good feel for the various cuts and while you're there why not make a few more from different diameter stock there's always a use for an extra scriber or two in the shop and they also make a terrific gift for other makers okay now a pin chamfering tool is primarily used for rounding the ends of register pins so that they more easily enter their opposing holes so it's a fairly clock maker-centric tool but the register pin technique is so useful in the home shop that no matter what you're making you will at some point have cause to apply the technique and when you do you're going to need this tool tool is made from a high carbon steel so that it can be hardened and it's formed by hand with a common tri-cut file once the end of the drill Rod has been faced take a tri-cut file and start to form the first v-slot this is essentially the same process as forming a screw slot so start from the edge with a gentle cut see what the result is and then if you're happy that the cut is centered then gently lower the file like a boom gate while making the standard push cut check the cut often in these early stages to confirm that it's going down the middle and if it starts to drift then use a safe Edge to draw the cut to one side or the other once formed rotate the work by 90 degrees and then form a cut across the one that you've just made using the same approach most of the tool marks can be removed prior to heat treatment with a fine all Stone and my main focus at this point is to try to keep that stone as straight as possible to avoid rolling the cutting edges [Music] the Tang can then be ground onto the other end of the tool and it's ready to be hardened and tempered now there are many different recipes and methods for minimizing heat scale during heat treatment but by far the most effective that I've found for the home shop is to completely immerse the work in a boric acid glaze throughout the process it does require more heat energy to heat up both the part and the tray of course it also requires the making of a set of mild steel trays to hold the work but by using this approach I really have to deal with any significant heat scale on a part [Applause] once polished the tool is tempered from glass hard using a small handheld torch and it's a good illustration of why torch tampering is so useful in the home shop I'd like a pale straw temper at The Cutting Edge but also a blue temper along the shank of the tool to minimize the risk of fracture a simple propane torch can give both within minutes by simply running the colors up the shank the cutting edges are then lightly honed for maximum sharpness and a handle tapped home to complete the tool next up is a single lip countersink I've provided drawings for both a handheld and a chucked version but the essential concept is the same for each and although it's not critical for the handheld version it can be helpful to have the included angle on the chucked version set to 88 degrees to make sure that a screw seats at the very top of the tapered section of the hole now the protractor markings are well and truly gone on this lathe which gives me a good excuse to have a detailed look at setting a precise angle on the lathe top side the dial indicator must travel on the top slide as if it were part of it and I tend to find the side of the quick change tool post works well the indicator tip is then positioned to travel perpendicular along the side of the work or alternatively the cylindrical side of the Chuck basically any Precision surface that can serve as a reference for the axis of the lathe the top slide travel is moved in a few turns from the full out position and the collar zeroed and the cross slide is cranked in until the dial indicator has traveled past zero a few times to give it a bit of room for it to travel back out again and finally the top slot is fast and firmly but with enough Freedom so that it can still be moved with the tap of a mallet all of this setup work enables the use of trial and error along with a bit of classic trigonometry to set the correct angle if we feed in the top slide a known amount and one millimeter keeps the numbers easy then we can calculate the value that we need to see on the dial indicator to confirm that we have the correct angle in this case 69 and a half hundredths of a millimeter now of course the angle is unlikely to be correct from the start and will likely require an adjustment to correct it in this case it happens to be a little too large and so the top slide is gently tapped with a mallet to slightly reduce the angle this process of checking and then adjusting continues until the dial indicator reading is exactly on the mark once the angle is set the top slide is firmly locked down and the cut can be taken now another thing to keep in mind is the surface finish of that taper the tool marks left here will print directly onto the workpiece when forming the countersink so it's worth the effort to improve the surface finish as much as possible before the next step [Applause] next up is the formation of The Cutting Edge and there are a few ways to go about it certainly it can be done with careful hand filing it can also be done using the milling machine [Music] but a third option is the one that was pretty much the home shop standard prior to the arrival of benchtop Mills and that's cross slide Milling now work holding can be a bit fiddly and of course it requires a bit of a change in thinking too but a simple angle plate gives two axes and a vertical slide provides the standard three so while it's certainly not for everyone for Light Milling Ops it's definitely an affordable way to get up and running and if the budget is a bit tight then it sure beats filing tool steel by hand okay so the part is finished off slightly oversized at this point and that slight excess permits removal of the tool marks on a coarse benchstone while still leaving a small reserve for sharpening after heat treatment again a quick polish on the lathe exposes the bare metal and the tool is tempered from glass hard to leave a pale straw color at The Cutting Edge The Cutting Edge is then honed at a fine oil Stone taking it down to the final dimension [Music] the handle shaft is a close fit so Loctite is generally suitable for the bond but if there's any doubt about contamination of the join then here's an alternative simply upset the metal at the end of the shaft and then drive it home for an interference fit now you may have noticed that this tool shape is essentially the classic d-bit and it's worth mentioning that the d-bit cutter profile is the key to saving some real money in the home shop because you can use it as the basis for a wide range of custom Cutters and reamers and so avoid the expensive one-off purchase of a cutter that might only be needed for a single project and finally no home shop is complete without a Jeweler's hammer in fact I'd suggest make two one from tool steel for the day-to-day work and another from brass for those rare occasions when a softer touch is required now a surface plate is the ideal for the layout but if you're still in process of setting up the shop then there are usually a few other surfaces that are quite okay for this sort of layout work and I find the front of the mil device to be perfectly suited to the task foreign before that my benchtop Mill lacks the column rigidity to coat well with slot Cuts it's generally not an issue for brass but tool steel tends to be very hard going so I tend to reduce the load on the Machine by first roughing out the slot undersized and then taking very light cuts to bring it to final dimension [Music] foreign the rest of the stock removal is fairly straightforward and a sidebar would certainly be a good way to set up for the angled cut but a fast and reasonably accurate alternative is to use an angle block [Music] thank you [Music] the slide back taper of the head is a distinctive feature and is best formed on the lathe with a four jaw Chuck brass of course is easily bruised and it's never fun to have to deal with deep marks when finishing apart so one way around it is to use a soft shim stock to protect the surfaces it does compromise the grip very slightly but if the cuts are kept modest it's a good way to get around the problem [Music] and once the stock is centered in the Chuck the top slide can again be set for a precise taper cut the top slide is now coming in from the other side so the picture does look slightly different but the essential concepts are exactly the same [Music] you'll notice that I've given the cutting tool a pronounced radius to form a generous fillet at the base of the cut [Music] [Applause] [Music] and with the Machining complete the work can be taken to a final finish with abrasive paper and stones foreign [Music] [Music] challenge [Music] okay so that's the basic process and it can be applied to the steel version without much variation other than to add the step of heat treatment [Music] [Applause] [Music] and if you're not that interested in messing around with flames or an oven for The Temper then here's another good option to consider a heat gun it is a bit inefficient but it can definitely give a good result in this case I'd like to draw the tamper all the way back to a deep purple blue all across the workpiece now of course a hammer isn't much use without a handle and it's probably fair to say that fitting one is something of an art form all of its own but if like me you're not really set up for working wood then it's going to come down to Simply using whatever tools you have on hand to get the job done the wood I'm using is Hickory and as it turns out it's a very pleasant material to shape [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] thank you each head is then fastened into position with a small brass wedge [Music] and with that the four tools are complete all our must-have items for the home shop that you'll keep for a lifetime and together they're a great set of projects to add to your collection of shop-made tools thanks for watching I'll see you later

Channel: Clickspring

Views: 147,129

Keywords:

Id: qQ15ZkqTzqc

Length: 18min 59sec (1139 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 13 2023