Auger Bit File for sharpening drill bits
0.5 Micron, 5 Micron and 15 Micron SiC sandpaper for sharpening my plane (already have some but they worked well so I had to get more
4 * 90 Corner Clamps (already have 4, but it leaves gaps on the top side that isn’t clamped so getting 4 more, these things are badass and so useful)
4-1/2" Beech Mallet
Pair of Chisels, 3/4" & 1", Protouch (never used chisels before but I can’t wait to try them out :))
Vise Type Honing Guide (for sharpening my plane)
10" Cabinet File (Second) and Half-Round Kutzall File for wood shaping
I can’t wait!
Hopefully everything works out well, my mitre saw sucks and put a damper on my willingness to woodwork (what’s the fun if you can’t accomplish what you want?). Although, after sharpening my hand plane the first time and getting the corner clamps things are sooo much better. The hand plane is so amazing now, I didn’t know these could work so well but it’s really awesome with the shooting board.
Anyone else excited about an order you placed?
I need to fix these stupid mitre joints for my oak case next, it’s really irritating. Any tips guys? I cut the 45 degree as bevels on mitre saw but it’s not accurate, I used a tilt meter and it is tilted to 45 degrees. The wood is too tall (4+") to cut as anything other than a bevel and I’m trying to build a donkey’s ear shooting board but don’t have confidence in it.
It is really easy. I had a hard time knowing when to stop sanding until my teacher came and actually showed me what it should be like. Body filler sand nicely though so it’s not too tiring either
i’m looking at your extended table and thinking what an awesome idea it is. do you have a specific parts list for this? you mentioned t-clamps from hf but all i could find on the website was c-clamps. way better/cheaper than hd or lowes. i got 6" ones for about $2.50 each from hf. same thing lower quality at lowes was like $12 a clamp.
i really like your idea because i got a new drill press a few months ago that has a tiny 6x8 table i think it is. as you can imagine it’s a pain setting up clamps when doing a control panel on this non-existant table.
The base is made from two sheets of 1/2" MDF. The bottom sheet has a hole that is cut to match the existing DP table. The top one is cut for the t-track then everything is glued together and mounted to the existing table.
Sorry about the confusion on the T-Clamps. These are actually called toggle clamps and can be found here. The 'fence is close to the same height of the material you will be drilling on a normal bases. My tops use 1/2" MDF so I made my fence 1/2" tall and 1" wide.
An enhancement that I need to make is to cut out a square about 2" on a side where the drill bit cuts through. Over time the MDF there get’s really chewed up. By making this 2" square replaceable I can have a fresh backing block to prevent blow out when a bit cuts through.
Hope this helps I’ll be back later to review other questions later.
Michael
I see you are getting into hand tools. You are right in my skill set as I depend on them for final fit and finish. Nothing is better then a finely tuned hand plane with a super sharp blade. Your chisels should also be as sharp and the honing guide you purchased will help with your chisels too.
Is your miter saw a power saw or hand saw? There are several factors that might be leading you to get inaccurate cuts with either type of miter saw. The only way to get that miter cut dead on is by using the donkey’s ear shooting board as you mentioned. Here is a good source for all things hand tool related. http://www.cianperez.com/Wood/WoodDocs/Wood_How_To/INDEX_How_To.htm
Look back a few pages I talk about sharpening forstner bits and what to use. The basic deal is to keep the original geometry that the bit has. The ones with teeth cut into the edge are the easiest to sharpen. The ones with a knife edge I reshape with teeth. You also need to sharpen the cutter on the inside of the bit.
What makes an edge sharp is the two planes of the blade intersecting with no rounding at the point. Here is a video by Ron Hock about this in better detail than I can give here. [media=youtube]ZJFrA-GzfqY"[/media]Even though he is talking about plane blades the theory is the same for any cutting edge.
I mentioned I bought hole saw 24mm and 30mm on page 3. How does hole saw compared with spade bits or forstner in term of cutting holes(of course)? Just wondering
Anyone out there who can build an arcade style pedestal control panel for a reasonable price? I want a professional looking so that I can play SF4. I would buy the actual arcade since I own all the other SF but its too damn expensive:(
If anyone has ever been to PC Arena in Fullerton, one that looks like that one. It’s clean.
I’m going to do a box along the lines of Slagcoin’s idiotbox, with a 3 layer control panel. Does anyone have any opinions/extra tips on how to drill through 2mm acrylic (plexiglass)? I’ve a 30mm holesaw, but was wondering if it was worth getting a set of Forstner bits for the working on the wood as well as plastic (I’d like to recess my start/back/home buttons on the side).
I have a bunch of cordless/corded hand drills from my grandad, but no drill press, but from what I’ve gathered so far Spade Bits are better for hand drills on acrylic? Will the protruding end of a spade or forstner bit work fine by default as a ‘mini pilot hole’ driller or would I need to modify the point to make sure it doesn’t chip the acrylic?
As for the actual process, I’ve gathered that:
*You need good backing in the form of some wood, even if it’s the wood section of the control panel (using 3mm MDF here), possibly also sandwich the acrylic too with wood on top. Clamp it down.
*You need to let both the drill bit and plastic cool constantly, possibly by spraying a mist of water or applying a wet cloth
*You may find it easier to reverse the drill rotation if using a holesaw. Just let it get a groove in, then back to normal rotation to cut through.
*Drill slowly, but maintain a good feed rate (drill-through rate over time?)
Is there anything I missed? It IS a 2mm thick piece but I’d rather not screw up and end up stressed and panicking.
Also some questions about the frame, I’ll be sticking together the panels with the butt joint method - is Mitre adhesive worth using (I think it’s strong than normal wood glue) or can I use some other wood adhesive and back it up with screws, or even go screwless?
You have a good handle on the task of drilling the plexi, though 2mm is rather thick. Don’t worry so much about keeping things cool. I like to let the bit melt it’s way through as this helps to prevent cracking.
Three keys to drill through plexi;
Drill a pilot hole with a small twist bit 1/8" is good.
Let the drill do the work don’t push it.
Let the bit melt it’s way through.
If you try to force your way through you increase your chances of cracking the plexi. Use a scrap piece to practice with before commiting to the one for the case.
A forstner bit will give you nice recessed holes for the side buttons. Drill the recess first then the through hole for the button.
I don’t use any special glue for my wood cases. Just normal woodglue is typically good enough for a miter joint. For a butt joint you might want to add screws, recess them and add plugs to cover them up. Wait until the top panel is screwed into place though (minus the plexi). This will keep the sides square while you add the screws to the joint.
Repost any additional questions or ones I missed.
Michael
I’ve settled on buying the set of Forstners on the basis that they’re available anywhere, and toothed Spade bits appear to be hard to find (and I’m not too keen on filing my grandad’s stuff). And yes, I will be trying out the button recesses first using 30mm Forstner and then 25mm for the actual hole. I’m assuming I wouldn’t need to modify the 3mm twist bit in anyway to make a good pilot hole in the plexi?
Gonna use the 25mm and 30mm Forstner for the joystick hole and the 6 buttons respectively, on the plexi. Hope this works!
My mitre saw is a power saw. Pretty cheap one too. I bought it before knowing anything and I assumed that a mitre saw would be perfect for easily cutting mitres. You know what they saw about assuming :P. I really want a table saw but I have no space or money and I don’t know how well a tablesaw + mitre jig would cut a 4 & 1/4" high piece of oak.
I don’t like hole saws. I tried a dewalt on 3/8" or 1/2" thick MDF and it kept getting super hot because the teeth would get gummed up and stop cutting. I kept having to pull it out, wipe it, wait for it to cool down a go again. I don’t know how they work with hardwood though.
I would guess they are better for cutting thin woods, plexiglass and metals. They’re cheap too so they aren’t that big of a loss.
Spade bits are my favourite for cutting MDF, cuts quickly, is cheap, doesn’t heat up too much and the wood dust/chippings are just thrown out of the hole. The side I start drilling on usually end up having small chips of wood missing around the edge of the hole. I just touch it up with some 80 grit paper and then green steel wool and it’s ok.
Forstner I haven’t tried again, so at this moment I don’t know about them. But quoting Kaytrim from before: “The difference between the two styles of bits is better described by the type of work they do. Spade bits are typically used in construction and home improvement. Forstner bits are used in furniture making and other fine woodworking. You can also compare these to sandpaper. A spade bit would be like 80 grit while a forstner bit would be more like 220 grit.” Forstner bits are pricey though
Good explanation there. I get a clear comparison between these 3 bits now. Your right about the hole saw. I watched those bits in action on Youtube. Hole saw is best for cutting thin layers or wood,metal and plastic.Im on my way to shop to exchange those spade bits to forstner now.:lovin:
For those of you like crazed and myself who are advancing in our woodworking here is a good site to get familiar with. http://www.taunton.com/finewoodworking
The editors of Fine Woodworking have just relased a series of videos on how to sharpen plane irons and chisels. The Sharpening Doctor This is a 5 part video series on what to do and what not to do to sharpen your tools.
Yeah the forstners are especially nice once you get the hang of them. I had been using them in my handrill for the longest, and for plexi would always have to switch out to a hole saw (shaky hands) for fear of the bit jumping on me. Now that the forstner secured in the press I can’t say enough about how awesome it is! Since I have both I was thinking of making inlays on the case using a hole saw to cut the wood circles and a forstner on the case to make a space for the insert. Anyone tried this yet ?
Also on the subject of inlays I was wondering if anyone has tried routing the case after the inlay has been glued in. Reason I ask is that I wanted to do a roundover on a portion of the stick that will have an inlay piece and wanted to know:
Will the inlay hold up to the router
If using a hard and softwood combination will that have any effect while routing.
The way I look at it is that power tools get us 90-95% accurate. Handtools get that last 5-10% The compound miters I use for my cases are very exact and took me days of trial and error to get dialed in on my mitersaw. I am still about 2-3% off but that small amount is fine for me. Get one of the digital angle gauges and use it to check the angle of your miter saw. These are accurate to within 0.1 degree.
You would have the same issue with a tablesaw and the stock miter gauge that comes with them. There are ‘general purpose’ tools then there are tools that do one job better then any other tool. A table saw is great for ripping boards (cutting with the grain). A miter is great for cross cuts and mitered cuts (across the grain).
A forstner bit will get you a nice clean hole without the tearout you are seeing with the spade bits. Forstner bits will also do a much better job then a hole saw because they eject the chips.
Michael that link was worth it’s weight in gold! As always man thanks a bunch, that is one awesome site thats already answered several burning questions I had about hand planers (I haven’t even moved onto the other stuff yet lol)
It depends on the size of the inlay. How thick and how wide is the piece? If it is substantial enough and you did a great job gluing it in place it should hold up. However if you are talking about thin material < 1/8" you are asking for possible problems.
Whenever trying something new always do a test piece first. Don’t commit to doing something the first time on something you are going to sell. In your case take some samples of the woods involved with this project. Inlay the material and after giving the glue time to dry (4+ hours) run it through the router.
