New Tools

    To do this year's re-building, I needed a new tool, a drillpress. With my limited space and funds, I decided upon a bench-top model that uses an electric drill or rotary (Dremel) tool to power the press. I found one on eBay that fit the bill, uses either power source and the seller was accepting offers (or so I was lead to believe) and I found another seller that had a used drill that matched the appearance of the drill used in the photos of the drillpress and was a Buy-It-Now listing. This was mid to late November.

    At the beginning of December, when I had money to buy both pieces of equipment two tings happened. First the seller of the drill changed over to a regular auction, so I had to wait until the auction ended a week later. And after I placed a bid on the drill I thought I would absolutely need, the drillpress stand seller didn't bother to reply to my best offer. After waiting over a week for an answer, I started looking for other possible drillpresses. I found the same one on Amazon.com, but at a higher price and even bid on another press on eBay, but got took out early on.

    So I found the one pictured below at Sears.com I thought, "Gee, Can't go wrong with Craftsman." One probably can't go wrong with the product, but the shipping could be improved, it took over a week to ship the drillpress.  And it was 10 days before the seller of the drill shipped that via parcel post. So I didn't get the needed tools until just after Thanksgiving. I really didn't get started with the construction until right at the beginning of December.

    The drillpress can be used as press as above and as a buffer, grinder, and wire wheel polisher by mounting it horizontally as shown below. The orange drill in these pictures is the one I had to wait for,

    I did all of the cutting, drilling and test fitting indoors. On December 10th, I started the final assembly outdoors.  While we had close to unseasonably warm temps, the wind was bitter. So I could only work for a couple of hours before I got too cold. I did the final touches and assembly on December 14th and got the pictures taken on the 17th and started building the webpages on the 18th. and had to stop that to do a 'Net search for the new images.

    Next year, I should have everything up by the first of December if not on Thanksgiving weekend. With the possible exception of whatever I come-up with to balance the angel on the little Christmas tree display, that might have to wait until the beginning of December.

 

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