Selecting a Tap Drill
Are you trying to determine what size of hole to drill before cutting threads with a tap?
Rather than digging out your copy of Machinery’s Handbook, check your drill index. Many of the better indexes have a tap drill chart built right in.
Paint Gun Cleaning Tray
A simple project today. I decided to build a paint gun cleaning tray.
Read about the project on the forum…
Shop Tips
A chip brush can be your best friend when left inside your blasting cabinet. You can use it to brush away abrasive accumulations during the blasting operation. Try brushing the inside of the door area clean with the brush held in the blasting glove. You will minimize the mess from abrasive falling out on the floor when the door is opened. Use it to brush away the abrasive from your part as you remove it from the cabinet.
You can find this tip and many more in the shop tip discussion on the forum…
Blast Cabinet Dust Filter
When using a blasting cabinet, dust is created by the material you are blasting off of the part, as well as from the abrasive breaking down from impact. This will form a dust cloud in the cabinet and make it difficult to see. The heavier abrasive particles fall back to the bottom of the cabinet to be picked up and shot through the gun again. The lighter dust particles are best removed from the cabinet by some type of dust collection system. Blasting dust is hard on electric motors and can quickly ruin a shop vacuum. I built a water filter as a pre-filter to collect the majority of dust before it can reach my shop vacuum.
Read more on the forum…
Blast Cabinet Separator
Trammel
Do you need to draw a large circle? A trammel is the tool for the job. I picked up a Dasco Pro model from the Home Depot today for $7.95. Although made of plastic, the quality looks good. It’s also made in the USA. I drew a circle and divided it into a hexagon for a project I am working on.
