One Step(bit) Beyond… replace or sharpen your bits

[MichaelW]

Hmmm


Play this song in your head as you imagine this ol’ cat messin’ about with the drillpress…

Operation Valve Stem, almost complete…

Marked and punched:

View attachment 25975

Pilot holes drilled:

View attachment 25976


One more level on the step bit and the first hole (power-jack) is done…
slowly carefully…







View attachment 25977

So, I was lazy and didn’t use a regular bit, opting instead for the tired & worn step bit.

The enclosure bit back and bulldogged the step-bit, had a fun merry-go-round ride before letting go of the bit and flinging itself against the wall.

Luckily my hand wasn’t damaged and I had a full face-shield protecting my eyes. And so ends my cautionary tale.

Oh well…

Holeeeemoleeee! That looks like it COULD have been a lot worse. Very glad you kept all your fingers.

I just bought a new step bit (the spiral kind like yours) and find that it tends to catch a lot more than my old one that's just straight.

 

[HamishR]

I bought myself a drill press earlier this year. I love it! I usually clamp a piece of timber to the base to act as a fence when drilling pedal enclosures. So I can set the "fence" 40mm from the top of the enclosure to drill the second row pot holes, then add a 25mm wide piece of timber to the fence to drill the top row. It makes getting all of the holes in a straight row really easy. You end up up with the top holes being 15mm from the top, then the second row an inch (25mm) below that. Perfect for PedalPCB boards. 15mm usually works for the other end with the stomp switch too. It's quick to set-up and has improved my drilling immensely.

 

[Feral Feline]

UPDATE

I've been busy working on my Mom's car, away and etc, hence the galling glacial pace of the Valve-Stem enclosure razor-wreck-shun.
A legitimate excuse, this time, but doesn't excuse the overall general sloth-like output of pedals from me. I digress...


I still couldn't find a manual online for my machine, but I found this video:

My drill-press isn't like the one in the vid, but I extrapolated and managed to change mine from C-2 (820 RPM I guess)
to E1 (195 RPM), its slowest speed. Easy-peasy fix, actually.



A quick flick of the switch indicates its speed is much better suited to my needs and more what I'm used to on friends' machines I used in the past. I also tidied up the saw-dust on the motor from the former owner's usage.






It's a decent machine (for my needs), but I can't find any info online for "Force International". You can see the vice in the lower left I didn't use, and see that the step-bit is still in the machine. I'll use the former but not the latter after my afternoon meeting. With any luck, I may even find time to drill the new enclosure today. *Gasp* Maybe paint it!


SO! With my templates that I won in one of Fig's contests (thanks again Fig et al), and a drill-press that's been slowed down with new sharp regular bits, and helpful tips from fellow forumites such as HamishR's épée-sharp fencing tip above, I might just be able to overcome my drilling fiascos, finally.





There is one more thing...
The old mangled enclosure will get split in two and cleaned up, I'll repurpose it for use with my breadboard to mount pots & switches or something. Nothing goes to waste. It's been, emotional.

 

[Passinwind]

There is one more thing...
The old mangled enclosure will get split in two and cleaned up, I'll repurpose it for use with my breadboard to mount pots & switches or something. Nothing goes to waste. It's been, emotional.

It's only a fleshwound my friend. One of my luthier clients had this go down a couple of months ago:



I lost a super cool bass that was well along on the build and quite a bit of NAMM work, but imagine being the owner of this mess!

 

[Feral Feline]

That certainly puts things in perspective; I trust your friend is himself okay.

 

[Passinwind]

That certainly puts things in perspective; I trust your friend is himself okay.

Yep, he's fine physically at least, his adjacent house wan't touched, and luckily he had been in the process of moving a lot of stuff to a much bigger new shop off property. But he lost all his jigs, molds and flatwork for many different pickup styles, a lot of cool old tools, 1/3rd of his extensive wood stash, and dozens of old builds and parts that had great sentimental and/or commercial value.

 

[Mentaltossflycoon]

It's only a fleshwound my friend. One of my luthier clients had this go down a couple of months ago:

View attachment 26363

I lost a super cool bass that was well along on the build and quite a bit of NAMM work, but imagine being the owner of this mess!

I know a luthier who's entire house blew up including his attached shop like 10 years ago. Evidently it was some mistake by the natural gas company working on his neighbors property. Luckily he got his family out but he lost every jig... every little scrap of lumber, every tool, every personal build, also a number of vintage instruments. It made me physically ill when he told me the story. He said they found his garage door halfway down his street. Insurance only made a tiny dent in his losses. He showed me a charred hunk of an old tele that he saved from the aftermath. Vomit vomit vomit.

 

[zgrav]

View attachment 25978

I always thought that was a metaphor....

 

[Passinwind]

I know a luthier who's entire house blew up including his attached shop like 10 years ago. Evidently it was some mistake by the natural gas company working on his neighbors property. Luckily he got his family out but he lost every jig... every little scrap of lumber, every tool, every personal build, also a number of vintage instruments. It made me physically ill when he told me the story. He said they found his garage door halfway down his street. Insurance only made a tiny dent in his losses. He showed me a charred hunk of an old tele that he saved from the aftermath. Vomit vomit vomit.

Brutal! I've only been over to the Marco Bass hive once since the fire so far. I really didn't want to even look at the remnants of the shop space, but I made myself go inside for a few moments just to absorb the enormity of things. Somehow none of the finish chemicals or epoxy exploded or even acted as an accelerant, and it looks like he'll be able to rehab the building shell and still use the space for pickup winding and inlay work, or something like that. Insurance is covering quite a bit but the jigs and proprietary tooling are all on my friend to replace on his own dime. A few other luthiers have stepped up big time though and given him a couple of winding machines, a few of their power saws and planers, and so on. Sometimes it pays to be nice to your competitors! But as many of us know, getting comfortable with new tools takes time and you can't really rush it and expect to get great results.