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Daily Shop Improvement

Chicken lights said:
I also would like to find a decimal to fractions chart. But that only gets me in the ball park. What do you do when it’s halfway between 1/2” and 9/16”? Or halfway between 9/16” and 5/8”?
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KBC Tools gives away a wall-size chart with their tool catalog. I think you can request the catalog online. Or if you are going to be near the Toronto airport, you could drop in and pick up a copy.

Craig
(I refer to mine all the time.)
 
I got a free wall chart with decimal conversions plus drill bit and tap sizes from BB years ago. Not sure if they still have them. Handy for when my crusty rusty mind isn't working fast, never was good at math unless i put it on paper.
 
I don't own a cam action drill press vise but I've always been curious if they might be faster to set up on a variety of part sizes to hold. I'm kicking myself because there was a CDN seller on Ebay that was blowing out a progressive size range with decent shipping cost. Looks like I waited too long. Their pictures looked decent but they were obviously offshore. Some had side lug, others were flat. Anyways they generically look like this. Maybe others have some user experience. I was thinking of of using it for my bandsaw too.
 

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Chicken lights said:
I think it’s time I found a vise for the drill press. The ol’ “wear leather gloves and move fast” works but it’s not great long term

I also would like to find a decimal to fractions chart. But that only gets me in the ball park. What do you do when it’s halfway between 1/2” and 9/16”? Or halfway between 9/16” and 5/8”? I used a tapered reamer and wallered the holes to the “right” size but they are grabby.

Fabbed up a bracket for a buddy yesterday and he gave me stainless to make it from, not my most favourite metal to work with. But it’s done
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These work well....

DPCLAMP.JPG


Not following your decimal to fraction issue?
 
Mr. Pete video on Heinrich vises.
I think I was holding out for a lug-less (side) version like he shows ~ 4:00 so I could rest vise on its side for taller parts, but they seem to be rarer. I guess one could possibly mill them off too. KBC sells a cersion of these but they are spendy.

 
kylemp said:
Well I

The 2nd is colour coding the fasteners I am constantly using. I picked up a bunch of dollar store nail polish that sits in a bin and I use it to mark fasteners that I know I could go back to and don't want to be looking for the right tool for. It may look stupid, but it is a lot easier to look for the orange hex key than fuck around trying to get the right key and go back and forth, especially if its somewhere less than convenient.
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Good method Kyle - that works on nuts was well as bolts. I have a bolt only method where I scribe the size on top of the bolt. I have a little battery powered diamond engraving tool - got it at harbour freight when I was in USA. Some marker increases the contrast.
F9987FCB-E908-4D8D-9486-3455AAE0620B.jpeg
 
Chicken lights said:
Thats fractions to fractions

I can’t do 0.620 to 21/32” in my head
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Fractions to Fractions was the example in your post?

But Ya, I can't do those conversions in me head either LOL. That's why I keep a calculator handy.

Got a Metal Supermarket near by? The one in Calgary has/had nice laminated 4 X 6 fraction-decimal-mm conversion cards up to an inch that they give out for free. Gauge Chart and Pipe Schedules & Weights on the back.
 
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PeterT said:
I don't own a cam action drill press vise but I've always been curious if they might be faster to set up on a variety of part sizes to hold. I'm kicking myself because there was a CDN seller on Ebay that was blowing out a progressive size range with decent shipping cost. Looks like I waited too long. Their pictures looked decent but they were obviously offshore. Some had side lug, others were flat. Anyways they generically look like this. Maybe others have some user experience. I was thinking of of using it for my bandsaw too.
Click to expand...
I've got one of those and they're ok, but it spends more time off the drill press than on. I honestly prefer to use strap clamps, I've had smaller drill grab and throw the vise too many times. They're annoying to set up often but it's worth the extra time to use them.
I've got a drill press addon that I'll hopefully finish soon and I'll post, it solves a lot of these issues.
 
Chicken lights said:
I think it’s time I found a vise for the drill press. The ol’ “wear leather gloves and move fast” works but it’s not great long term

I also would like to find a decimal to fractions chart. But that only gets me in the ball park. What do you do when it’s halfway between 1/2” and 9/16”? Or halfway between 9/16” and 5/8”? I used a tapered reamer and wallered the holes to the “right” size but they are grabby.

Fabbed up a bracket for a buddy yesterday and he gave me stainless to make it from, not my most favourite metal to work with. But it’s done
Click to expand...
Go to any tooling supplier and they'll likely give you a wall chart, I've got 3 from act here in Calgary and they're super useful. You can also use the calculator (at least on Android) and it'll show you the fraction of the decimal number but it doesn't work backwards. I'm SURE there's an app for this but a lot of them want money for a tap chart which I think is a little much.
 

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I'm trying to think of a way to improve my exhaust system to prevent as much dust from building up over so much grinding. My current extractor arm powered by two in line fans works just fine as a fume extractor, but not so much as a dust collector. I'm thinking of putting up something like a welding bay with a hood vent instead of doing so much work in a more open area.
 
I decided to work on designing a downdraft table for cutting and grinding. I already have most of the parts I need, other than the fan.
 
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