While the name of M-Power’s Tri-Scribe may be from one of those we-like-hyphens-too-much marketing sessions, this seems to be a pretty clever little tool. I stumbled across it while browsing drafting implements and it’s an innovation I wish I’d had on hand in the past.

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I’ve never — knock on wood — had the “fun” of trying to repair stripped threads in a key mechanical component, but I’ve seen various options. It seems that the two main contenders for thread inserts are Heli-Coil® and TIME-SERT®, but I don’t know which one works better for which applications and materials. TIME-SERT® requires drilling, counterboring, and tapping before installing the insert. A typical TIME-SERT kit, with all the required tools and several inserts, costs around $74. Heli-Coil preparation needs drilling and tapping before installing the insert. A Heli-Coil kit, with a tap, the installation tool, and several inserts, will be about $27.

So, all you Toolmongers out there with experience in this area, what’s your favorite? Are there alternatives?

Time-Sert [Manufacturer's Site]
Time-Sert Street Pricing [Google Products]
Time-Sert Via Amazon [What’s This?]
HeliCoil [Manufacturer's Site]
Helicoil Street Pricing [Google Products]
Helicoil Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Though silver solder is designed mainly for bonding its namesake, it’s useful for just about any metal. The stuff ships in thin sheets which are designed to be cut into small pieces (pallions, for the picky), so you can pre-place exactly as much as you need in precisely the right location. The process is similar to brazing, but is less likely to damage fine or thin metals. A careful user can fuse two 0.025 in. copper wires end-to-end. The end result is also much cleaner than lead- or tin-soldered joints, and with proper technique, stronger as well.

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The metal shaper is a derivative of the planer, which is ultimately a machine meant to replace a human with a chisel forming metal. I use an Atlas shaper. I don’t use it all that often but for jobs such as removing mill scale from a large piece of Hot Rolled steel, the shaper will do it without ruining a good end mill and it produces a great surface finish.

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J.W. Done makes an interesting tool for deburring internal cross holes: the Orbitool. As you may know, when two holes are drilled into one another there’s usually a nasty burr that can be very hard to remove. The common solution is steel or abrasive brushes; however, those can negatively affect bore finish and diameter.

The tool is a half round bur with the largest diameter at the end of the tool and a polished collar around the periphery. In use it’s inserted into the hole and pressed against the wall of the hole. When it reaches the cross hole the machine revolves the tool (or the part is revolved around the tool) filing away the burr at the intersection of the holes. They show both manual and automatic usage in their YouTube videos. They also offer carbide and abrasive-headed tools that operate on the same principle. There’s a detailed test report (.pdf) that shows the results obtained in a range tests.

Has anyone out there had the opportunity to use this tool? Looks like a great way to deal with a common problem in all sorts of manufacturing and hobby metalwork.

Orbitool [J.W. Done]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Irwin has been busy doing what Irwin does best: making products under their ever-growing umbrella makes sense. In this case we’re talking about the Irwin Performance Threading System. In a nutshell, their new system takes a few evolutionary steps in an attempt to make our tapping projects easier.

First, Irwin sings the praises of their new self-aligning taps that feature new starter threads to get the tap aligned properly before getting cranked up. Simply place the tap in the hole and it aligns itself correctly every time. The new taps also feature a chip-breaking technology (or CBT) that helps smooth the thread-making process a little more than their older bits.
 
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It’s not slight of hand; it’s a magnet. Wave Bessey’s MagWand over your swarf (metal shavings and waste) and poof! It’s gone — well, at least from the work surface. Now it’s stuck to the MagWand.

This 22″ long magnetic wand attracts up to 12 lbs. of magnetic metal waste so you don’t have to pick it up by hand and risk cutting yourself. You can wave or roll the wand over your work surfaces. To dispose of the waste, pull back the sliding magnetic insert and the waste will fall into the scrap bin.

You’ll pay somewhere in the $30 to $45 range for Bessey’s MagWand. Has anyone tried a less-expensive homebrew model?

MagWand [Bessey Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Reader Tmib_Seattle has managed to put together a badass little blacksmithing program for the local Boy Scout troop he labeled “Camp Hahobas 2009″ in the Toolmonger photo pool. Whether or not it actually is located in the historic BSA camp grounds doesn’t really matter to us, though it might be since Seattle is only about 30 miles north of Tacoma.

Check out the wicked metal bending these guys have going on and you begin to understand what Tmib is actually doing. These are kids that would probably have no exposure to blacksmithing in their lives, and a day or two spent over a fire gives them a positive, hands-on experience to take away with them. (more…)

If you’ve never tried putting a 5-1/2″ hole in a piece of 1/8″ stainless-steel, my advice is to avoid attempting something so mad. However, if you need to put big holes in tough materials, there’s no substitute for a set of carbide hole saws outside of a knee mill, water jet, or EDM, and none of those are easy to find in the average home shop.

Carbide is a machinist’s darling, and the material is superb for this set of 14 hole saws from MK Morse. $125 for the set is steep, but discounted thanks to Amazon’s usual excellent prices. Milwaukee makes a similar set of five hole saws, but a careful user can cut just about anything with a good, high-torque drill motor or drill press. The ability to tear a sizable, accurate hole in just about anything can be a bit of a tall order for standard bi-metal hole saws, but carbide is up to the task.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]

For decades Metal Lathe Accessories has been offering kits of castings for making useful accessories for the metal lathe. I’m considering buying their Steady Rest kit as the price for a used/import steady rest for my South Bend 10K lathe is three times as much ($150-$200). Other useful kits that stand out are the Die Filer, Milling Attachment and Quick Change Toolpost, but everything they offer looks useful.

While the amount of work needed to make these kits into useful accessories is somewhat hefty, the kits are a great way to learn metalworking techniques while adding to your shop. In my years of following internet discussions I have only heard glowing reviews of the quality of the MLA castings, drawings and instructions.

Metal Lathe Accessories [State College Central]
Steady Rest [MLA]

The most remarkable thing about high-helix end mills is that no one can agree what they’re called. They’re a special type of high-performance cutter designed for use with soft materials, especially aluminum, and you’ll find them called high-helix, high-spiral, shallow wedge, and high helix angle.

Feed rates can be much higher with these cutters. They can run higher-than-usual feed rates, since the shallow angle of the cutting teeth means more of the cutting force is directed along the axis of the cutter instead of trying to bend it. If that’s a bit confusing, imagine trying to break a stick by bending it over your knee or pulling on the ends. The latter is what a high-helix cutter does.

While stronger, high-helix cutters don’t produce very good surface finish in steel, so low-helix cutters also exist for that purpose. However, since they require very high-grade materials to stand up to machining stresses, they’re significantly more expensive than high-helix cutters for softer metals, putting them outside the reach of all but the best-equipped shops and Toolmongers.

High-spiral end mills [Production Tool Supply]

I was trained as a machinist, and finding angles always drove me up the wall. For some reason, I find it really hard to trust my own math when creating fixtures with Joe blocks and sine plates, and wind up verifying everything seven ways. Denali has a little something that may take the sting out.

While digital protractors like this have been around for a while, it’s hard to pass up Amazon’s $23 price on this one. Strictly speaking, it may not be accurate enough for precision work, but +/- 1 degree is more than enough for woodworking and sheet metal layout. +/- 1 degree is probably the best you’d get with a steel protractor. More accurate versions are available from Bosch, but ninety percent of the time, Denali’s little 11-incher should be plenty, and it’ll save you a lot of close-up guesswork.

Denali 11-inch digital protractor [What’s This?] [Via Amazon]

Blazer’s line of utility torches are powerful little monsters — you can adjust the flame from a smoky, match-like burn to a nearly-invisible jet of 2,500-degree plasma, hot enough to turn steel into a molten puddle. They run on easily-obtainable butane and can handle everything from soldering heavy-gauge wire to applying heat shrink.

You’ve got to be careful with this little bugger, but it’s a kick-ass tool for electronics techs, hobbyists, and anyone who needs to apply a bit — or a lot — of precise heat. Street pricing is about $40.

Blazer GB-2001 [Blazer]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Detroit-area Toolmongers are probably familiar with Production Tool Supply and their deep discounts on overstocked in-store products. I was picking up some tooling today and saw a set of fifty MIT clamps (labeled “Ton of Clamps”) marked down from $90 to $30.  MIT’s a pretty good manufacturer, so you can expect a lengthy service life.  Sizes range from tiny 2”-jaw spring clamps to 3′ Quick Grip-style framing clamps.

It’s in-store only, so anyone in Michigan can be knee-deep in clamps for a three-pack of X-bills.  Or you can shimmy over to the Andersons’ website to pick up the same product for $38 before shipping.

MIT Ton o’ Clamps [The Andersons]

This was an interesting problem I came up against the other week. I needed to determine the angle of some tiny dovetails used to secure the front sight of an air rifle. I used two methods: one, a graphical solution that leveraged the power of my CAD program, the other a purely mathematical one. (more…)

Chuck has this great picture of a set of small ornaments a friend of his made with a forge and 3 lb. hammer. Reader Whiteforge posted this little key chain lying across a similar hammer that, I’m guessing, came to life in much the same way.

It’s always amazing to me that such small, rather delicate-looking objects can be made with brute force and three pounds of steel hitting it repeatedly. I would most likely lose patience and make an ashtray out of everything, like I did when I was a kid and had to work with clay.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

One of the reasons we like going to talk to the folks at Milwaukee is because we get to see all the latest tools and paw all over them, with direct access to the folks designing and building them a few feet away. Melissa here isn’t a tool rep in some booth trying to sell you snake oil — she’s a hardworking advocate of portable band saws and grinders, and her knowledge in this area is vast.

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