Hey Bob,

Great stuff, all good tips!

Someone else has asked where you got the long "goose-neck". I picked
up a couple that look pretty much like that last week at Princess
Auto, made as replacements for a parts washer. I had intended to do
similar with just the goose-neck, but now I see the "ball joint", I'll
do the same as you have done.

Another handy thing along the same lines are those popular living-room
floor lamps, that have a halogen bulb in the top sending light towards
the ceiling, and a mini-spot on a goose-neck at a height set to fetch
light over your shoulder when reading. I picked up two over the last
year or so at garage sales for about 5 bucks each because the base and
centre sections had got loose and wobbled, and would have looked ugly
in the front room the way they were taped up and patched, but perfect
for the shop.

I keep a set of cheapie 3/8" to 3/4" wrenches, and a set of ball-end
Allen wrenches, at each lathe and mill. Handy like a glove! Hang
them individually on the board so they "stand out" if missing.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
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On Mon, 19 Dec 2005 11:53:58 -0500, Bob Engelhardt
wrote:

"Tips" sounds a little pretentious, like I'm about to tell you guys how
to do things. What this is, is a couple of things that I've tried and
have worked well, so I'll sha

- drill press key. Even though I had a special place for it (a hole
drilled in the top of the belt cover), I was always setting it down
somewhere else and then wondering where-the-hell it was. My solution
was to put it on a leash - a spring-loaded, retracting leash:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/dpkey.jpg
It's always there, and it always goes back to its place by itself!

- drill press vise. I rarely clamp work to the drill press table and
even more rarely do I clamp the drill press vise to the table. It is
such a nuisance bolting it through the table slots and getting it
adjusted. The easier way that I found was to mount the vise to a plate,
which can be easily clamped and adjusted:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/dpvise.jpg
The vise is mounted with studs welded to the plate.

- task light. Bench work sometimes requires much brighter light. I've
tried various forms which either didn't reach far enough, or didn't stay
in place, etc. I cobbled together this one from the junk pile:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/light.jpg
The lamp is a 50w mini halogen, the "silver" shaft is a goose neck, and
the mount is a locking ball joint, which works *really* well. Highly
adjustable, long reach, stays put, and swings out of the way when not is
use.

- bench vise. My bench is fairly high (38") and with the vise on top,
the vise jaws were really too high. So I mounted the vise outboard and
lower:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/vise.jpg
It's not obvious from the picture, but the top of the jaws is just below
the bench top, so the whole bench top is unobstructed. And it doesn't
show the angle iron that goes back and attaches it to the wall. I also
took off those damned t-handle swivel-tightening nuts and replaced them
with hex nuts. It's much easier & faster to put a socket on them than
to fiddle with those t-handles.

- wrenches. Commonly used wrenches should be readily available and
readily identifiable. I hang my most-used box and combo wrenches, in
size order. They are hung on 2 panels, one for SAE, the other for
metric. The front panel is hinged like a door:
http://home.comcast.net/~bobengelhardt/wrenches.jpg


Bob