#drill bits

How to Make DIY Woodworking Tool Out from Broken Drill Bits

I spent like an hour and a half removing bits of broken screws from this flugelhorn.

The tip of original lever hinge screw broke off inside the holder. Presumably what happened after that was someone tried to replace the missing screw, except the “new” screw was just a tiny bit wider than the original, so it got really jammed in there and eventually broke too. The connection screw attaching the trigger lever to the 3rd slide also broke at some point in this whole mess, leaving three pieces of screws that needed removing.

Getting the tips of the two original screws out took a bit of time but not too much, but the hinge screw in the key was... stubborn. The well-intentioned-but-wrong-size replacement screw had managed to partially cut its own threads inside the hinge tube before getting stuck and breaking, which made it a right bitch to get out of there. I had to file out the hinge tube and make an oversized replacement hinge screw instead of using an official Yamaha part due to the mangling of the hinge tube.

It’s called a drill bit! And no worries, English is a super hard language :)

I currently have these, they’re diamond encrusted and meant for drilling ceramic and tile. There are definitely others you can get and these aren’t the highest quality. The diamond tip does wear out as you do multiple pots but they’re so cheap and work long enough that I find it totally fine since I’m not drilling all the time. There’s also a whole bunch of different sizes you can get, this set i have is on the smaller side so if you want larger holes make sure you check the measurements of the bits you’re getting!

There are also ones that are pointed like a more traditional drill bit looks like (like they use in this video) but I’ve also used those and don’t like them as much as these round ones. 

Whatever you get make sure it’s meant for ceramics! 

There is a hardware store going out of business.

I found a 29 piece drill bit set for a pretty good deal and since pa's old set was pretty empty I got it.

It’s 20 minute build time!

So... I’ve been working on rebuilding the enclosure for the Dynakit ST-35 clone tube amp that I have. Long story short... it’s not going well so far.

I bought some sheets of steel to use as the plates for holding the transformers and the vacuum tube circuit board. I tried using my hole saws to cut the steel, and while they worked just fine, the hole size was too large for what I wanted. so I went out yesterday and bought some universal bits (step bits) to use for cutting the holes. These will work much better and give me more control over the hole size.

So...

Unfortunately the step bits didn’t have a home... :(

They didn’t come in a case, so I didn’t have anywhere convenient to store them. I also had a few other homeless drill bits that spent their days huddled together for warmth. 

I decided I needed to build a home for these unfortunate souls. 

Started out with a 2x4... cut a chunk off, then found a hard drive magnet to use to stick the board to the metal cabinet next to my drill press.

Screwed the magnet to the board, then drilled out the holes to set the bits. Did some light sanding on the 2x4 and 20min later... the drill bits have a home!

Truly a happy ending.