Sunday, November 25, 2012

a couple of tools that make boat projects easier...

Some facts worth noting, an interesting point, and yep, there ought to be a law...

I'm not sure about you but sometimes I need a little help. You know, with stuff like cutting a straight line or boring a proper right-angle hole. Lucky for me, there are tools that make that sort of stuff easy.

I notice just about everybody seems to own a miter box but I also seem to note that they don't get used a lot and as a result I also see a lot of not quite right joinery on boats. Well truth be told, about half of the wonky joinery is simply not getting the measurements right but bad off angle cuts earn their fair share... A cheap miter box makes getting precise cuts easy and here on "So It Goes" we're all about making stuff easy.


Given my druthers I'd use a drill press for just about all situations requiring drilling but the fact is I seldom find myself in a situation on boat projects where a drill press makes sense in the general scheme of things. In those cases one of these drill guides make a whole lot of sense...


I like them because you are able to drill through stuff at a right angle and bit drift becomes something you no longer have to worry about. They are also a big help if you need to  drill and tap holes in something problematic like 1" stainless steel tubing. While not exactly cheap, they cut way down on bit breakage so in time they actually pay for themselves.

Listening to Tift Merritt

So it goes...