Shopsmith Forums

shipwright wrote:Looks good Al. Nice reverse in the top.
You might consider accenting the gaps rather than trying to hide them. A little maple string inlay would hide them nicely. ...... and then a thin strip of maple bent in to hide the end grain of the deck would finish it off. ..... just thinking out loud.

Interesting. I had been thinking of a thin strip of Sapele to hide the end grain. The maple is a cool idea...

Love those curves! How long did it take you to do the shaping?

I'm using the wrong tool...a Festool FINISH sander(ETS 125 EQ) which takes pretty small bites even with 40 grit. I'd say an hour.

algale wrote:I'm using the wrong tool...a Festool FINISH sander(ETS 125 EQ) which takes pretty small bites even with 40 grit. I'd say an hour.

Time well spent!

You could shape one of those in about 15 minutes with a Kutzall disk. 5 minutes for practice and 10 minutes to shape.

Well, a new challenge!

I installed the second deck and as I was drilling one of the final screw holes for it, the drill bit I was using snapped off! Of course, it broke off about 1/32 proud of the gunwale and attempts to use pliers on it just succeeded in chipping it off flush with the gunwale. There must be a good 1.5 inches of bit buried in the deck/gunwale. I don't think it is coming out any time soon.

At the moment, my plan is to see if I can use another larger drill bit to grind it down just a hair below the surface of the gunwale. At that point I'll fill the divit with epoxy or I might then be able to use the countersink (which this bit was designed for0, to make a countersink around the busted bit and then drive a plug in over it.

I'm open to any and all suggestions that don't involve cutting off the last 12 inches of gunwale and trying to splice in another piece.

Don't think you can successfully drill out a broken drill bit. I've tried that with only bad results. I managed to have the new drill bit slip and make a hole in the wood.

I suppose you could drill around the broken screw with a plug cutter then work that wood out of the hole with a narrow chisel or a knife. Then you can break off the drill bit again and fill the hole with a plug. If you like this idea - try it first on a scrap- around a nail.

If your broken drill bit is truly flush - you can just leave it, touch up the finish, and have a little silver part showing. It might look so good you can show it off as a mistake.

If you countersink around the broken bit, as you suggest, would that give you enough clearance to then grab the bit with a chuck, and reverse it out?

They make a tool that is designed to remove broken screws and it might work for this as well. It is hollow and has teeth on the cutting edge so like was mentioned it takes out a plug. Depth might be an issue.

Drill bits are hard. I've had issues like that on auto engines and while it can be done it might be a lot more work then it is worth.

Ed

This is what my last post was about:

http://www.highlandwoodworking.com/set3 ... ctors.aspx

Even on sale!

Ed