192. Template drilling IS drill press drilling

[Make Things]

[mklotz]

Also, your technique works for keeping taps perpendicular to the stock to be threaded.

I'm sure you're aware that metal tools for guiding drills and taps are available. However, your approach allows for made-to-suit spacing of holes, which the commercial products do not.

[Make Things]

Also, your technique works for keeping taps perpendicular to the stock to be threaded.

I'm sure you're aware that metal tools for guiding drills and taps are available. However, your approach allows for made-to-suit spacing of holes, which the commercial products do not.

I'm really glad you said something. A few years ago, I changed the way I explained and did things. I'm always looking for the cheapest method to doing something, and I try to envision the end user as someone that doesn't have very many tools (or money) to do things. I could say that the method to 'dumbing things down' came to me out of some divine intervention, but the truth was that I got tired of hearing people say, "Oh yeah, if you have all the tools or all the money to buy things that's possible." So it's easier to do things as cheaply and simply as you can.

And I really don't mean to insult when I say 'dumbing things down'. Most people don't have a class that they can pick up to learn things. It's easier simplifying everything...and sometimes you get lucky along the way and find easier or more practical ways to doing things than what you can buy. There are so many doweling jigs on the market...but so much of it can be done with what you have.

I remember when I started buying tools about 22 years ago and I thought I not only had to buy every tool imaginable to make something happen, but that I had to constantly upgrade those tools. If you put me in a hardware store with $500, I'd have a hard time finding a tool to buy because everything I need, I have, and what I don't have, I can piece together with what I do have.

Thanks for the comment and I apologize for the long winded thought. I think there are a lot of people out there that think I'm crazy or just stupid for not going out and buying something to do something for me.

[mklotz]

There are more personal advantages to making one's own tools than simply saving money.

DIY forces one to think in terms of design to solve the present problem. This is a skill that will pay off big time as one attempts to deal with bigger problems. It's a cruel teacher but learning to learn from your mistakes is an important step in improving your skills.

The self-satisfaction from DIY is probably a better boost to one's mental health than time spent with some graduate of a social ecology program at the local liberal arts college.

DIY will teach you which commercial tools you should buy and which are mere money-extractor gadgets.

There are less intellectual payoffs as well.

DIY helps to thin that heap of "it'll be useful someday" junk piling up in the corner.

Stuff you built works the way you think it should work, not the way some penny-pincher designed it for minimum cost.

Your wife won't nag you so much for spending time in the shop if you've just made her a kitchen gadget she can't buy.

[Make Things]

There are more personal advantages to making one's own tools than simply saving money.

DIY forces one to think in terms of design to solve the present problem. This is a skill that will pay off big time as one attempts to deal with bigger problems. It's a cruel teacher but learning to learn from your mistakes is an important step in improving your skills.

The self-satisfaction from DIY is probably a better boost to one's mental health than time spent with some graduate of a social ecology program at the local liberal arts college.

DIY will teach you which commercial tools you should buy and which are mere money-extractor gadgets.

There are less intellectual payoffs as well.

DIY helps to thin that heap of "it'll be useful someday" junk piling up in the corner.

Stuff you built works the way you think it should work, not the way some penny-pincher designed it for minimum cost.

Your wife won't nag you so much for spending time in the shop if you've just made her a kitchen gadget she can't buy.

I look at this post then looked at your awards rack under your name. You absolutely nailed it. What a wonderful post. You’re worth your weight in gold here!

Problem solving has been one of the most therapeutic tools that I use for my own mental health. I started these tips because my sanity was crumbling after ‘20 and they’ve kept me healthy.