The Drill Bits are Here!

It's taken a while, but I'm happy to announce that we are now taking orders for sets of chairmakers long spur brad point drill bits. Charlie Ryland came here last February straight from North Bennet Street. We talked about his making drill bits, but quickly became mired in all sorts of other projects. But lately Charlie jumped in and started grinding away.

Just as with Claire and the travishers and Tim with the reamers and adzes, he has advanced the bits beyond what I was doing with them. By making some slight alterations to the dressing of the wheel, he's managed to make a bit that lets you know when it is about to poke through the other side of the workpiece. The lead spur is slightly wider at the base and the change in pressure as it comes through is perceptible.

If you aren't familiar with the abilities of these bits, I will be making a video when we get back from North Carolina. The geometry of these bits is helpful in getting clean entry and exits holes as well as drilling at angles,  making them great for making chairs. Plus, seeing a ribbon like shaving pour out of the hole proves that drill bits really are woodworking tools, deserving of attention and respect just like a plane or chisel.

The bits are available in sets of 5 as shown for $110 plus $10 for shipping. They are made from American made High Speed Steel and include 5/8", 1/2", 7/16", 3/8" and 11/32".
The larger bits require a drill with a 1/2" chuck.

Charlie will have some sets available for purchase at WIA and is accepting orders at rylandwoodworking@gmail.com. And of course, feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions, peter@petergalbertchairmaker.com

More Ugly Jigs that Work Great: Part Two

Now here is an elegant jig.  A perfect melding of species, craft and drywall screws!

I've posted before about grinding drill bits, and I've shown a lot of students the method. Over the years, I started to see the limits of the grinds, some too aggressive in softwoods, some too slow in hardwoods. So when I decided to make a drill bit grinding jig, I finally had some idea of how it should work.

I chose an 8 degree angle for the center spur, which is made by attaching the "fence" to the bottom of the guide at a 4 degree angle. (thanks Tim for pointing out the doubling effect!).

Then it's just a matter of setting the angle of the tool rest. (If you haven't seen the basic grinding method, which remains the same, check out this post.)

 I found that an 18 degree angle works great in hardwoods for drilling armrails blowout free, and that an 11 degree angle will slow a 5/8" bit down enough to cut pine without chewing it to bits. All that's left is to set some rare earth magnets into the base to get rid of the pesky clamps.

This photo is of jigs (sort of), but hardly the ugly kind! Andy Jack helped me make these for my class that starts tomorrow. They are available for sale to the students, and if we have any left, I will post them here. The wood for these was a gift from my friend Peter Krupowicz, I believe it's bubinga. Anyway, they are gorgeous and work beautifully.




The other things that are working these days are my chickens. I have been letting them free range lately and the egg yolks have turned from yellow to a burnt orange color! What a difference grass and bugs make!

Here they are enjoying a dirt bath. When I walk into the yard, they all run up to me like dogs. If I go to get the mail, I have to trick them so they don't follow me into the road. It's a humbling moment when you have to think before outsmarting a chicken.

The Bismarck

Summer is usually a busy time, but this is ridiculous! Luckily for me, things are finally slowing to a humane pace as my teaching is subsiding and the Galbert Caliper 2 is in assembly.

My recent trip to Maine was a success in more than one way. Teaching away from home can be a huge amount of work, but sometimes I come upon things in the large classes that might never happen in the calm of my own shop. One of these things is the new bit that I call "The Bismarck" (for reasons that will soon be apparent)



Here's the how and why. A couple of students drilled the holes in the seat to the wrong sightline, not too uncommon or that big of a deal. I made a couple of pine plugs with my Veritas tenon cutter and glued them in with CA glue. When it came time to redrill the holes, the brad points that I grind and love wouldn't do the job. The issue is that brad points don't drill well into end grain, which now stared at us at the end of the plug. As much as I rail against twist bits, they are the tool for the job.

The main trouble with twist bits is that they are made for metal and best used in a drill press, but they eat end grain for breakfast. So in the heat of the moment, with 10 other students in a flurry of action around me, I chose to grind my lovely 5/8" bradpoint into a twist bit, but slightly different. This one has a horn.

The long center point now only guided the bit without the "wander" of a normal twist bit, but kept the bit spinning cleanly without a drill press. It worked great.

Then I started to take a closer look at the potential of the bit in other applications. One of the downfalls of my bradpoints is that student new to them often sink the center point into the soft pine while getting their position set, this can cause the side spurs to make contact before the drilling begins. Once they gun it, ouch, major tear out. Of course this is easily avoided by getting the drill up to speed before allowing the side spurs to touch, but experience has shown that it's easy to lose focus on the bit while learning to drill at angles.

The Bismark also works great drilling at extreme angles into the legs without any surface damaging issues. I am going to continue exploring this bit, most likely using it where folks tend to chunk out the holes.

To make the bit, simply follow the instructions in my brad point grinding posts, but omit the notch in the grinding wheel. You'll end up with a rather flat brad point. Then change the angle of the fence on the tool rest to make the wings fall away from the center. Perhaps a video is in order!

Besides tending to my lovely goats (Tee, I promise some pictures soon!), I've had a lot of students pass through,

Here's Bill,





Jeff,





Derrick,



and Bill, and then I was off to Maine.





One of my students, Kenneth, is Amish, and road five hours in his buggy to take the class. Here is his horse Melody. She spent the week quietly grazing on the school pasture. Watching her graze helped soothe my homesickness.



Here is Kenneth's buggy. Just being around him had a calming effect.




Here's Paul working away while I went to lunch!



and the whole class, tired but not beaten!



I plan on announcing that the new calipers will be available as of next Monday. Thanks everyone for your patience!

New Happenings

Recently I got a counterbore from Morris Tools in Tennessee for my arm to stile joints. Boy does it make a difference.


I used to first drill a "shoulder" with a large forstner type bit and then finish it with a smaller bit for the actual mortise. It wasn't impossible to line them up, but it took some doing. Once I reground and sharpened the cutting spurs on the counterbore, it drilled a gorgeous joint and the alignment was a non issue. Below is the finished mortise.


Also on the tool front, I've been meaning to mention that while in Atlanta, I noticed that Highland Woodworking carries the diamond profile parting tools in the 1/8th inch size. Folks have contacted me looking for this elusive creature after I posted that it was my preferred size for turning but especially for the way it works with my caliper. The smaller cutting edge means less vibration and resistance but still cuts a wide enough kerf to easily measure.

I'm not sure what it says about me, but one of the most exciting and fun things to enter life here is our new ice cream maker. It's of the old wooden bucket variety (but with a motor, sorry galoots) and we've been putting it through its paces. It fits perfectly with our plan to have our goat milking in the spring. After vanilla, we decided to try mint chip, but no extract and green food coloring for us, I found a recipe and headed to the garden to pick the mint. Yes, Sue is still mad that I put mint in the garden, we'll never be rid of it!
Below is the mint steeping in the milk.

Here is the finished custard.

And into the freezer.

And the finished ice cream (actually, I probably stopped a bit short, but it froze in the freezer fine)


By the way, half of the sweetener in the mix is maple syrup from last spring, just one more reason to look forward to next years sugaring season.

The Final Cut

Here is an image of grinding the web on a drill bit that is left after grinding the wings. The tricky part about this is that the wing that is pointing down is dangerously close to the grinding wheel and the slightest encounter will send you back to step 1. Not a big deal, but it's better avoided. I avoid hitting it by keeping the wing that is pointing up a little past vertical (towards the grinding wheel). By keeping the wing that I can easily see close to the grinding wheel, I can generally keep the other one in the clear. The other key to grinding the web is that as I proceed to push the bit into the wheel, I let it come off of the block a bit. This happens quite naturally because as I push into the wheel, the amount of metal that is cut gets greater and the bit wants to slide to the side. You can see the result of this in the photo below (how about that new camera!).



There is a small learning curve to grinding drill bits, luckily we all have a myriad of dull beat up twist bits to practice on. Once I started grinding bits, I was amazed at how much steel the actually have! I learned using bits that weren't high speed steel, just my old junkers. Even though they lose their temper, they actually work fine, just not for as long. By the way, I've read that quenching high speed steel is not recommended, when it gets hot slow down and let it air cool.



Here is the resulting hole that the bit made. Notice the shavings. And below is the exit hole. I didn't use any backing, just drilled right through. For me, this grind solved one of the most vexing drilling problems in chairmaking, all of those holes that need to start at an angle and come through a curved piece (near impossible to back). I know that many excellent makers prefer auger bits and simply stop when the screw comes through and come back from the other side. It obviously works fine for them. This is a personal preference. I will post some tips for drilling clean holes soon.

Bit Grinding

Lots of pictures today (a great way to show off my new camera!) The photo above shows the way that I use my wheel dresser to make a shape on the side of my grinder that will correspond to the wing of the brad point. I alway make sure that the corner is lower than the flat of the wheel that I use for general grinding. The sharper the corner, the deeper the wings. I did some measuring of the angles that I use today because honestly I've never bothered. Experimentation is the key and the numbers that I use can vary depending on the performance and intended use of the bit. I measured the angle of a bit that I use all the time and found it to be about 35 degrees (see below). The steeper the angle, the more aggressive the bit, until at some point, the edge is too thin to be effective. I always use high speed steel because it doesn't lose its temper until it is red hot, a little bluing is fine.



Below is the jig setup that I use while grinding. My measurement for this bit is about 2 degrees off of the axis of the wheel. By adjusting the angle that I clamp the block to the rest, I can adjust the length of the center point. A greater angle makes a shorter point. As you can see, it is the side of the wheel that actually forms the center point.





Below is the first cut that I take. I make sure that the existing cutting edge is horizontal and proceed to grind. After a moment, I judge whether the bit is far enough over to form the proper point.



I switch back and forth between the two sides in an effort to let the bit cool and to keep the wings even.



Below is the bit with the wings ground. All that remains is to remove the web (you can see it in the center of the bit) that has been left by the grinding. I'll post the web grinding and tips for using soon.

My Favorite Grind

Here is a close up photo of the grind that I use on my drill bits. I'll be showing how to grind it soon. The picture below it is of the bit while spinning. It brings up an important issue. Every bit and every chuck have some degree of runout, they don't spin perfectly. When chucking up a bit, try spinning it at high speed and look at the point. If it moves erratically, try loosening the chuck and shifting the bit a quarter turn. When you have the bit in the optimum position, the runout in the bit and the runout in the chuck will cancel each other out almost completely. I made a mark on the chuck of my drill and every time that I use a new bit, I make a corresponding mark on the bit once it spins true, then when I go to use the bit, it is as simple as lining up the marks.