Odds and ends

[mklotz]

Here's a few odds and ends from my shop.

At the top is the latest bargain ($2) from Harbor Freight. Nicely made stainless tweezers with plastic jaws. Useful for picking up delicate stuff without marring it but doubly useful in the electronic shop where non-conductive tweezers are a real lifesaver.

In the center, held in the self-gripping tweezers is something for Zee - a nut driver/wrench for 2-56 nuts. It's the essence of simplicity - a central hole to pass a 2-56 screw and a slot the width of the nut plus a few thou allowance. The second picture shows a little more detail.

Below that is an ultra-slender pin vise. I made it by duplicating the nose of my Dremel on the end of a 1/4" steel rod and making a a collet closer nut. It accepts the Dremel collets of which I have a considerable collection.

 

[zeeprogrammer]

Ah! Thanks Marv! That gives me some ideas.

 

[Lew_Merrick_PE]

Quite a while ago (Christmas, 2006 as I recall) my daughter bought me a Harbor Freight 1704 Pneumatic Filer (they call it an Air File). It sat in the bottom of my tool chest as I had finally gotten my good Florida Pneumatic filer out of storage. A friend of mine needed the support that a pneumatic filer could provide. I grabbed the HF filer and discovered it would not run. I gradually upped the pressure on my compressor (it will handle up to 160 psi at 12 cfm) -- and blew out the little piece of plastic that pretends to be the valve for it. I called HF and ordered a replacement valve ($1 for the valve, $2.99 S&H). The replacement, an entirely new pneumatic filer, arrived yesterday.

I hooked it up to the airline (90 psi) -- and nothing. Already knowing that the plastic valve will curl up its toes at 130 psi, I did not repeat that experiment. Instead, I disassembled the already dead one. Care in removing the plastic exhaust diverter and snap ring pliers are all that is required to disassemble it. The already dead one's piston and shaker-valve were so thoroughly coated with cosmolene that they could not move. Repeating the process on the new one showed a dry piston and shaker valve -- and a massive amount of sawdust. A quick cleaning and a light coating of mineral oil later and both run fine (although I only have one of the plastic valve parts).

While there is no way the (about $20) HF pneumatic filer is as good as my ($200 in 1969) Florida Pneumatic unit, it is quite serviceable and anyone not already jaded by the FP unit is likely never to know any different. If you deburr lots of keyways or the like, this is a pretty good deal -- just remember to take it apart, clean it and oil it before you use it!