A Bit of Rust Hunting

[Jim Koepke]

The wife and I were out and about for the day last Friday when we saw a sign stating "Barn Sale." We made a U-turn and went up to the barn to see what was there. Candy found a few things for herself. I found a can full of drill bits labeled 50¢ each or all for $3.

339627

Ever the one to try for a better deal, I asked if he would take $2. He said he would think it over. I asked if he ever watched American Picker and maybe we could find a few things to bundle. He said he watched it once or twice. Picking up a 1/4" socket handle and a couple of torx drivers I asked if he would throw those in with the bits for $3. He said fine and then came up with an extension cord and asked if I wanted to throw that in on the deal.

Looks like I will be busy for a while cleaning rust off of bits.

jtk

[Bill Jobe]

The wife and I were out and about for the day last Friday when we saw a sign stating "Barn Sale." We made a U-turn and went up to the barn to see what was there. Candy found a few things for herself. I found a can full of drill bits labeled 50¢ each or all for $3.

339627

Ever the one to try for a better deal, I asked if he would take $2. He said he would think it over. I asked if he ever watched American Picker and maybe we could find a few things to bundle. He said he watched it once or twice. Picking up a 1/4" socket handle and a couple of torx drivers I asked if he would throw those in with the bits for $3. He said fine and then came up with an extension cord and asked if I wanted to throw that in on the deal.

Looks like I will be busy for a while cleaning rust off of bits.

jtk


I have a few pieces you may be interested in. I'll get you some pics.

[Stew Denton]

Hi Jim,

With two expansion bits, and the auger bits you ended up with I have to say "Ya did good!"

For what it's worth, I have an expansion bit, and am not fond of using it, but they are fairly pricy, and for some jobs they are about the only option...so you just about have to have one. Thus, whether I like them or not, they are a necessary evil. So again, you got two of them, including the second smaller insert for one, so for that money again ya did good, really good in fact!

The two twist steel bits that fit a brace also sweeten up the deal, and there are also some other really useful things there too.

I don't know what the tool that has the crook on the end of it is for. Does anyone?

Stew

[george wilson]

Be careful of those expansion bits. They enlarge themselves while drilling holes,and screw things up. At least my brand new Woodcraft one did consistently back in the 60's. It looked just like those in the picture. I gave up trying to use it. And,I got the blasted screw tight as I could!!!!!

Well,did you buy the barn at the barn sale?

[Richard Line]

"I don't know what the tool that has the crook on the end of it is for." My guess, without any knowledge, is it was used to twist wire to tighten up a fence - okay, that sounds even worse after I wrote it.

[Stew Denton]

Hi George,

I've never had my expansion bit open up wider in use. The one I have is an Irwin. HOWEVER:

I've messed up stuff with an expansion bit too, and have learned to be darned careful with the bloomin things. I still don't like using one, have some relatively inexpensive hole saw type cup bits that I use much more often, and am not crazy about the cup bits either because they are so slow, but even so prefer them to the expansion bit by quite a lot.

If the cup bit will work, then there is no way I will mess with the darned expansion bits, but sometimes it seems like the expansion bit is the only thing that will work for a project, at least the only tool I own. However, on the other hand, I don't even attempt the skilled projects that you do, so the precision needed for what I do doesn't even approach the projects that you do.

From my experience, if one of my bigger auger bits is big enough for a project, I use it, preferring it to either of the above by a wide margin.

Stew

[Jim Koepke]

With two expansion bits, and the auger bits you ended up with I have to say "Ya did good!"

[snipped]

The two twist steel bits that fit a brace also sweeten up the deal, and there are also some other really useful things there too.

I don't know what the tool that has the crook on the end of it is for. Does anyone?

I already have an Irwin expansion that I use occasionally. I do not have much call to use them much. Have a few good augers in sizes over an inch.



"I don't know what the tool that has the crook on the end of it is for." My guess, without any knowledge, is it was used to twist wire to tighten up a fence - okay, that sounds even worse after I wrote it.



I think that is something that is home made. At the other end it is square and looks like it was made for 3/8" drive sockets. I may have been a broken extension for a socket set that was repurposed. It looks like it would be good for twisting up bell wire from straight spools of wire.

One of the twist bits with the brace tang on the drive end has an EC Simonds Keen Kutter mark on it. Both of the brace drive twist drills are 11/32". I cleaned the KK bit, gave it a few rubs on the Arkansas stones and it is a great boring bit. I didn't get much of the rest cleaned up. I did spray them with some CRC 2-26.

jtk

[Stew Denton]

Jim, I like the twist steel bits that are made for a brace. I have a few, and in truth don't use them often. However, I don't have an egg beater drill, so sometimes they are handy if I want to drill just a single hole, say when working on my fence, and don't want to string out a hundred feet of extension cord to drill one hole. I don't think any of mine are as big as those two, but on the other hand, wouldn't use one that big very often even if I did have one. The few I have are mostly mixed sizes, and I can't remember where I got them, maybe Ebay, maybe a garage sale from a very long time ago, don't know.

At any rate, I think they are handy at times, and you never know what size you will need, so I think they are good things to have.

My dad had an egg beater drill, and now that I have small grandkids I wish I had brought it home from his estate, as none of my brothers are even slightly interested in woodworking. However, at the time I wasn't very fond of it, having used it as a kid to drill holes with it that were on the bigger end of it's capacity. His bits were pretty dull too, most of the time, and that didn't help, along with the fact that I was pretty small. Now I appreciate one, and will probably buy one some day, but the grandkids will probably use it more than I will. That old drill was in good shape, and it would have been nice for the grand kids to be able to useit with small sharp bits, and maybe someday let their grandkids use that same drill. The family history of tools is something important to me, and I wish I hadn't let a lot of his tools go, but they weren't important to me then, I already had duplicates of most of them anyway, and mine were generally better grades off tools than this were. Since I carpentered some back then, I wanted fairly good tools. If you get paid to use them get good ones.

Compared to the egg beater drill, I like the brace and a twist steel bit a lot. Horse power is not an issue when using the brace as opposed to the egg beater.

Stew

[Luke Dupont]

That's some nice rust!

How do you go about cleaning said rust off, by the way? I've got a few old bits that I've sharpened up, but I've been a bit afraid of taking sandpaper to them to remove the rust, as that might affect the overall diameter and such.

[Jim Koepke]

That's some nice rust!

How do you go about cleaning said rust off, by the way? I've got a few old bits that I've sharpened up, but I've been a bit afraid of taking sandpaper to them to remove the rust, as that might affect the overall diameter and such.

I hit them with a wire brush. Sometimes a Scotch Brite pad. On the outside running them through a few hunks of scrap 2X4 helps to knock off the rust. I tend to get mine to a useable state and do not worry about getting them to a show case look.

jtk