I recently got ahold of an old Atlas drill press (see my other recent thread for a picture) that I am pretty excited about. In the spirit of excitement I was thinking last night about the different attachments I could get and all the things I could make this thing do besides drilling holes. In the old catalogs Atlas used to advertise mortising attachments, shaping/sanding drums, etc. But reading about the problems with a drill press lathe kit on forums last night brought me back to the reality that these additional add-on doohickey's are often pretty crappy.

Given my limited space, tight budget, and desire not to accumulate more clutter than I already have, I am always trying to figure out how to do more with less when it comes to power tools. In hindsight, almost none of these contraptions end up working as well as a tool or machine that is dedicated specifically to whatever I am trying to do. Sometimes they work well enough, though, for a guy who isn't gonna use the thing too often. Like my handheld beltsander clamped upside down to a workbench instead of a real stationary sanding machine.

I know I am not alone in this desire to minimize the number of machines I need and to make my tools do more so I thought this could be a helpful discussion topic. What do you guys do with your tools that is outside of that tools specifically intended function? What function-transforming attachments have you used that are actually effective? And just for fun, what ideas or attachments are completely stupid in your opinion?
Hammer_and_nail_Justinbaeder_Flickr.jpg

For me the bench grinder has been useful for wire-wheeling and buffing as much as for grinding, the drill press has been great for light sanding either using drums or chucking round parts in the press, and my 1/2" corded drill has been used for more things than I can think of. On the other hand, the planer really only planes to thickness (ya, I know, some people use them to joint by making sleds but I'll stick with my hand planes) and the circular saw only cuts big things down to rough size.