THINGS THAT WORK

[Iancider]

Chaps and Chapesses,
I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread on THINGS THAT WORK.  Now this could be very wide covering tools, techniques, contacts, methods of persuasion, short-cuts and how to bribe officials - all that it important is that they should work surprisingly well.

So here goes for a starter.  Hoping that everybody joins in, I will bung in a few really good discoveries to work up some enthusiasm.  I will keep doing this (until I feel I am at a party on my own) in order to make this go viral.  So pitch in guys with things that really worked well - trying to stay somewhat relevant - so don't major on chat-up lines unless they really worked well.

My power file



When I first considered one of these I was not sure it was a worthy thing but it has become one of my most frequently used tools - especially when using 40 grit - the coarsest.  It is perfect for opening apertures in fibreglass and never flakes the surface.  It is perfect for rapid deburring and with finer grits, polishing metal.  It is also perfect for flattening filler and keying surfaces. 

I chose the Fermi because I am a cheapskate and presumed I would use it very little but the opposite applies and I got real value for money.  It is also quite compact compared to most.  I became utterly impressed with my new ally when I found I could powerfile hard and soft rubber - even silicone, and plastic foam - all with great control and precision.  It is just so easy to debur a cut bolt.  The best application so far was making rectangular switch apertures in fibreglass.  I contemplated a few hours painstaking work with a hand file but was shocked when I finished 4 sides of five apertures in 10 minutes - including fitting.  I needed to make quite a few D shaped washers and discovered these would take just 30 seconds.  Pick them up with pliers unless you want an enduring washer brand on your fingertips!

Oh yes - flaking paint and rust - gone in an instant.

Its about £35 if you shop around - the others are £50-200

[Iancider]

Drilling fibreglass

When I set-out all naive and blinking, the standard advice was to drill fibreglass with a blunt drill.  While this works in a way it seems a bit counter-intuitive and hard work.  Press too hard and it can burn.  Break-out on the otherside is also messy.  I found two alternative techniques worked really well.

The wood drill



Now the great advantages are that they have a centre spike and will not wander and the cutting points are on the circumference.  So these drills score the outline before doing any agressive cutting.  Use minimal down-force and they exit clean too.  Only limitation - they cannot be used whe drilling through fibreglass and steel.

Three stage drilling

A little slower but as effective.  1) Drill a tiny pilot hole - say 1.5mm.  2) Use a Rose countersink bit - multiflute - into the pilot and then bore out to the wanted hole diameter or a little larger (producing a safe, flake resistant chamfer)  Now drill through with any bit with near zero down-force.  If it is an uber-risky hole, countersink from the rear using the pilot hole for location and then just drill-out the core.

For large holes I used a stepped cone drill in preference to a cone drill.  The stepped-cones tend to burn and make tapered holes.  The cone drills, drill to known sizes and finish with a chamfer if advanced a little more.

[Sprint 7]

Never a bad thing to use some sort of cutting lube when drilling holes even in fibreglass. Also a common mistake is to, not use a sharp enough dril,l with it trailing edges backed well off, steady  pressure and use a block of timber behind the workpiece. Trust me I'm a joiner!!

[fullpint]

Belt sanders are great.. I've got an air one running 20mm belts. Also an air die grinder. Again a very useful tool. Most suit a 6mm shaft and you can use a range of tools in it. Got an angle air grinder tool 

[Iancider]

Try this web-site 
www.cpc.co.uk

This used to be Farnell electronics, now CPC Farnell.  The website is not a great front-end but the bargain mags they send are just incredible for specials and often cheaper thasn on-line.
For instance a pretty good headtorch for £2.94 postage free - Ring 08447 88 00 88 to order if you dont want to order on-line or to be put on the mailing list.  On-line see http://cpc.farnell.com/pro-elec/htys2009/headtorch-30-led-3-x-aa/dp/LA0392307?Ntt=LA0392307


A lit Car cigar lighter (call it a power-supply socket) for £3.61 OR £2.95 from the magazine http://cpc.farnell.com/carpoint/0523203/lighter-with-lighting-22mm/dp/CP05724?Ntt=CP05724
There is loads of other stuff like cheap light bulbs, torches, workshop lights, cable and wire, cheap automotive connectors and fuses, Dolly trucks for under a tenner....

And one I really liked - a soldering station for £11.99!  A good iron with an iron coated tip, spares available, temperature controlled with a stand and sponge - see http://cpc.farnell.com/duratool/d02265/soldering-station-48w/dp/SD01867

['The Gaffer']

Cant beat a nice neat wiring loom.




I cant stand a lot of loose wires in a car, a heat gun and some shrink tubing solves the problem by pulling all the loose cables into one tidy looking loom.

[Sprint 7]

Don't pay a fortune for split trunking for tidying up wiring either. There are several diameters of aquatic hose on the market available from places like Almondsbury garden centre. Split it yourself with a pair of aviation snips.

[Iancider]

Frogeye headlamps can be a pain to adjust.  The nut is either too tight and you flake paint trying to move it or too loose and it flops just before you nip it up.  So I came up with a way of adding some friction when the nut is only moderately tight.



I cut a piece of Silicone water hose which with a 16mm bore was perfect for the 15mm stem of the lamp.  Cut it to length and use your new powerfile  to flatten the end .  Pop it in the cup just flush or a little below.  Assemble and gently nip the nut and it is easy to adjust with friction. 

[garry h]

Also found chrome shower hose works well and adds a bit of bling 

[YellaBelly]

Also found chrome shower hose works well and adds a bit of bling 

Yup! That's what I've got on mine

[fullpint]

  I only throw one away the other week.. Some great ideas being posted..

[Iancider]

Gosh, I thought my friction stay was original

Tell me if this is not original.  I was having problems routing my handbrake cable so that it would not touch moving parts - especially when it would bounce around with road movement.  So I did this -


Sliding anchorage


Fixed anchor

[Iancider]

Thanks for the feedback guys - much appreciated.  I have some more but I will run dry soon. 

Any more innovators please pitch in.

[Iancider]

If you are fed-up with Microsoft and hey who isn't - forcing upgrades and ever increasing prices and more and more invasions of your control and forcing upgrades against your will - try this:

There is a bunch of very clever geeky people who run the Libre movement and you can gain the equivalent of Microsoft Office in a simple and pleasing form for $10 or £6.51    Oh yes - that's right it is not a typo.

Its a bit like Office used to be - simple looking, instinctive and rather friendly.  It includes, word processing, spreadsheets, presentation software and drawing tools like Visio. 

Now this is the point.  Back in the good old days I bought Visio - a brilliant drawing tool for under £50.  Now that I have just been forced to upgrade by MS  - it has been made redundant.  MS have bought-out MS Visio and it now costs a stupid £250.  And frankly it is now worse not better.  So LibreDraw fits the bill and imports .vsd visio drawings.   

And yes, LibreOffice does import and produce MS formats.  Or to put it another way each application costs a Pound.  Bargain or what?

Also unlike OpenOffice from Google - LibreOffice lives on your machine and not the internet and you don't have to have Google reading all of your documents.

See:http://www.libreoffice.org/default/

Is this relevant - OH YES!  It is like the joy of a car you built yourself versus a mass-produced tin can.

[Sprint 7]

Was the last quote in English?