Drill Holders

[daniel banquo merrick]

USPS Priority

[susan]

ok. no mail today. maybe tomorrow.

[daniel banquo merrick]

Sorry Susan, I just dropped it off at the PO yesterday morning.

[John]

Got the drills and they look awesome.

One thing I need to mention is that whatever method you are using to swage the cables doesn't stay swaged. Are you using a butt connector crimper?

[daniel banquo merrick]

Yeah, I need to improve that. I've been trying bicycle cables since they are run through a die or something and have a smoother surface which allows them to slide in the slot easily. Smooth also probably makes them harder to get a good swage. I think the ones you got were simply a piece of copper tubing crimped in place. Copper tubing is probably too soft for the purpose. Oh well, I'm sure you can come up with an excellent repair.

I also need to know what works and what doesn't so please do continue to let me know.

[daniel banquo merrick]

If you are headed out through Morgan Hill this evening, you can stop by and we can try to fix any busted cables even though it will be embarrassing to let you see the crappy tools I have in my shop. Just let me know. I'm home alone this weekend. My wife and son are in Indiana and my daughter is in Berlin.

This evening I want to test a 3/8" SDS that I have ground down so it has a square tip. There is a small chance a square tip is more efficient. I've been reading an old research paper concerning how the tip penetrates and pulverizes the rock. I now know why sharper tips and tips with a smaller angle work better. Small angle or narrow tips are more efficient but dull faster and shatter more easily.

[John]

All alone on a three day weekend? Too bad or perhaps a good opportunity to get some me time? Thanks for the invite, but we will have to see your laboratory some other time since we have family events to attend this weekend.

I am sure your tools aren't crappy since you have been making such cool stuff with them. Don't worry about the cables, I have a Nicopress so I can re-cable the drills.

Looking forward to hearing about your next discoveries from Merrick Labs.

[Jerry]

I'd be interested in knowing how that tip will work on an SDS drill so please post it. I make a chisel bit out of high speed drills for hand drilling and for comparison I can hand drill a hole in "average" granite in 5-7 minutes with that set up and it takes about 15-20 minutes with an SDS.

[YETI]

Had a 3/8ths wedge bolt pull out on me a few days ago, it was a spinner.  Same SDS bit I have used on most thunderstud anchors.  Blow tube and brushed, it just failed.

Good news is The notion that you cant remove a wedge is false.

Bwahahhaha!

[daniel banquo merrick]

Yeti -

I've never had that happen. I wonder what the cause was.

The trouble must be with the wedge on the end of the bolt or the collar that the wedge expands. If the bolt was spinning inside the collar, that is one problem. If the collar was spinning inside the hole, that is another problem altogether. Did you try another bolt in the same hole? Did you have to pound the bolt in or did it slip in easier than usual?

[daniel banquo merrick]

I tried the square verses V carbide tip drills. I used two brand new matching drills but ground the tip of one so it was square. I sharpened both. The included angle of the two tips may have not matched just right. A small included angle should drill faster but be more susceptible to dulling and chipping.

First, I bought a new hammer. Seems to be military surplus. Finish is rough but seems to be very well made. It looks like a copy of the BD hammer but the handle has a round wedge instead of the flat one BD uses. Also, the handle and side plates are set in what appears to be epoxy. I think the $50 I paid was good but sadly, there are no more to be had.



The two tips before drilling:





The square one wanted to drill a triangular "Wankel hole" to start but the hole got round as it got deeper.



The square one drilled slower than the V-tip until the square one blew a tip and then it went very much slower.



I think the square tip is a bad idea for carbide since carbide is so brittle. The square corner is probably too prone to chipping off. I'll be sticking with the standard V-tips for carbide.

I don't know if a square HSS bit drills faster than a standard carbide. Somebody will have to come by Merrick Laboratories with their HSS drills to run some tests someday.

[John]

Wankel hole. I actually get it!

That hammer looks heavier than the BD?

[mungeclimber]

Dan,

Seriously? No more hammers? For $50, that would be a stellar deal.

[daniel banquo merrick]

John - The hammer looks bigger than a BD even when compared side by side but weighs exactly the same on my postal scale.

Munge - I like hammers, the most fundamental and oldest of tools. Oddly, we know very little about using them. As a member of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society I have access to all manner of studies about how people interact with various tools and such but there is nothing about the ergonomics of hammers.

To be completely honest, there is one study concerning the curved hatchet type handles you see on carpenter's hammers. They had college students pound nails to come up with the optimum curvature. WTF do college students know about swinging hammers? I think it's a stupid study but it sure changed the hammer handle market. Talk to an old carpenter or blacksmith about swinging a hammer and you will think he is some kind of zen mystic. Today carpenters use nail guns and hammering nails may be a lost art.

So, as I pound away with my hammers I try to get that optimum swing which produces the hardest hit with the least effort while not ruining my elbow. I worked with an old carpenter one summer. He spent quite a bit of time trying to teach me how to use a hammer but I think I was a disappointment to him. He said "let the hammer do the work" and kept trying to get me to use my  wrist more and arm less - or was it more shoulder and less wrist. Something about throwing the hammer.

[John]

You trained under the Hammer Yoda? Cool.

"Hammer you will".