Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Jim in Burlington Ontario

>Bill I have 2 of those pry bars your talking about bought them in a paint store. As for cross over tools I use a few potters tools for cleaning out glue of corners and cracks. One in particular has a diamond shaped point and a curved end that's sharpened.

Dentist's tools

Frank D. in Montreal

>for cleaning up carvings and scraping hard-to-get-at places.

Re: Dentist's tools

Dan Donaldson

>I like Dentist tools also. I get old burrs from my dentist that are too dull for teeth, but work great for wood. They fit my Foredom just fine. (he soaks them in some kind of a STRONG disinfectant before he gives them to me ;-)) I also get the dental picks from him. They are only allowed to sharpen them a couple of times and then throw them away. Many dentists will save them for you if you ask.

I also use hemostats. They make great little clamps for holding stuff.

Re: Dentist's tools

Frank D. in Montreal

>Hemostats! Boy, that brings back memories! Now I know how to recycle all those joint holders from my youth...LOL

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Skip in Falls Church

>Hmmmmmmmmmm, crossovers ....... between woodworking and leather working does a wooden mallet count? :) Actually I use woodworking tools in leather working from time to time - never the reverse. The odd gouge is always handy in making rounded corners or rounded strap ends and a sharp knife is a sharp knife.

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Michael Kieta-Ramstein, Germany

>I agree with Bill completely. The beekeepers pry bar is one of the best remodelers tools ever, and far surpasses anything at the hardware stores. They're made of spring steel so they're thin, strong and sharp. You can even put an edge on them and use them as a rough chisel when needed. As of 5-6 years ago, they still sold them at:

Walter T. Kelly Company

3107 Elizabethtown Rd

P. O. Box 240

Clarkson, KY 42726-0240

Phone: 1-800-233-2899

I don't think they have a website, but I think they take phone orders. I've been meaning to send this tip in for years, and Bill beat me to it.

No affiliation etc, except I used to live in tiny Clarkson, KY...I wonder if Austin is still the the police chief, fire chief, and entire police force...

Michael

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Bob Hackett

>I use a body hammer for tapping out Japanese plane irons.I also use a jeweler`s mallet with replaceable faces for a wooden plane adjusting hammer.The brass face I kept,the nylon I replaced with a wood plug.

It`s not a tool but,I also use an old electric blanket to help with glue-ups when the shop`s cold.

Those files that are designed for auto body filler make great plane floats as do the Magi-cut files that are meant for aluminum.

I use alot of my machinist tools for machine set-up and to check square or parrallel.I use my machinist`s jacks to help during clamping and to push things apart in tight places.

The list goes on and on.I use whatever tools I think will work for the job at hand and don`t even think about what trade they were meant for.The only exceptions are my `smithing hammers,those have one dedicated use.

Mainely,Bob

Real Ridgid crossovers

Eric Hedberg

>When my dad passed away I inherited his shop. Amongst his supplies were some hard core plumbers tools, probably an auction find. When I started playing around with spindles and spokeshaves I needed something to hold the spindles. Amongst the tools was a Ridgid pipe vise used to hold pipe to be threaded. A quick retrofit of the serrated metal jaws for some wooden pads and the problem was solved. The vise is mounted to a wood pad that I clamp in my bench vise. It has turned out to be a handy albeit unusual addition to the shop.

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Dan Donaldson

>One other. I have a 6" three jaw chuck for a metal lathe that does not have the back mounting plate on it, so it sits flat. I use it on my drill press as a vise to hold things for drilling. It works great for pen blanks and round items. It is heavy enough not to move, and uses a standard 3/8" ratchet for a key.

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Ernie Miller Topeka

>IS my wife looking? I made off with a pack of emmory boards they are great forcarvings and small items or cleaning up old tools stiff narrow and not to agressive. they come in several grits also.

Bicycle innertubes

Paul M. in San Diego

>I used to bike a lot, and had several spare innertubes. I cut them into two long strips, and use them as band clamps. These are great for assembling chairs, as you can easily control where the force gets applied by wrapping it around a leg once, and they don't slip like the nylon band clamps.

Michael and Bill.... *LINK*

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Do they look like this? I'm very instrested in these because I have some molding to be carefully removed. Thanks, Scott


Beehive prybars?

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>The tools I immediately thought of as crossovers:

surface plates

machinist's and combi squares

jeweler's saws for DTs and marquetry

Mike Dunbar's cobbler's hammer to adjust planes

added to the ones already suggested:

pin vises

dental tools

beekeeper's pry bars

(and leaving out inner tubes as clamps, although useful, since they're not derived from any traditional craft)

seems a meager few. I use a couple other jeweler's tool just because I have them, but they duplicate other common woodworking hand tools.

Maybe a few others will pop up. Interesting. Thanks for the answers.

Dang I didn't see this one... *LINK*

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>Or does it look like this?


More hive tools

That's the one

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>

Some of mine...

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>These are some of the best small clamps and cheap too.

Also drafting tools: triangles, circle templates, dividers, compasses (beam too) and French curves.

My wife makes jewelry and her Foredoom(sp) flex shaft tools is fun to borrow sometimes (best left on the other message board though). As said here by others alot Machinest tools also.

Now let's have a little fun...what wood working tools do you use for non wood working? My microplane rap grates parm cheese great. Chisels for paint cans openers and screwdrivers, spoke shaves for chocolate, let's not forget the cheese planes too! Boy I could go on;).

Machinist's tools in the WW shop *LINK*

Bill Houghton, Sebastopol, CA

>And let's not forget dial calipers and (for the terminally dedicated) micrometers to measure the thickness of plane shavings.

Not really from another trade unless you count ice sculpture, but I pick up ice picks whenever I find them at garage sales (50 cents, usually) - they make good scribes and hole-pokers for marking where to drill holes (although you have to be careful with this latter, because all that holds them in the handle is friction, and you can pull the handle off right easily).

I occasionally use a draftsman's adjustable triangle as a layout tool and (PARENTAL ADVISORY: BRIEF EXCURSION INTO POWER TOOL LAND; SCENES OF ELECTRONS DYING) angle-setting tool for the table saw. It's great because I can set it finer than a degree, if ever I need to. No affiliation with the site below; it was just the first one Google grabbed for me.

On one level, it is kind of surprising that there aren't more crossovers; on the other, the craft has been around so long that we don't realize that a particular WW tool was originally a crossover tool. For example, the ubiquitous 6 inch rule you find in so many shops, as well as its longer siblings, was orginally a machinist's rule; the diversity of rule patterns (all inch, mixed inch and metric, 100ths of an inch, etc.) is a product of this origin.

Too, because the craft is so ancient, the crossover may well have been more often in the other direction, as witnessed by the belt plane that Stanley sold in the heyday of flat-belt machinery.


Examples of adjustable triangles

Re: Crossovers: tools from other crafts for WW

Paul M. in San Diego

>(and leaving out inner tubes as clamps, although useful, since they're not derived from any traditional craft)

So dentistry is a traditional craft?

Re: Dang I didn't see this one... *LINK*

MikeL in SoCal

>I would argue that that's a ww tool. It just happens to be specialized for bee keeping. On a similar note, somebody on the OldTools List recently posted a URL for Irwin to point out that Irwin still makes and sells many versions of square-tanged auger bits. Among the bits is one specially designed (or at least sold for) sugar tree tapping (see link). I thought it was pretty cool.

Cheers,

Mike


'sugar tree tap' auger bit

Those 'clamps' are ...

MikeL in SoCal

>... almost as versatile as duct tape. I've used tham for many, many things besides clipping stacks of paper together.

Cheers,

Mike

Only for the last few thousand years, though.

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>"So dentistry is a traditional craft?"

Absolutely.

What I meant, though, and what I'd asked for: examples of tools used in other crafts that have crossed over into woodworking. I mean, it's a good tip and a good idea - for example, I use bungee cords for woodworking purposes - but from what craft does a busted bicycle inner tube or bungee cord derive? Did I forget The Worshipful Guild of Latex Binders & Bondage Workers? I try to be inclusive.

I ran out of emoticons several years back...

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>..or you'd know I have a large smile plastered on my face and my tongue pushing aggresively into one cheek (facial). Okay, so I'm a bit prickly now and then.

Thanks Bill!

Scott Burr in Ben Lomond CA

>

Great response. Lotsa pithy thoughts.

David Barnett - Venice, FL

>Dial Calipers, yes! I have four. And machinist's rules; none which I can live without for woodworking, goldsmithing, gem faceting and setting.

And of course, all things pointy. I suppose every craft evolved specialized things for stabbing and jabbing, teasing, perforating, chipping and picking, from flame-hardened twig to bone needle to awl and haft. These days, for sculpting ice, the d'outil du jour et arme de choix is the chainsaw. Now there's a crossover.

"On one level, it is kind of surprising that there aren't more crossovers; on the other, the craft has been around so long that we don't realize that a particular WW tool was originally a crossover tool."

Great point. Although multiple use, such as �tzi's* copper axe, serving as both weapon and light woodsman's axe, was probably the rule, at least 5,300 years ago, anyway.

"Too, because the craft is so ancient, the crossover may well have been more often in the other direction, as witnessed by the belt plane that Stanley sold in the heyday of flat-belt machinery."

You have thought deeply and wisely, leaving much to ponder.

*The frozen man found in the �tztal Alps on the border between Italy and Austria.