Tools, Glorious Tools

Got a few minor tool-related upgrades lately, so I figured I'd tally them up in one post for the sake of brevity.

First up, a while back I got this drill press vise, and then later got a drill press to stick it on.

It's a perfectly lovely vise, quite low profile, but it does have two minor inconveniences.

First, it has a flange on both sides to bolt it down to the table. This is nice when you want to bolt it down to the table, but quite inconvenient if you happen to want to work with something off the edge of the vise.

Second, it has a little radiused notch near the fixed jaw to reduce the stress concentration there, which is nice for keeping the vise from snapping in half, but quite annoying when trying to use a set of parallels to raise an item up off the base of the vise.

So I got myself a different style of vise, this time opting for a Wilton. Naturally, the first thing I did was fill out and submit the warranty registration card.

This style of vise is slightly less low profile, replacing the flange along both edges with a notch that you can stick a set of toe clamps into to secure it to the table. It also lacks the notch near the fixed jaw, which means that it's compatible with parallels.

So that's nice. It's always good to have more options than you think you'll need when it comes to work holding.

Next up is my hack saw. I got this hack saw ages ago and I've been using the blade it came with well past its best-before date.

I mean it still has teeth and they don't look all that bad.

At least until you compare them with the teeth at the end where they aren't as worn.

That's a pretty big difference, I guess.

So for the replacement I decided to go a bit bougie with some Starrett blades.

Thankfully these are standardized so they just drop right in.

Speaking of dropping in, the upper frame of this hack saw actually has a compartment for storing extra blades.

But sticking the extra 9 blades of this 10-pack in there would make the saw heavier, and make it rattle around when I'm using it, so I'm not sure how keen I am on actually storing them in there.

Anyway, last up I finally got myself a tool belt.

I've been going up and down ladders a lot lately, and figured it wouldn't be the worst idea to finally give one of these a try. I guess I'll see how it goes.