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I've been on a "git 'er done" home shop rampage for the last few weeks. Ran a dedicated 220 circuit to the garage. Learned how to bend half inch EMT and did that without screwing up a single piece of conduit. Got a 1hp Fuji VFD for the Bridgeport and a 3hp Fuji VFD for the 14.5" South Bend from the nice folks at Wolf Automation. Put up a nice belt drive garage door opener on the shop side of the garage this weekend. That's what is prompting me to write this post.

In the process of hanging the garage door opener, I had to drill a couple of holes in a piece of regular old angle iron. I was using a nothing fancy hand held DeWalt drill and the set of drill bits that I normally use for household tasks. The drill didn't seem to be working as quickly as I had expected, maybe because this drill and drill bits usually get put to work on wood and drywall. Anyway, I put the drill in reverse at one point to back out a drill bit. Chucked in a larger drill bit and went to open up the hole I was working on in the angle iron and the drill worked like total crap. It wouldn't drill worth two cents. I chucked in a bit one size smaller and got the same result. I went up to 5/16 of an inch on the drill size and that worked like crap too. After looking things over for a minute, I realized I had been working with the drill in reverse for the last few sizes I had attempted. AAAARGH!!! After a quick trip to the basement and a touch up of the drill bits on the bench grinder, I returned to the garage, put the drill in FORWARD, and drilled the holes in the angle iron as if it were made of butter. So, what's the moral of this story? Drink more coffee before picking up a hand drill? Don't work with my glasses all sweated up? Engage Brain before using tools? How many engineers does it take to drill a hole in a piece of angle iron? I have no idea, but I thought this would make some of you smile.


Thanks,
George H. Meinschein, P.E.
Firearm and Ballistics Engineering LLC
150 Brittany Drive
Freehold, NJ 07728
gmeinschein@...
Cell#: 732-580-1736

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-George M.