Woodworking

I wouldn’t call myself a woodworker — I’m just a maker. Most of what I make, apart from some software concepts and a few computers, is from wood, yes, so I’m more of a wood-maker.

I do spend some time skimming through the assorted YouTube videos of people’s projects and often find some inspiration for my own projects.

One of the things upon which I depend, like many others, is mechanical fasteners to screw things together.

Drilling pilot-holes is better than simply forcing a screw into wood and risking a split or tear-out or absurd amounts of torque to drive a screw (and break its head off). And countersinking the screw-head is better than leaving it protruding from the surface or crushing a portion of the surface.

So, a pilot-hole and countersink. They often need to be done together.

It seems that often times, makers have separate bits to do each task. Drill one, swap the bit, drill another. Thankfully, the world has embraced keyless chucks — imagine how much of a pain in the ass it would be to simultaneously juggle bits, screws, a chuck key…

So, rather than juggle a pilot drill bit and a countersink bit, save a few bucks (and headaches) and make the small purchase to get a single bit that will both drill and a pilot-hole and countersink in one shot.

These are absolutely awesome.

And with the collar, I can set it to countersink the screw-heads to exactly the same depth every single time. There is a limitation, of course, I can’t use just one tool to do everything with screws. I use two drills: one for the countersink/pilot bit, and another for the actual T-25* bit to drive screws.

Kick your creations up a few notches.

While you’re at it, pick up a few self-centering drill bits as well.

You’re welcome.

* Phillips heads are so last-century.

It’s A Trap!

I built a trap door.

This was the last of the flooring project.

The trap door in the master closet — not an accurate phrase because it’s most definitely not an actual trap — is access to the crawl space under the house. It was just a bit of carpet slapped onto a not-quite-square floor cut-out. But, having upgraded the floors from carpet to laminate, also providing a finished trap door was needed.

No trip-hazards and nothing to get in the way: wood floor secured atop the not-quite-square cut-out, some reinforcement around it, a continuous hinge, and a flush trap-door pull mortised into the surface.

I’ll still need to sort out the interior trim and possibly add a compression damper to hold it open and limit dropping it.

But, for now, I think I’ve earned this.

Room #4 Started…

Before…

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The previous tenants didn’t have a firm grasp of cutting in or tape to prevent straying outside the lines…

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We sprayed the ceiling — because it, too, needed it. And while we were it, we also prepped the gray wall with an extra coat of paint that we’ll cover with a different color to unify the room. Cutting in with brush-work and roller will be necessary for the walls.

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I’m afraid I did get just a bit of paint on the woodwork and the carpet. But it’ll come right off with a bit of actually trying.

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Oh, and the part coming off is the woodwork and carpet. We’ll be replacing those throughout the house. Just not worthwhile to mask off the parts that we were planning on disposing.

Good news, we also had a really good opportunity to install an actually-functional ceiling fan/light combo:

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