Thread: What are you working on?

If you are going to use a Dremel, rotary tool motor, a $15 investment in a flex shaft will make the cutting tool much more accurate and infinitely safer. The thinnest hand piece will give you most control. A few drops of graphite in the flex cable will make it run smoother.

There are aftermarket flex shafts with thinner handpieces than the Dremel’s. Just make sure the attaching collar will fit your rotary tool, even with Dremel there are different size attachment collars.

Hang your Dremel on the wall and make a holder for the hand piece, 2 finish nails on either side of the handpiece. I keep 2 Dremel’s one corded and a cordless hanging from a shelf over my workbench, both with flex shafts.

BTW if you can, go cordless, the batteries last a long time and charge quickly, my cordless is over 6 years old and still going strong on the original battery, though I do have an extra battery.

Always, always pay attention to the rotation of the cutting piece, buy quality cutting discs, and secure the blade in a vise, or clamp it to the bench.

Originally Posted by JellyJar

So much fun with language words. I had an ex-girlfriend who remained a friend come back from college in Pennsylvania "Eh" quickly became part of our regular vocabulary.

PaulFlus: respect to your father for all he did for our country

So I finished the Packwood and am looking to get going on my Fredrick I thought was dead. Managed to get to clean steel and now it's time to deal with the crack at the toe. I haven't done this before so I'm looking for some tips. My plan is a little dremmel cut off on a wet sponge followed by some time on a Craftsman wet sharp I think Geezer has mentioned in the past. Here's a pic of my plan. The red ink is the crack. The blue is the new profile I'm aiming for. I have come to like the Spanish point and it looks like it will save the most steel. Advice appreciated.

Attachment 310205

If I don't destroy the blade It'll be time to clean up rust and make new scales.

You should really seek advice from Outback on this. He is a wizard when it comes to cutting steel. He helped me a couple years back and I have a really nice "Shorty" thanks to him!

Thanks for all the tips.

I'd basically written this blade off as dead, so I figure I don't have much to loose. Hopefully the nerves won't kick in at the last second. I'm most worried about cutting near the crack. The near wedge grind should help with keeping it together. If it breaks it breaks...it'll just go back to being a practice piece I learn new things with .

I have a flex shaft and will be using it at 5000 rpm (lowest speed available).

Yes, Outback has done some cool shorties . When I first started with this forum I kinda made it my mission to read through this thread, took awhile but I got though it. I'd never even thought of such a thing till I saw it. I think shorties are kinda cool. I actually have a WB 7/8 FBU in the mail with a messed up toe for just that purpose. It's a thinner grind than this Fredrick, so I want to learn a bit with this one before I tackle that project.

So...Anyone know what's-up with MikeT?

He sure comes and goes, doesn't he? Hope all is well with him.

I shot him a PM.

So I got this W Clauberg in a lot. It was gold plated at one time but it is all but gone now.

Seems really like trademark infringement with the pipe but...ya' know...

Still it's in pretty good shape besides a line of rust where the point meets the scales. So I started sanding and pretty soon I could see that there is a crack right under that line.


So I'm thinking maybe a French point. That way the overall length doesn't shrink but I get rid of the crack.

Kind of like this... thoughts????

That’s a really unusual place for a crack. If it’s cracked like that then, the French point will take care of that , without loosing edge length there is nothing else you can do and get rid of the crack. The crack won’t effect the shaving.

Agreed....We often see a line of corrosion up there where the blade sits on the scales.
Sand a bit more?.....

I'm with Tom on this. I bet if you get in that rust you will find just a deep rusted line and not a real crack. But, the french point will fix it completely. The angle on your line is a bit much IMO for a french point. Just get a look at a few pics on the WWW for comparison. Should be a nice fix!