Let's hear some overkill stories

[Bada Bing]

I spent a while shopping for a good corded drill and ended up with a Milwaukee. Halloween coming up, I was laughing to find the first use I found for it: pupil holes for a jack o' lantern!

Couldn't find my smaller drills, so out comes the bruiser...

That got me wondering: people on this site must have some great stories of outright tool overkill. Anyone?

[DougB]

I trim my fingernails with my compound miter saw...finally found a use for the compound feature :7

OK, OK that's not really true...I don't really use the compound feature :7

[cabinetman]

An upright 6"x48" belt sander works good too. You get a much finer edge with an oscillating spindle sander. I used to use a Stanley #5, but it's a bit bulky, especially on the pinkie nails.

[TDHofstetter]

I've found THAT to be an excellent tool for removing callouses from my hands & feet... :)

Also works fine for plantar warts.

-- Tim --

Why is
Basic normal psychology
NOT a mandatory
Grade-school class,
Like reading
And writing?

[cabinetman]

Tim

This thread prompted a confession. Thought I would clarify my other reply. I've got to preface this with saying that I'm a gambler and take chances that ordinary people don't or shouldn't. These ideas may seem a little weird and therefore shouldn't be tried at home.

I was handplaning an edge with my Stanley #5 and accidentally nicked my fingernail. Well, it just took the smoothest little sliver off that I have ever seen. So, I tried another part of my nail and WOW, trimmed it faster than any nail clipper I have ever used. It was a bit bulky, so I switched to my low angle block plane, and man what a difference.

When I got done, there were a bunch of tiny straight edges and some frays, so I went over to my stand up 6"x48" belt sander and smoothed out all the edges. I had on a 80x belt, which left some sanding marks even though I sanded with the grain. I finished up with a touch up with my oscillating spindle sander. Came out nice. I might give 'em a coat of water white clear lacquer, in case LOML wants to go to the Bistro De La Gastro Elegance, for dinner, a very exclusive dining experience, where your nails are checked at the door.

Then I thought, clear oil base polyurethane might be a better choice because it may take more abuse. If I did use that maybe a satin would look better than a gloss. It might be interesting to put that one to a poll.

My next revelation was one day while using the air hose to blow sawdust and chips off, I had this brainstorm to use the dust collector instead. Made sense to me. Why blow that stuff all over the shop. So I unhooked my pickup hose at the RAS and turned on my 7 HP cyclone. Immediately it tried to suck the shirt right off my back. So I took off my shirt. It did a fantastic job, but I gotta tell ya-all that stickin' the hose in my armpits made me laugh. I'm very ticklish. If a shirt was hanging on a hanger and someone walked over to it and lifted the sleeve and tickled it there, I would break out in laughter from the other side of the room.

Anyway, as effective as this was, I decided not to remove my pants because you never know what could happen. It did get all the sawdust off of my face, and I don't have to blow my nose for at least a week.

Not many people know this, but a 4"x24" belt sander with a 50x silicon carbide belt would be perfect for tattoo removal. DAMHIKT.

I bet there are many shop secrets out there.
.

[TDHofstetter]

:7
:7
:7

-- Tim --

Why is
Basic normal psychology
NOT a mandatory
Grade-school class,
Like reading
And writing?

[Bada Bing]

All the stories are hilarious.

I really thought there'd be some more down-to-earth tales. Another one from my genuine experience: I *have* hooked a cordless drill to the end of a pepper mill in order to grind tons of pepper for grilled steaks.

All your tales are great to hear.

David

[TDHofstetter]

I've used a half-inch corded drill to make up twisted-pair cable from 20-guage stranded wire...

Werx the NUTS, though. :)

-- Tim --

Why is
Basic normal psychology
NOT a mandatory
Grade-school class,
Like reading
And writing?

[CajunRider]

I don't know if you would call this an over kill or not but I once built a set it and forget it fishing rod for catching red snappers. I took a used huge starter for a Catterpillar diesel engine, connect that to a large reel with a hefty drag set, use a small leaf spring for a rod with a stainless pulley at the end. The pulley is rigged with a kill switch so when the line reached the end where I put a pingpong size brass ball the whole thing stopped. At the other end of the brass ball is the steel leader and a strong circle hook. All I had to do was to go to the fishing reef, bait the hook, lower the line, when I see a strike, I flipped the on switch, fish would be reeled in. When the line stopped automatically, I just gaffed the fish and brought it in.

In another case more woodworking related, I used the table saw to cut styrofoam sheets - Faster than hot knife going through butter.

[rrich]

>I've used a half-inch corded drill to make up twisted-pair
>cable from 20-guage stranded wire...
>

B T D T