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  • The short saver - my new favorite homemade tool

    I was walking through the hardware store today when I got an idea.

    I picked up an all metal keyless drill bit chuck and a handle meant to mount files in, and $7.97 later I had my new favorite tool.



    The 1/4" hex shaft of the chuck will force fit into a type C file handle with no problem, but I might disassemble it later and bond them together with JB cold weld or something, just so they don't start moving off axis on me if things get too hot.


    The chuck will open up to a hair over 7mm, but bottoms out when trying to fit 8 mm rod. The 8mm will fit in the bore, but the teeth of the chuck won't open far enough. A different brand might be able to do it, or even if you filed a wee bit away on the teeth, but it's handled most of the shorts I've stuck in it.


    The other nice thing about it it, after you've melted down the short so low that it's too close to the face of the chuck for comfort, you can just punty up to the short, and then release it from the chuck so you can still use that last few centimeters of glass.



    I especially like using this to apply stringer, as the added weight of the chuck at the front seems to steady my hand a bit more.



    An unexpected surprise is that I can mount borostix in it. They don't spin absolutely on center, but it makes puntying up to them to mix them up is a bit nicer.

    Anyway, I'm sure I'm not the first to think of this, and chances are I'm just late to the game and you all already have one of these lying around your shop. But if you don't, I figured that this thread might help you build an inexpensive tool that turns out to be incredibly useful.

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