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Make yourself a 'bumper' tool for your lathe - modify an insert tool holder with a roller bearing at the end (looks like a knurling tool, but with a bearing instead). Then you can mount bent shafts/screws/bolts in the lathe chuck and by applying cross-slide pressure with the roller, slowly massage the bend out.

I have a neighbour who's the complete opposite of this. He gets a new tool, insists he can improve it, and fails miserably. Usually resulting in the original item being unusable. He provides hours of entertainment.

I've spent a long time (I'm 73) looking at and considering failure and have come to understand that every step of human progress is built on failure. There is no success without failure. Failure is the treasure house of learning. I spent so many years cursing it, until I realised it never goes away and it cannot be beaten. That doesn't mean it doesn't hurt any more, but I no longer fall very far into the pit of despond before I brush myself off and start again. I recently re-examined my various collections of things I've made. Every iteration and refinement of development comes from all the preceding pieces of work that must be made to discover their inadequacies and that makes me incredibly happy. Each one is a unique journey. So, how about "The demerit badges of honour collection"? They mean we're doing something and we should be proud of that.

I've been homeless for the last couple years, and watching your Tested videos has been a wonderful way to pass the time. I learn as much from what you make as from the pearls of wisdom you drop along the way. I just discovered they've uploaded a bunch of Mythbusters episodes, and they're a blast to revisit. I am a maker myself, and I will be moving into an apartment in a few days. Can't wait to get back to making. Thanks for all the sustenance and inspiration.

I made a few modifications to the shop sandblast cabnet that made it much nicer to use. Attached a small air powered vibrator to the hopper and tee it into the foot pedal control. Now we can keep less media in the hopper and not have to shake the booth every few minutes. Media would collect in the corners, so I added vents to pull outside air through those spots. The extra airflow cleared the dust cloud out of the cabnet so visibility was vastly improved. I also put a lock on the air pressure regulator, so the shop knucklehead couldn't raise the pressure above the shatter point of the media. This created less dust and extened the life of the media.😂

I saw the thumbnail and recognized it immediately. I really want one for my jewelry shop but used one here are few and far between and can't afford a new one. I got to use them at school for jewelry work. Lovely to use

There's something very sweet about Adam lovingly refurbishing an old well-used tool 🥰

In my shop, I wire up standard clamp lights to the inner wiring so that when I flip the switch of the machine, the light comes on. The clamps allow me to position them however I need depending on the machine. I find those lights at rummage sales all the time for $1 so I just buy them and attach them to machines. Usually only a 5-10 minute project to add a light to a machine.

Adam, I just finished re-watching your episode on your lathe injury. Might I suggest placing small squares of material next you your lathe, say 3" square, to use for buffing and polishing. A full rag poses greater risk of pulling your hand into the lathe. My father lost much of his index finger this way.

You know the uses of your shop are endless and that’s amazing to me. That any and every resource you could ever need is there it seems like. Thanks for taking your time to make content to share your love of the hobby and art!

My grandfather (a fitter by trade) had a hand cranked miniature drill press in his home shop. It fascinated me as an eight year old. It started with the chuck fully raised and the work clamped to the table. You began cranking and it started to spin up the flywheel. When the flywheel reached the target speed, something inside switched and the chuck started automatically lowering (without spinning). Then when the tool reached the work, the flywheel would connect to the shaft and start to spin the chuck. You had to keep cranking to keep the flywheel at the correct speed. Once the flywheel slowed too much, the chuck would automatically raise. For a deeper bore, you might have to wind the machine up again and go for two or three shots. No idea what ever happened to it, but boy was it fascinating to watch.

Between the power hack saw and this drill press, I simply don't have a favorite. Best channel on the tube, Adam rocks

i can spend hours watching Adam take apart and clean gear. So relaxing. But then I'd never get anything done. Thanks Adam.

No audio track, no crappy music. Just hanging out in the workshop with Adam. Leaving a 👍🏻

The courage Adam has at just TAKING APART a new thing, is amazing! I've had to do it a few times myself, but just... that's the first thing he does?! Bravo dude, bravo!

"Take it out of the box and fondle it" - Adam, you're a man of my own heart. After getting a new tool, I often do the same!

Every “Oh Wow” Adam says just puts a smile on my face. Thank you for all the great content mate!

The full-set of demerit badges could be the "Famous Last Words" Bundle.

you are courageous sir. I would've been very hesitant to take that precision machine apart the way you did for fear I didn't get back together just right but I saw what you meant that shaft was bent. Good job straightening it out. I wonder what kind of special bits one has to get to use in it. Friend of mine here in town is a clock and watchmaker and he has a whole shop full of miniature tools like that! Miniature Lays and cutters and everything you'd want to make tiny tiny watch parts. You've probably seen all that stuff before. All this stuff is so cool. Thanks for the video!

What a lovely little sensitive drill press! Another use for them is making a decorative perlage finish on metal parts by replacing the drill bit with a small abrasive rod or a boxwood dowel with diamond paste. For drilling super tiny holes and milling small parts I have an old Revo 540 four axis milling machine with a super precise high speed NSK spindle that was given to me by my work. The controller on it was dead so I modified it for manual use. I kept the stepper motors and wired up drivers for auto feed on the X axis and fourth axis. I also added a rotary encoder to the fourth axis for precise rotary positioning- all movements have digital readouts using a Touch DRO setup. I also made a neat mounting plate so I could attach a small rotary table to the fouth axis, which allows me to do some really neat machining setups- it came in handy when I was replicating some of the original Aluminum chassis parts for the mothership robot from the film "Batteries Not Included" for a friend. That robot chassis was really pretty complex and had lots of incredibly small fasteners!

It's always a good idea to talk quietly and calmly around a sensitive drilling machine...

Becoming an Eagle scout requires earning 20+ merit badges and completing a project. Scouting is a 'learning through failure' organization. I think this bundle should be awarded as an 'phoenix badge' bundle, because of the successes that come from the ashes of failure.

There is something so awesome about a tool that is so beautifully designed. It's a pleasure to use and a joy to look at. Thanx for sharing. 🌻

Years ago I had a DuMore drill press. They were at one time the gold standard for small drill presses for PCB work. If you ever need a step up from that one look at the ones made by Servo. While on the subject of drill presses and mods I am currently tricking out my Proxxon TBM 115 Mini Drill press. It's a nice little press and overall is fairly well designed for the money, but has a serious shortcoming, It runs way too hot. So I have modified the die casting by milling slots in the back and also in the top of the casting around the motor drive pulley for airflow around the motor. I also drilled a star burst pattern of holes in the top cover and added a 3D printed (thank you X1 Carbon) air flow guide to which I attached a 60mm 120V fan for additonal cooling. This has made a big difference. I also designed a custom electrical junction box for a variable speed control which I also 3D printed. All of these mods were absolutely necessary for drilling PCB's as prototypes often have more than 100 holes and stopping to allow the motor to cool down just is not an option, especially if you have a dozen boards to drill! The hole sizes I drill range from a #80 (0.013") drill to as large as 1/8" using 1/8" shank micro grain carbide bits. I always use the Proxxon collets for PCB drills as they have far less runout than a chuck, even less than the really fine Jacobs (USA made version) 7B 0-1/4" chuck I bought as an upgrade. In addition to these mods, a friend of mine is making a custom furniture grade cabinet with a drawer for accessories and drills. I also designed in an LED illuminator into the cabinet that will shine up through the hole in the drill press base. This will be really useful for PCB work but I might have to modify an IKEA Jansjo goosneck LED lamp for topside work. For dust and swarf removal I designed and 3D printed a clamp for a mini vacuum hose (repurposed CPAP hose) that attaches to the column. I was also able to find a small ShopVac Micro vacuum that is perfect for the job but I plan to add a speed control to reduce the noise as full vacuum power is not needed for such light debris. So all in all I think it will end up being a nice piece of kit for PCB and small protowork. I plan to publish the work somewhere when it is all done and I'll probably work up some plans for the cabinet as well. I have not seen the cabinet yet as I will be picking it up tomorrow. It will be good to get this project completed. It has been more than a one day build thus far!

I can’t say that I’ve modified any shop tools, but I did build my own slotted-jig to help me cut custom jump-rings for my homemade chainmaille projects. It turned out well enough to make a couple thousand rings roughly. I was cutting stainless steel jump rings with a super thin diamond-coated blade on a Dremel (with eye protection of course!). Then, I tumbled the jump-rings in steel shot to remove any sharp edges and burrs.

Thank you Adam for once again introducing me to a tool I didn’t know existed and now desire.

I’ve got a mini compound lathe & mill from 1947 and last month I spent the better part of the day just taking it apart. Washing it up, refinishing all of the mating services, serviced the motor etc. I found it very enjoyable, and I always pull up one of your videos when doing something like that. I was lucky enough to re-purchase this item after being incredibly stupid and selling it. It took years to get back though.

I had a tiny drill press where the table moved up and down for drilling. Of course, it was part of a Wilesco model-steam set-up that I got when I was 8, but, still :) For my " Big Boy" drill press, I made a pair of hold-down clamps for it, really simply using some heavy 1.5" steel flat-bar. I notched them so I could get a bit of a bend in one end, welded that notch closed again, and used my angle-grinder to cut some serrations into the "jaws" of these hold-downs. Even made by own little T-nuts for the table. Very simple, decidedly crude, but effective, and I was darned proud....

So very delightful. I found the same sensitive drill press, but not the micrometer positioning system. Always a student of micrometric accuracy and metrological science in general. This was especially enjoyable to see you put the technical care and veneration into a tool many precision trades!

I'll do you one better Adam, I designed my own tool. I call it the LE-Press, and it enables me to recycle plastic by hand. It's basically an all-metal spring-loaded flower press. I use it in a toaster oven to do a form of press molding. It gives me incredibly flat and solid sheets and sometimes an incredible level of detail in molded parts. It's dirt cheep and I've completely eliminated shredding! I don't often brag but I will brag about it. I think it, an my methods, are better than a lot of the other current ways of recycling HDPE at home. One of my favorite things about it is that I keep trying to redesign it and nothing ever beats the original idea I scribbled on a napkin over 12 years ago. It's mostly coincidence and things I didn't even consider. But I just keep stumbling back into the original design. Like using bolts in the four corners. I did that out of necessity. But when I tried other methods I found that the bolts allowed me to incrementally cinch down each corner a little bit at a time. Which I didn't even know was necessary when I first designed it. It reminds me of that trope in sci-fi where the prototype is always more powerful than the following iterations. We make jokes about it, but sometimes it just be like that. I need to get back into makeing videos about my press. (I moved) but if anyone's interested you can see my poorly made videos on this accounts channel.

I adapted a cross slide vise onto a bench top drill press and attached a dust collector to the swiveling work plate, which currently also functions as a tool holder, it all made the drill press work soo much easier

Holes you cant see ! Thats a lovely idea using dial indicators , micro jig-borer, very nice. After finding excessive runout on a lathe and wanting to drill 0.5mm holes in 1mm rod ends I made a drilling jig with two opposing ER8 extension collets running in oilite bushes epoxy'd in place around a single ground shaft for alignment. Remove shaft , insert collet extensions, one with additional thrust bearing resting on the ER nut and HTD pulley to power, the other holds the pcb drill and slides freely with finger pressure to drill. with ER8 on a 12x100mm shaft (C12-ER8A-100L) they can be inserted from the rear so final collet to collet distance is ~ 25mm. It worked beautifully. Always a pleasure to see the life of the workshop. Dumore, still in production. Those Fortex drills are gorgeous. 100um, 0.1mm amazing. PS, the ER8 collers are shockingly badly split sawn, even at £17 each but the hole seems central.

I love this kind of video , Adam your a star , gorgeous little drill , the spin speed is awesome . thank you for showing us .

Black and Decker used to make a drill press that utilized a hand drill. I managed to make it accommodate a Dremel type of rotary tool. I was so stoked with the results that I got another rotary tool and left the other in the press. Not bad for a garage sale find.

That is a VERY nice piece of equipment! You definitely have more nerve than I do, as the moment I started taking something apart and it has precision threads or parts, I pretty much go hands-off. Too finely detailed for me to tinker with. Really neat to see this operate, and see how finely precision tuned it is.

A picture speaks a thousand words. Beautiful machine 😊❤

I am REALLY looking forward to the video where you remake the mainshaft that's bent!

Would have loved a drill press like that one,I use to do a lot of 1/144 scale star wars kits and would use .05 and .025 drills like you had with just a pin vise to do lighting and other modifications, would have to buy packs of just those 2 sizes because I would break them A LOT!! Thanks for sharing

Love your content adam it always inspires me to create more stuff for my work space. Thank you for all that you have and are doing. You will live forever in my heart andin my workshop.❤

The fact that you found something made thoughtfully enough that you love it. We understand.

I spent a year in a machine shop, to augment my artistic tool use ability, and one of our tasks was to drill a tiny hole in a particular part. We did this on the Bridgeport, and it just seemed like such over-kill. I suggested to the owner that we get something smaller. OMG, we spent way too much money on machines that just couldn't do this simple task. This Looks like exactly what we needed. I had a visceral reaction when I saw this. Thanks Adam.

I have a 1936 craftsman lathe that i totally refurbished and used the same variable speed sewing machine motor on it, works fantastic thanks for that vid on using it...

I love the sound of the oil can, the little ku-thunk just sounds so nice.

What a beautiful drill! I particularly love the micro adjustable table with the twin Starrett dial indicators. Very sweet

Thanks so much for your video on the pencils! I was at a frustration point with carpenters pencils and had just decided to start exploring options. Papermate Sharpwriters are a game changer. Thanks! (and yes I've tried other mechanical pencils but they were always too fragile)

Great job. Thank you 😊

It's like coming home. It is beautiful, nostalgic piece of precision artwork. It was meant to be in your shop!

So Awesome! Thanks Adam.

Very nice addition to your workshop 👍 love the old Starrett dial indicators 😻

Few things more satisfying than disassembling something like this in good shape and well taken care of, and mostly smashing every surface with metal polish, removing burrs and flattening faces.

I live near Racine. This video reminded me of when I worked for Grainger (call center) and would have people calling in looking for obscure parts like the one you were trying to bend. Luckily, we had parts experts. They taught me quite a lot about threads and all the measurements that go into finding parts.

Dumore makes both a tabletop located speed control switch and a footswitch for same. You will want to get one or make one. Heat absolutely destroys the tiny bits if you just run it wide open at 17k rpm.

I bought a Unimat 3 multi-tool in the 70's that I still use weekly as a lathe for delrin and aluminum. I love that little tool. It is just the right size for what I work on.

I had no idea drill bits even came in such a small size. Some marvels in engineering deserve preservation. I knew you'd want to remake that bent shaft...it practically begged to be replaced.

ANOTHER AMAZING TOOL!! back to back

there is def some asmr elements to these videos. love it.

I have a Dumore sensitive drill press, a standard model, without the cross slide table. I used it a lot when my then current hobby was building RC model airplanes. It is a wonderful machine.

Calm Adam’s voice is smooth as silk. Maybe some more videos like that for those more trivia cinema talks would be nice. Sitting on your chair, lamp beside you “hello earthlings here’s some stories about yours and mine favorite movies. Welcome to talks with Adam. I’m your host Adam savage:” 😅

Anything that has Starrett tools on it catches my eye. We are a Starrett family - family have worked there for decades. Cool to see!!

Beautiful piece

So, from the brief view it looked like the "fine drills" were pcb via/hole drills, which are single flute and fine for perf board and some plastics-- may I suggest for drilling smaller than 1mm to try using micro end mills? They tend to come in packs of 10 of the same size and have multiple flutes for smoother cuts. I used to use them for CNC-ing microfluidic medical devices in polycarbonate. Love the new tool!

I have a 3 phase planner thicknesser which has very short beds, so I made adjustable/removable in-feed and out-feed extension tables out of quality ply and hardwood. They worked ok.

When I see an old tool like this, I imagine the person who must have wielded it, and I think it likely often that the original person who used it and modified it, that they are perhaps no longer living. I kind of like how a video like this illuminates some quiet aspect of that person's life, and it makes me think of my grandfather, and the tools he held, working away in his shop.

Those circuit drills are incredibly impressive. I use to be a machinist for a micro-medical supplier and used a lot of .005-.007 drills. It never failed to blow my mind that the they could break by practically looking at them wrong, but properly dialed-in they would withstand pecking 500+ holes in stainless at 20k rpm before losing tolerance. Wildly impressive.

Day derailed by a drill. That's Adam! Liked your spacesuit article in Air and Space Quarterly.

I'm a heavy vehicle mechanic. I am almost constantly adapting tools for the role I need them to fill. One example is the air hammer bit for driving out the bushings on air drum brakes. Lilse tool number 29450. Lisle made it reversible, but in a lot of cases, you could end up getting the end stuck in the hub itself. So what a lot of mechanics do is weld a bead on the tool to keep the 2 pieces together, effectively turning it into a single piece.

Generally if I'm modifying a tool it's because it broke/failed in some way. I was making custom oak trim on a router table and the router "died." Pulled the back off, found out the speed controller gave up the ghost. Didn't want to buy a new router, and waiting on a new part to come in wasn't an option. I grabbed some wire and bypassed the speed controller. It worked beautifully, but only at max rpm. Added a sign to both the table and router saying "Max rpm only, NO BITS OVER 1" " and went right back to work.

Hope to see you in Chicago, Adam!

I bought a pretty cheap soldering station and added 5 Loc-line helping hands, a little battery operated fan to keep the fumes away, holders for wire and solder, a brass wire soldering tip cleaner and a handle (inspired by Adam's portable soldering station). The whole thing is modular, the helping hands can be removed and the fan as well as the tip cleaner are attached with lego. The thing looks pretty crazy now, but I got everything I need to solder in once place.

That is a super nice piece of equipment. I am seriously jealous.

One little led light shining down would be a good thing ! Love your tools too Adam ! As well as you buddy ! Peace and Love !

I love upgrading tools to my needs. I modified my Bosch tablesaw with a dewalt gear-system for the fence and an electric saw height adjustment. Took me 6 month. Made a video about it (in german). Had alot of fun making it and it turned out great.

Why yes i did just click off another video to see 'uploaded 23 seconds ago'. I have been blessed with a chilled Friday afternoon

Love to see the Wisconsin representation. I’m an engineer in Milwaukee and there are more shop tool/machinery builders around here than I ever realized!

Good morning! It is good to see you early and in the shop!

Love your videos Adam. Never missed Mythbusters. Awhile back I listened in horror to your story about getting a rag stuck in a moving lathe almost ripping your hand off? And you're doing it again? DUDE!!

i have a very real need in my life for one of those. it is actually the stop in a project. I must obtain one of these

I went to Hot Springs, AR for the Eclipse too! It was amazing!

Q: How do you find out how heavy a Red Hot Chili Pepper is? A: Give it a weigh, give it a weigh, give it a weigh now

My lathe(s) have always received upgrades/enhancements to improve on the manufacturers designs. My Centec mill also got some improvements once it had been stripped down and renovated.

On my Ryobi palm router, I painted arrows so I know where the power switch is. Also a lot of my tools just have circles and lines for on off, so I colored Red or Green to make it more simpler.

I thought this video was going to be about a Proxxon tool but I'm happy to have discovered another miniature tool maker. There's also Cameron mini drill presses

I love my Dumore. I use it a lot. I highly recommend getting the matching Dumore foot pedal to control the speed. If the chuck is worn it can be rebuilt. Cool mod on yours. I have a mini x-y from a microscope for mine.

Love your work

Engineering is so impressive.. brilliance in tool composition and design .., masterminds

I want to own one, even just to put on a shelf for gazing at. Such a beautiful industrial object.

I could have used that Drill Press a couple years ago. I needed to pre-drill some holes in some thin Lexan to sew together with single strand wire thread. I was crafting those Canards on the front of Lemans style GT race cars as close to scale as I could get them. I didn't want to just glue them on.

The X-Y stage for that drill press reminds me of the micro-manipulator stages they used to use at my first job in computing--the grad students in biology/zoology used them for looking at samples under microscopes. The "drives" were micrometer-like.

I routinely modify crimping presses (both benchtop and toggle) to be more usable. Better fixtures for applicator tooling, replacing fasteners to require fewer types and fewer wrenches, magnetic workholding, fixture plates, etc.

What a beautiful machine! That was fun to watch! If there's fondling involved, I will leave you two alone;)

Two potential areas of improvement I see are a chuck key holder to ensure it stays with your precision drill and maybe a carry handle like its predecessor. Being able to tweak something and make it your own is a special talent and magical in many ways. I have an obsession with flashlights and admired how it is possible to bundle an LED that can flood an area with high CRI and pleasant tint beam but also have a long distance throwing LEP. I can't afford the real article so I 3D printed a twin retainer that can link two flashlight bodies with different setups to flood and throw. It was my moment of design and nerdom prowess shining. Nothing compared to what you have achieved but I am sheepishly proud of my creation!

fantastic drill

lovely accurate drill. i took a year to make a vice fitting to quickly convert my lathe into a mill. used to take 30 mins set up... now 2 mins or less. yabbba dabba

cremasteric reflex when you polished that with a rag and the drill. ... Years ago I saw someone break their finger in multiple places doing something similar.

Mini precision high speed/sensitive drill presses are one of my favorites at fleamarkets. I've found 3 and never paid more than $20 for them as most people look at them and think they are toys. I used to also have Hamilton of Maryland mini vertical and mini horizontal milling machines. They were great quality and built more like a larger Bridgeport than one of the hobby mini mills of today. Other things things I'd find great deals on were mini rifflers and precision files like from Grobet and such, as well as carbide bit sets and such for Foredoms. People look at small things and tend to think they are cheap. I DID make a mistake one day and bought about 2k #55 drill bits. It was just little 5 or 10 packs of mini numbered drill bits, I forget if USA or Euro manufactured and I didn't hesitate and bought them all. I only realized afterwards they were all one size, heh. I think I only spent $20 so I don't mind. I've also bought a lot of German (actually, a lot of WEST German) made screwdrivers that were NOS for a buck a piece or less.

a tip Adam, if you want to "feel" while precision drilling, you need a boley, or Lorch watchmakers mill/drill (8 or 10mm), they have dial indicator movements, micro collets, and the handwheels can be disengaged and levers put in place to make them a slide, not worm/wheel operation, increasing feel for this work on small parts.

A video of just the sliding table that it has, would be much appreciated. That accessory that a previous owner made, is simply outstanding!

I had one just like it for a few years until i swapped for a Hauser precision drill. Excellent bit of kit, with a lot of work surface and quite precise. The chuck i had wasn't that good (worn off) but you can easily find replacements for these. Neat unit, very versatile. I DO strongly advise giving it a larger base, preferably a permanent home or a large cast iron tray. One it falls, it's game over, which is why i don't have mine anymore. I put off putting it someplace secure and i paid the price, which is a shame, because it's a gem of a drill.

A couple suggestions. When I am polishing something on my lathe, I like to use a piece of old leather belt. I can charge the split side with rouge or polishing compound and use the smooth side for finish buffing. Whenever I am stoning a surface I try to use a figure of eight pattern, it helps to make the surface dead flat rather than using a circular pattern. Also I have an old set of hold down clamps from A2Z manufacturing (now closed) for my Sherline mill. They are round aluminum discs with a counter sunk hole to fit 8-32 button head screws. The screw head edges are ground off center so they act like little cams that put side pressure on the work piece. They should work a treat on your tapped drill press table.