I remember my dad instructing me how important it was to handle drill bits with care. “Very hard, but brittle – never leave them in the chuck or drop them on the floor – they break too easily”, I recall the warnings. I have since lost count of the number of drill bits I have snapped, most due to some less than perfect battery drill control, and the occasional clumsy ‘knocking the drill over on the bench over with the bit still chucked up’ antics (sorry dad), but I had never seen this before:

Sam went off with the super drill to the community farm to help put up a little wooden shed. Upon return, with nonchalant dismissal, she supplies a perfectly bent, 90 degree drill bit! A magic trick for sure. When I enquire about it, all I get is an “it just happened while I was drilling”. No amount of careful questioning reveals any more explanatory details – “it just became bent”. Amazing.

Aside from freak drill bit craziness, another tool, usually so solid and dependable did some interesting bending recently. While attempting to remove a monster large nail from a slab of reclaimed oak this happened to the claw hammer…

Anyway, that nail never did come out, I cut off the end, and it remains. Incidentally this chunky characterful slab of oak (below) was a window lintel that had remained undisturbed for many years in a farm outbuilding. Aside from a little wood worm in the natural edged sapwood section, that would have benefited from some attention, it could have continued to exist as a lintel for many years. Nevertheless it was being replaced during some serious ‘tear down put up’ renovation work. But hey, it should be just as happy as a mighty garden bench!

Just a fun little post this one, so the only other thing that occurs, which wasn’t exactly a ‘bending’, is below. Quite out of the blue and unexpected, luckily the bandsaw blade covers did their job well, and the flailing blade was quite contained.

The failure is right on the weld and this was quite a new and sharp blade, one of those expensive bi-metal variable tpi ones, so we will see what the supplier says… [Update:  NLS Tools, the bandsaw blade supplier, sent out a new replacement free of charge, so thumbs up for that one].

Thanks for reading, wishing you happy, and safe making, without any tool bends – apart from super interesting safe ones ;)

Posted: 05|9|11 at 10:37 pm. Categorically squeezed into: Fun.
Tags: bandsaw blade break, Bend, Drill Bit, oak bench, unusual drill bit
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