I lured you in here with a catchy title but now I’m going to tell you my story.
This last weekend I decided I wanted to add some threaded inserts to my spoil board because I need to change-out some jigging from time to time, and also the masking tape/super-glue isn’t super-consistent in terms of thickness.
I thought that inserts every 4" (a total of thirty of them) would be okay. I wanted some inserts beyond the reach of my router so figured I’d just drill them with a jig and a hand-drill.
I further estimated that using a piece of pegboard would save having to make a jig, it would provide consistent spacing and square hole placement.
NOPE, the pegboard I had on-hand is out of square. I’m talking the hole pattern, it isn’t square. I didn’t figure this out until AFTER I started drilling holes, of course.
So what the heck, I’ll just make a new spoil board. But I gotta tell you, getting to those screws under the Y-axis extrusions is a pain in the rear.
Previously, I used a small ratchet (designed for 1/4" bits) to loosen the screws, then removed the bit from the ratchet and spun it (in the screw) with my fingers. Very tedious, it is easy to drop the bit.
So still not happy w/ how my board turned out, and thinking of making another (still contemplating buying the aluminum one), I decided before I take one more step, I’m going to improve my speed and reduce my frustration level on those screws.
I used a hole-saw to make plywood discs with 1/4" holes in the middle, and pressed a couple of bits into the center holes using a block of wood to apply pressure.
First use impressed: So nice and so fast, so efficient compared to my previous method. And I don’t have to worry about any steel to aluminum contact on the bottom of the rail, I was always worried about scratching things with that ratchet.
So there you have it, my deluxe spoil board screwdriver.
In one picture you will see a commercial finger-spinner. With a bit inserted, the combo was too tall to fit in the tight quarters under the extrusion. When I press-fit the bits into the plywood, I have to press them all the way into the hole, bottoming them out, there is no extra height available beyond about the height of a bit + 1/8" or so.
