drilling hardware

going back and reading Z's article on building a drift anchor rig for his malibu brought out my rusty machinist skills, along with expletivies about abusing tools [ spade bits in aluminum as a countersink for instance...], and my innate gear head curiosity, [ i love figuring out machinery, and making it work again. i think in another life i was a tinker or blacksmith], plus my concern for safety in the shop and home.

so, did some digging, looking for countersinks, spot facers, drill bits for plastics and metal, and a set of drill stops or stop collars for same..

found!!; www.wlfuller.com

made here in the US, family owned and operated. there is a distributor locator link in the left side tabs..seem to be plenty of places to pick up their products throughout the pac nw..

guys, i know we all love to innovate, and improvise using tools at hand, i do it too, but sometimes using the wrong tool is just way too dangerous and a simple investment of a few dollars makes all the diifference in the world,,,,,,,and i must admit, the tool work pattern resulting from the use of that wood bit on aluminum when Z spot faced for the washers sure looked great.. but, please, if you follow Z's great plans, and don't have access to a spot facer or countersink, get a drill bit equal to the size hole you need, and use a drill stop set shallow on the bit to acheive the same result.. the risk with a spade bit is that it may chatter and jump out and impale you in a leg or abdomen...or worse.. [ insert very painful imagery here] 

and this isn't to take away from Z's work.. he did the job well, as we can all see in the pics.

i now relinquish  the