Page 296 - Making things move_ DIY mechanisms for inventors, hobbyists, and artists

Chapter 9 Making Things and Getting Things Made 273

CAUTION Don’t saw or plane used or scavenged wood. Old leftover nails
and screws might be embedded, and that could be dangerous.
Although hacksaws and coping saws are good for small jobs by hand, power tools like
table saws, jigsaws, routers, miter saws, and circular saws can make big or repetitive
jobs much easier. Low-end versions of these will neither leave you broke nor take up
much room—even table saws come in extra small.

Make sure you have files and sandpaper around to finish your cuts and avoid splinters.

Working with Metal
A few key tools and machines are used to work with metal. We’ve already talked
about drill presses, which you can use with a variety of materials. A more advanced
tool that’s similar to a drill press is a mill.

As mentioned in Chapter 7, a milling machine is a fancier version of a drill press where
the base moves in the x, y, and z axes, so you can do more than just drill straight
down. Although you may never use this machine yourself (it’s large and expensive), it’s
helpful to keep it in mind when you’re designing parts you’ll need to have custom
made. You can use mills with normal drill bits and also with endmills, which are like
drill bits with the tip cut off so they can create holes with flat bottoms and cut along
the side of the bit as well. If you do want to try your hand at milling, you can get a
very capable mini-mill from LittleMachineShop.com for around $650 plus the cost of
some basic tools.

Just as you can wrap a paperclip around a pencil with a little work, you can bend
many shapes, sizes, and thicknesses of metal in various ways if you have the right
tools. All metal forming works like this. You just need the piece of metal and
something to wrap around or form it to. Clamps help to hold a metal piece to the
form initially, and a rubber mallet or other nonmarring hammer can help convince the
metal to bend as you want. For 90° bends, you can clamp sheet metal in a vise and
bend it by hand or with the help of a hammer.

Working with Plastics
The same tools and techniques for working with wood and metal also work with
plastic. Many power tools (such as jigsaws and circular saws) have blades specifically
made for plastics.