Wednesday, February 8, 2012

A 12" Spade Bit Extension

It's pictured with the type of boring bit that it's meant for. It's an Irwin E88, 12" extension. It's in fine condition, except for some minor surface rust.

It's dawned on me that this blog might be a bit more interesting if I'd make little restoration projects out of some of these items. I'll give that a try with this one. I'll chuck it in the lathe and give it a good polishing with steel wool and/or fine abrasive paper.

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And here's the head end of it after some polishing.

There's still some scoring and pitting here and there that won't be easily gotten rid of; this will do. For an old, long-neglected piece of tool steel, it looks pretty darn good.

There's something very odd about the setscrews. The setscrews are two different lengths, pitches and styles.

The frontmost one is 1/4"-20 x 1/4" with a cup point. The one behind it is 1/4'-28 X 3/16" with a flat point. The female threads appear to be unmodified factory work. I have no idea what to make of that. It seems like a needless complication.

I looked up 'Irwin', and they're still a going concern, but this item appears to be obsolete, so I could find no specifications for it. (It seems that Irwin now only makes 'quick change' bit extensions.)

In any event, it deserves a good home. I'll install clips for it, and it can be a neighbour to my other 12" bit extension that's up on a joist.

Exposed joists are great for hanging things on. If I designed houses, there'd be a lot less drywall in them.

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