A Finer Line

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I've invested a very modest sum in what we used to call a clutch pencil - pictured - as I'm fed up with the motley collection of marking implements that currently infests my workshop. For the princely sum of £7.99, the thing came with sixty replacement leads in HB, 2H, 4H, 2B & 4B grades, plus a sharpener and an eraser: eminently comprehensively useful and a nice writing implement to boot. This will be my main marking out and note-taking device for the foreseeable, methinks.

I gave the new palm router a quick test this afternoon, and after an initial wobble, where I thought that the collet chuck wasn't doing its job, I got a test groove cut in a piece of scrap. It turned out that the chuck really needs a good bit of torque on the spanners to get the collet - a rather crude, single-slot affair - to close tight enough around the shank of the bit. I took it out, cleaned the crap out of the seating and the groove of the collet itself, and it worked fine, second time around. All I need to do now is make the circle-cutting jig I need for the mule speaker baffle I mentioned. Keep you posted...

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