Hand Tools
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My First Metric Set
Christmas Gift from my
Future Brother in Law
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I hope everyone's having a great holiday season. As I write, Christmas has already flown by and the New Year is a day away. It's astounding how fast time flies, but that's not news to anyone older than 16 or so! Anyway, at Christmas my newly announced, soon to be brother in law gifted me a set of nut drivers. Back in August 2021 (again - time flies!!!) I wrote about the standard nut driver set I had cobbled together, but I found that I often also needed a metric set, so this is perfect! And of course, I needed to make a rack for them and because of that - you're blessed (or stuck) to be reading this story. Let's get into it!
The Rack
Just like with the screwdriver and paddle bit racks I made back in '22, and like so many other little projects here at 173, I just had to make this one using a little piece of scrap wood. Then, with an eye toward being somewhat close to exact (truthfully, in this case as long as things were close I was okay), I marked out the spacing of the holes...
Then, using way more tools than one would think necessary, and spending way more time than you would believe, I drilled said holes. And with that - the piece was built (hey, I never said this was rocket science!).
Prep and Stain
A few holes drilled into the piece of scrap wood, well - it was time for staining. Because I wanted to label the nut driver sizes on the front of the rack, I taped off spaces...
First comes thought; then organization of that thought, into ideas and plans; then transformation of those plans into reality. The beginning, as you will observe, is in your imagination. - Napoleon Hill
Which makes more sense when you can see the spaces properly laid out. In this shot, a coat of Minwax Gunstock stain had been applied...
After that, a coat of American Finishes Georgian Cherry stain and a coat of amber shellac finished off the rack.
Done!
After the shellac dried for a few hours it was just a matter of three screws (I know - overkill much?) through the face of the rack...
And this little project was done!
Its Natural Habitat
I think I may have found a solution here...so often I start a post out by saying it should be a short post, then it ends up rivaling War and Peace. Well, this time I said nothing about it and this post turned out to be concise...mental note taken! So, to wrap this up, here's the new nut driver set in its natural habitat...
Just above the new set hangs the standard set I cobbled together...
Also living in the same neighborhood is the small screwdriver rack and the rack for the paddle bits, both of which were hung back in February 2022!
I guess not only does that wrap up this little project, it also puts a period to the projects at 173 for 2023. I wish everyone the best of the new year, and thank you for visiting this year. See ya' in 2024!
