Why is it I never have the right drill bit?

[Rorschach]

For my paid work and planned projects I of course have suitable bits for every situation but for off the cuff home builds I never seem to have the bit I need.
Today I was building a simple welly stand, just a base with some holes for long bits of dowel to hold the wellies upside down. Dowel was 22mm, didn't have the correct size forstner, only 20 and 25, searched through and found a spade bit, supposedly 22mm except that it drilled a hole closer to 25mm and the dowel wobbled about all over the place (yes I had the sense to test on a bit of scrap first, luckily). Couldn't find anything else suitable in the workshop so had to take the spade bit to the bench grinder and slim it down. Hole wasn't the cleanest but the dowels are a nice snug fit. I think I might have to invest in a more comprehensive forstner set.

 

[SteveF]

could have used the 20 and taken 2mm off the end of dowel so it hid the hole

just a thought

Steve

 

[Rorschach]

could have used the 20 and taken 2mm off the end of dowel so it hid the hole

just a thought

Steve

That sounds like an awful lot of precise work, too hard for me lol.

 

[MattRoberts]

I know what you mean. My vac hose is a 30-32mm taper, which means when making adapters to fit tools, neither a 30mm or 32mm forstner is quite right. Of course there's no 31mm drill bit (that I could find), so it's a case of using the 30mm and then a rasp. Annoying!

 

[dickm]

Today I was building a simple welly stand, just a base with some holes for long bits of dowel to hold the wellies upside down. .

Made one of those a good many years ago, but vertical, with the dowels sloping up at 45 degrees. Botanical friend looked at it and said "ah, a wellingtonia"

 

[novocaine]

Not an issue I have to face.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-expan ... oCWGLw_wcB

Comes in handy occasionally.

 

[jpa]

This reminds me of the time when I returned from a work trip to find that almost all my drills between approximately 5mm and 7mm had been destroyed. SWMBO had wanted to put some shelves up in the barn (her horse stables, which has brick walls). She had melted all my HSS and wood drills and still not achieved a satisfactory hole. She gave up on my "useless" drills before getting around to trying the masonry ones.

I think here is a definition of stupidity somewhere that involves something like repeating an action over and over but expecting a different result, however loyalty prevents me from being able to bring it to mind...

 

[Rorschach]

Not an issue I have to face.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/erbauer-expan ... oCWGLw_wcB

Comes in handy occasionally.

I should probably get something like that really. I have seen some at the car boot (the supplier of most of my "playing" tools as they are referred to by the missus) but they were rusted and chipped, hopefully I will find a serviceable one soon.