drilling holes
I needed to put up a bathroom cabinet.

Out comes my weedy 9.99-from-woolworths drill and I start drilling. And drilling. And drilling. I'm penetrating at the rate of about 5mm an hour.

My drill is crap.

I work in engineering, and at the time we were making bits for jet engines out of super-difficult to machine nickel alloy horribleuminium. So, I nicked an endmill from work.

An endmill is like a drill, but it's not pointy. Instead it's squared off with four chisel shaped cutting edges on the end. Very tough, very sharp, very strong cutting edges. They cost about 100quid a pop.

If it gets through bastard-tough inconel alloy, it'll get through my bathroom wall, thinks I.

It did. It whizzed through with barely any resistance at all. And this is where the other useful attribute of an endmill comes in - unlike a drill, you can cut sideways with it. You can cut slots.

Which means, if you stick one in a hand held drill you have to be very careful to go straight into the wall. Cos if you don't, as I found out, you can cut a spectacular slot halfway across your bathroom wall before you have time to say 'shit'.

Shit.
(inflateable, Wed 9 Apr 2008, 19:05, 1 reply)

BRRRRRRRRRZZZZTTTT... arse!
I was brought up in a house built from bricks intended for WW2 bunkers. Tasks such as putting shelves up required intense, prolonged effort with expensive masonry bits and seriously heavy-duty, hammer-action drills.

Many hired workmen have laughed off suggestions that no, really, they needed bigger drills (fnar) - but soon discovered that their own implements were woefully inadequate (fnar again).

So, with the thought of such walls fresh in my mind, I needed to put some holes in a wall of my stupidly low rent, ~1900-era flat here in Brussels. The local DIY shop had run out of relatively cheap electric drills, so I ended up with a semi-decent, hammer-action Black-and-Decker thing - made, of course, in some third-world sweatshop (County Durham!). I added some proper masonry bits to my purchase, and went back to my flat - ready to drill. Was my new drilling equipment up to the task?

Erm... Yes. My years of experience with Nazi-proof bunker bricks was of no use here - I introduced the drill-bit to the wall, the wall took one look at the drill, and promptly melted into a cloud of dust. Rawlplugs like chipolata sausages in an aircraft hangar, and all that.

Anyone want a second-hand drill? Only used for about five seconds total, if that. :-(
(Happy Idiot Talk now has an alibi for, Wed 9 Apr 2008, 20:21, closed)