Three-Tier Auger Bit Box

A couple months ago I came into possession of an old Russell Jennings auger bit box.  Somewhere along its life, someone had altered the box by removing from the first two tiers the grooved shelves that held the auger bits safe from rattling around.

The old box

The top tier with grooved shelf removed and ugly compartments installed

Middle tier with grooved shelf removed

Bottom tier with grooved shelf still intact

This got me thinking about how to repair the box.  A few years ago I made a different (but similar) type of box for a set of auger bits, so I was confident I could recreate the grooved shelves.  But in the end I decided to make a whole new Russell Jennings style of box from scratch.

My version of the three-tiered box

I don't know what wood the original boxes were made from, but mine is oak with poplar bit trays.  The Russell Jennings boxes are made with 1/8" box joints at the four corners and no doubt they were made as a single box and then sawn apart to create the three tiers.  Due to the narrow recycled oak I was using, I decided to make mine as three separate boxes, each joined at the corners with 1/4" box joint fingers.

Before making the boxes, I played around with making the grooved trays.  It took some trial and error to get the layout right so that all the bits would fit in their respective trays, and so that the box would have the right dimensions.  If I remember correctly, the box needed to be 4 1/8" front to back, with 3/8" thick sides, which left 3 3/8" width in which to fit a bunch of auger bits.

Middle tier laid out - these need not be perfect half circles

Here's the middle tray partially grooved

I think I made each layout curve about 1/16" greater in diameter than the bit that would fit in it.  The grooves were cut starting with a plow plane.  Then, depending on the size of the groove, I followed with either round planes or scrapers in a scratch stock .  For the largest grooves in the bottom tray, I also used a gouge to chop away some waste.

Top tier almost done, plow plane and scratch stock in background

Middle tier was done with plow plane and a small round plane

Here's a preview of the three tiers

Grooves were plowed in each tier's ends to receive the trays, which were rabbeted to fit into those grooves.

Grooves in one of the tier's ends

Forming a rabbet: saw close, then clean with chisels and rabbet plane

The bottom tier was special with this rabbet ...

... and a rabbet on the underside so the tray's bottom would be
in line with the box's bottom

One more detail: the square tapered shank of auger bits is wider than the business end for the 1/4", 5/16" and 3/8" bits, so they don't sit right in the box unless the end where the shanks of those bits rest is relieved.

An old Russell Jennings box showing the relieved area

Marking out

After careful paring with chisels

Now they play nice together

The hardware is nothing special.  I used cheap butt hinges and front clasps from Lee Valley.  Most of the small brass screws I had were 1/2" long, so I had to cut them down to 3/8" so they wouldn't go through to the inside of the box.  Screw holes were pre-drilled and the screws were waxed to ease them into the hard oak.  The hinges were not mortised into the box but were surface-mounted, similar to the way some old Russell Jennings boxes were made.

Hinges on the back

The front clasps were nailed on and I predrilled holes for the nails.

Installing the clasps

Clasps on the front

I gave the outsides of the box 3 coats of shellac and a coat of wax.  The box is about 3/16" taller than the old boxes.  I could have easily gotten the correct height in my box because my top tier tray was deeper than it needed to be.  But overall, I'm happy with it.

Something unexpected: I got a free can of shellac on "freecycle" and it was cloudy.  I've been mixing my own shellac for years and it's always clear.  But I tested this shellac on a scrap and it hardened properly.  Anybody have this issue with some cloudy shellac?

Cloudy shellac

If I was a real maniac, I'd try to duplicate the label that R-J put on the inside of the lid of their auger bit boxes (see pic #2 above).  I'll leave that for the real gung ho out there.  All for now.  I'll leave this with a couple of glamour shots.

The finished box

And with bits on display

Fein Turbo II Foam Replacement

Recently, for reasons I shall not mention on this hand tools blog, I retrieved my old Fein Turbo II (model 9-55-13) shop vac from storage, where it's been for the last 13 years.  It's probably 25 years old now.  I mentioned this to a friend in passing and he said "Oh, make sure the sound-deadening foam isn't all falling apart.  You'll know it is if you get black foam bits coming out of the exhaust."  Well guess what - he was exactly right.

The Fein shop vac

Bits of black foam all over the floor

He said that happened to his Fein Turbo II and he fixed it with new foam.  He's a real tech guy and he had laser-cut new foam pieces for his.  I don't know how long ago that was, but he still had his drawings and leftover foam, so he laser-cut me a new set of foam pieces.  This post is about replacing the sound foam in the vacuum.

In the Fein owner's manual, the foam pieces are called the "cover soundproofing", the "side soundproofing", and the "motor soundproofing".

Disassembly was straightforward.  I'm usually a bit nervous about taking things apart, thinking I might not be able to get it back together.  Taking pictures as I go really helps.

Taking the float cage off from the underside of the lid

Revealed some crumbling foam

I replaced this later with extra pieces of foam

Some screws here ...

... and some screws down in this trench

Then turn it right side up and the top comes off to show some
really messed up, crumbly, dirty cover soundproofing foam

A closer view of the cover foam that typically stays in the lid

This shows the three pieces of thicker side soundproofing foam

And there's a 1/2" thick motor soundproofing foam piece that goes
around the perimeter deeper inside the unit that took removing
more screws to get to

I didn't get any pictures of replacing that motor soundproofing piece, but it was probably about 3" x 20" x 1/2".

The cover soundproofing pieces were about 1/2" thick.  Here's one of the pieces cut and being placed in the top casing.  I don't have dimensions for these pieces, but I recall seeing a YouTube video of someone replacing the foam and they had a free download with dimensions for those of you who need to replace your foam.

This piece fits into the underside of the lid ...

... like so, with the two other pieces that fit into the underside of the lid

Here's the cover soundproofing foam pressed into place

But there's a small complication

One of the original foam pieces was held in place in the center of the lid with four "push nuts".  I had to cut the original nuts out with tin snips and, since I didn't have any push nuts, I fashioned some out of a brass furniture grommet.

Close-up of the original push nuts.  They are on plastic studs
that were molded with the lid and I didn't want to break them off.

The grommets that I used to make new push nuts

New push nut holding the foam in place

The three thicker (1") side soundproofing foam pieces just drop into empty spaces.  My friend cut the three of them to different lengths - I was never certain why, but I suspect that's how his original ones looked and I didn't measure the ones that came out of my vacuum.  Each piece has two semi-circular cutouts, presumably for air flow.

Three thicker pieces in place

All that was left was to reassemble to unit.  As I was doing that, I was reminded of the little round foam piece under the float cage.  I was able to glue together some foam scraps to get a piece big enough to cut out the round shape and fit it into the opening.

The new piece, with two super-glued seams

The vacuum works great.  It has always worked great.  Many people rave about their Fein Turbo II shop vacs and it's no wonder why.  And now it's not spewing bits of old foam everywhere.

For anyone needing to replace their foam, I have three extra of the 1" thick laser-cut pieces - the ones shown two pictures above this.  If anyone wants them, I'd be happy to send them to you.  Just send me a message using the "contact me" gadget somewhere on this blog page.  Use a different browser if "contact me" doesn't show up on your view.

Handworks 2026 in Amana, IA

Well, I got back to the Handworks event in Amana, IA on Sept. 4th and 5th.  And it was awesome again.  Two days full of hand tool immersion.  The event is put on by the proprietors of "Benchcrafted", the company who sells crubber, the leg vise "criss-cross" thing, workbenches and other stuff.  And other than getting there and staying somewhere, the event was free to attend - though I did add to the donation jar.

One of the outdoor tents

This open-air timber-framed structure housed Pete Galbert, 
Jason Lonon and many others

The main barn, with Lie Nielsen at the far end

The main barn on day 2 during Schwarz' presentation

Man, it was hot, hot, hot!  And humid!  Each day was about 95 deg with a "feels like" temperature of 97-98.  And many of the vendors were wearing long pants.  I felt really bad for them.  But if you focus on the tools and the woodworking and the comradery, it was easy enough to forget the heat for a while.

I wasn't looking for anything in particular this time.  But I did come home with two items.  There's a guy from Chicago named Slav who sells new "old stock" files and I bought some from him three years ago.  He was there again this time and just in passing I happened to see something on his table that I'd been looking for for a long time - Skroo-zon file handles in the #3 and #4 sizes.

Number 3 and 4 Skroo-zon file handles

These will add nicely to my #2, 5 and 6

If you've never used one of these, the handle "screws" onto a file's tang and holds it really firmly.  I know I can make (and have made) my own file handles, but these things are great.

Even though I didn't really need any new tools, it's always good to see what's out there.  One thing I might be interested in if I ever get around to making some more planes, is these tapered molding plane iron blanks.  The molding planes that I made years ago were with Lie-Nielsen (non-tapered) blanks.  But the way they were made 150 years ago was genius!  Opposing wedge action with the tapered iron and tapered wedge gives great hold and adjustability.

These are from New Heritage Woodworks

It was a really great event.  My thanks to the Abraham brothers and their staff for putting this on.  I can't imaging how much work it is, but I'm certain it is WAY more than I might realize.