A handy tool

For those that drill into metal and have a hard time picking up the shavings, there’s something new, at least to me. Often when I’m drilling a safe, I’m on my knees. The shavings get all over the floor and hurt like hell when I kneel on them. Up pops a great tool. It is a stainless tube about a foot long closed at the end with a handle at the other end , sort of like a baton. It is hollow. Inside the tube is a pretty strong magnet that is attached to the handle. The magnet slides inside the tube. So you push the handle with the magnet into the tube, wave it in the area where your shavings are, bring it to the trash can and pull the magnet out. The shavings fall into the trash and your tool is clean of shavings. I guess you could make one easy enough and with a strong magnet plastic pipe might work. If my description is not clear I can try to find a link to the ones available commercially.

Found one.

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Great idea. When I was a tradesman (Electrician) doing a lot of drilling on electrical panels and enclosures I just used an old flat magnet (think it was from a safety gate guard switch) wrapped in a paper towel -stuck it right to the surface just below where I was drilling so it’d capture the shavings before they fell on anything. When done drilling you pull it off, carry it to a trash can and carefully pull the paper towel off, throwing all the shavings and paper away in one go.

I can’t say I started this idea myself, rather learned it from one of the salty old Journeymen I apprenticed under. :slight_smile:

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