Friday, June 26, 2009

A Silly Slogan on Some Enumero "Schwag"

I wandered over to CafePress last week and put together a small collection of Enumero Cribbage Board "schwag". Just a picture with the Enumero website location didn't seem like enough, so I decided to make the "schwag" functional as well fashionable. With Enumero "Schwag", not only will you look cool and hip and stylish at your next Cribbage Tournament, you can indulge your desire to find a suitable cribbage partner with the humorous slogan, "I'm Begging for Some Pegging...". The image and slogan is available on thong underwear, T-Shirts, mugs, hats and bumper stickers.

Here is the location:

http://www.cafepress.com/enumerocribbage

And for those of you who would like to point some of the other definitions of "pegging" (aside those related to Cribbage), I'm way ahead of you. Urban Dictionary.com actually gives (ironically) 19 definitions for "peg".

www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=peg

Some Random Thoughts about Self-Centering Bits and Crib Templates

The holes in most of templates I sell are 1/8" and are meant to be drilled straight through with a 1/8" bits. I prefer cobalt bits since they drill very clean. So I don't believe the templates I sell will work with self-centering drill bits. As we all know, 1/8" is the most common size for cribbage pegs.

I see the closest you can get to 1/8" is 7/64" in terms of self centering bits? The problem with self centering bits (and my templates) is that there is no recess for the outer shank of the self-centering bit, like you would find on a hinge. Alternatively, you could have a drill template with a hole big enough to accommodate the outer shank of the self-centering bit. For example, Rockler's shelf-hole jigs work this way.

These folks:

http://www.coastaltool.com/a/ab/snappy/self_centering.htm

sell a 7/64" self centering bit which works with a #6 screw. I include #6 screws with my templates, so it seems like its close...but I know from experience that some pegs don't always sit right in 7/64" holes vs. 1/8" holes. So even if this did work, you might have to go back and re-drill everything at 1/8".

That said...Rockler sells cribbage templates and they sell self-centering bits to with the templates. See this URL:

http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=10120&filter=cribbage%20template

As far as hitting the drill bit hitting the edge of the hole on the template or the bit missing the hole or the drill bit wandering , I've never given that one much thought. I drill pretty fast, and if I miss the target hole and start to drill a "new" hole in the plastic template, I simply stop, put some Tightbond II Glue in the "new" hole, cover it with a very small piece of blue tape and move on. Needless to say, some of my more well used templates have a lot of "new" holes filled with glue. But it adds character to the template. It shows that it’s well loved.

Could you make templates to accept countersink drill bits?

Unfortunately, I can't really make templates to accept a self-centering bit due to the fact that I "clone" my plastic templates from metal templates which were originally made on a CAD drilling machine. In order for me to make ones that could take self centering bits, I would have to drill a regular template, and then enlarge each hole to fit the cap or insert piece of self centering bit. Given how close the holes are to each other on some of the templates, I can't guarantee that this would work so well. Holes too close together in plastic might lead to problems - making the templates too brittle? Alternatively, I could countersink, the edge of each template hole, similar to the way they do for hinge holes, but this would likely take a long time and would probably wear out my good countersink bit. :->

These folks sell a very nice countersink bit - that might work - but I can't guarantee how well it will do in plastic. Just a thought. :-> I use this bit (and their wood threading tools) to tap holes and make threaded caps for crib pegs in the crib board.

http://www.bealltool.com/products/threading/countersink.php