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Battery powered hand drills have become a mainstay to almost every aspect of working with wood. In building construction they are an important tool especially for carpenters, plumbers and electricians. For woodworkers who are almost always working in a shop and with electricity, battery powered tools are handy, but not always vital. I like the portability and how handy they are so even though I have a couple of corded drills, my cordless easily gets the bulk of drilling usage.

I purchased a set of 12 volt drill/drivers a few years ago and fell in love with the system. Before long I also had the radio, the multi-tool and recip saw, all of which used the same battery packs. I loved the system but the only tool that I struggled with for power was the drill. I just didn't have the power I needed for a few jobs, especially when I was drilling into oaks and maples.

A short time ago I found myself in one of the home reno box stores ... again looking at Milwaukee drills, but this time 18 volt. I really didn't want to move to another battery size when I have so many great tools that work with the 12 volt. I discovered they had one of the Milwaukee 18 volt drills on sales for $99.95 but the catch is it only comes with one battery, and it is smallest 18 volt at only 1.5 Amp hours ... but still the price was attractive.

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There is a reason that the image of a hand plane is on so many business cards for woodworkers and business that do woodworking. The hand plane has become a symbol of woodworking and is recognized around the world as such. For me, moving them to a wall mount rack wasn't about the woodworkers spirit moving me to do so, it was all about freeing up more room in my woodworking cabinet.

For some reason I seem to have accumulated a few more tools over the past few years and finding a place to put them is at a premium. Storing hand planes on their side, in a drawer is fine, if you don't need the room for other things ... which I did. I felt the only reasonable alternative would be move them out of the drawer where they really were taking up much more space than needed, and moving them on to a wall rack would make good sense.

This was not a complex build but because you everyone has different planes and different numbers of them it's pretty hard to work from plans. And so, another "build it on the fly" project began ...

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All woodworking tools need to be kept razor sharp. It really does make a difference. Not only is woodworking easier when cutting tools are sharp, the outcomes are better with less tear-out, less fuzzy edges and sharper cleaner cuts. All of which often means less sanding (at least for some things).

I have always found chisels to be the one tool in the shop that you can instantly tell if they are sharp or not, just by how they work. If you are a carver, you will really know the meaning of sharp tools because to carvers, trying to work with tools that are dull is exceedingly frustrating. I know carvers, and woodturners as always sharpening their chisels. They very quickly get to know the condition of the sharpness of their tools and are constantly "tuning them up" which really means adding the fine razor edge sharpness to what many of us would consider a sharp tool.

There are a few different methods, jigs and tools for sharpening, either by hand or with some sort of a machine. One of the sharpening machines is called a Tormek Grinder and is produced by a Swedish Company.

The Tormek Grinder development started around 1973, but long before that, around the world, large grinding machines were quite common. Often the wheels were 24" in diameter and were driven by a foot pedal or a crank, and some of them even had water cooling troughs attached to them. What Tormek did was bring this old concept and adapt it to more modern electric motors and make an amazingly accurate and efficient sharpening tool.