I like to carry a countersink—the kind that includes a tapered drill bit—in my tool pouch. I find it nice to have on hand when I have to set a screw or drill a jigless pocket hole. The problem is that the countersink I have is only about 1 3/4 in. long. At that length, it disappears, never to be seen again, into the pencil sleeve of my tool pouch. And if I simply let it roll around in a bag, it quickly goes needle-in-a-haystack and is equally lost. To prevent losing it—and to make it easy to grab in those where’s-my-third-hand scenarios—I slotted the countersink’s hex-drive end into a magnetic bit holder. The bit holder itself also has a hex drive that I can easily chuck into a drill or impact driver. A quick wrap with duct tape keeps the two parts together. When taping them, I make sure to leave the countersink’s Allen key uncovered in case I need to adjust the bit length (almost never) or change out a dull or broken bit without untaping the whole assembly. This saves me anywhere from seconds to minutes every time I use it.
Mark Clement, Ambler, PA
Edited and Illustrated by Charles Miller
From Fine Homebuilding #196
