Lids, that is!
It's been at least five years since I decided to drill holes in the tabs that pass for handles on the lids of my four baby camp Dutch ovens. But it's a scary thought, so I've procrastinated. What if they cracked right off so I had no handles? What if something else went wrong? So I put it off.
We did make a small hole in the first one shortly after I bought it. It was large enough to put a ring through, and I've used that with a lid lifter, which was a pain but worked okay.
But today was the day, so I gathered up all my courage and decided to go for it. We had been doing some other small projects today and were on a roll, so I was feeling confident.
We had a brand new 3/16" drill bit purchased several years ago just for this task. So we drilled the first one. After some discussion, we decided to go all in and make the holes big enough to actually use a lid lifter. So we rounded up a couple more drill bits in graduated sizes. The second and third drilling went pretty fast and voila! lids that will now take a lifter! (Unfortunately, my Mairs won't work with the small lids.)
Once we got all the big holes drilled, there was some more discussion and we decided in for a penny, in for a pound, and we would drill small holes beside the bigger ones to put a ring in to hang ID tags from. So we did that, too.
It all went great! I can't believe they're finally all done. Love that! It's going to be so much more handy to be able to use a nice, secure lifter. I've always used slip-joint pliers, emphasis on the 'slip' part, since I've dropped loaded lids more than once, especially after applying new, slippery seasoning to the lids. This should be a big improvement.
I'm sure no one cares about this but I'm happy. I know, I know, simple things for simple minds!
It's been at least five years since I decided to drill holes in the tabs that pass for handles on the lids of my four baby camp Dutch ovens. But it's a scary thought, so I've procrastinated. What if they cracked right off so I had no handles? What if something else went wrong? So I put it off.
We did make a small hole in the first one shortly after I bought it. It was large enough to put a ring through, and I've used that with a lid lifter, which was a pain but worked okay.
But today was the day, so I gathered up all my courage and decided to go for it. We had been doing some other small projects today and were on a roll, so I was feeling confident.
We had a brand new 3/16" drill bit purchased several years ago just for this task. So we drilled the first one. After some discussion, we decided to go all in and make the holes big enough to actually use a lid lifter. So we rounded up a couple more drill bits in graduated sizes. The second and third drilling went pretty fast and voila! lids that will now take a lifter! (Unfortunately, my Mairs won't work with the small lids.)
Once we got all the big holes drilled, there was some more discussion and we decided in for a penny, in for a pound, and we would drill small holes beside the bigger ones to put a ring in to hang ID tags from. So we did that, too.
It all went great! I can't believe they're finally all done. Love that! It's going to be so much more handy to be able to use a nice, secure lifter. I've always used slip-joint pliers, emphasis on the 'slip' part, since I've dropped loaded lids more than once, especially after applying new, slippery seasoning to the lids. This should be a big improvement.
I'm sure no one cares about this but I'm happy. I know, I know, simple things for simple minds!