On the
March 31 Maker Update, Donald Bell announced a giveaway of my new tips book to commenters who shared a tip. We ended up getting over 80 entries. They were all good and it was hard to choose the winners. Below are the 5 winners of
Tips and Tales from the Workshop, Vol 2. Please
email me your shipping address and I’ll dispatch your book and other goodies.
Brandi Weed – If you have a bunch of small tools (measuring cups, cleaning brushes, etc.) on a split ring, switch them to a D-ring or
carabiner. This way, you can remove only the one you need without the others getting in the way and/or needing cleaning because of residual debris.
Federico Maracaglia – Add
/zip after the “thing:number” address of a
Thingiverse project to download the entire page contents [STL files, images, Read Me file -Ed.] as a Zip file has been one of the coolest tips I’ve discovered recently!
Edward Iglesias – I’m moving so am reminded of this Sherlock Holmes tip:
“A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. ” ― Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet
Shimmering Trashpile – Always document your process. If you’re making a gift, including the documentation makes the gift really personal and unique. Your documentation can be an invaluable resource for a friend making something similar. Also, documentation can be a wonderful memory enhancer when you look back on a project years later.
Dylan Northrup – 10
Tips (because I couldn’t decide on a single one):
1) Remember to dream big, but scope realistically (especially when starting out).
2) Never be afraid to ask for advice. Conversely, always be willing to give advice when asked (but try to avoid giving unsolicited advice).
3) Decide if you’re using Imperial or Metric on a project and stick with it.
4) If you decide some measurements have to be Imperial (e.g. gallons for liquid volume) and some Metric (e. g. milli/centimeters for distance), make SURE the measurements are orthogonal to each other to avoid having to do unit conversion.
5) Efficiency is good, but doing it properly is better. Better to slowly do something once than quickly do it multiple times.
6) If nobody was hurt, no property damaged, and you can try again, it wasn’t a failure, it was a learning experience.
7) You don’t need expensive, feature-laden tools to do good work. Some of the best creativity comes from the limitations we have to work with.
8) Always follow proper safety rules and wear appropriate safety equipment.
9) You can exchange time for money and money for time, but remember it’s possible to make more money… it’s not possible to make more time.
10) Have fun and make sure others have a chance to have fun, too. We’re all in this together.
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Kristian Reinhart – Woodworkers and makers in general often (half-jokingly) quote “You can never have too many clamps.” I’d add some more pieces of wisdom in the same likeness: “You can never have too many ways to hold on to stuff”– various tweezers, clamps, grippers, pliers, jigs, fixtures, and such are incredibly useful to securely holding your workpiece and preventing it from flying off, or injuring yourself or others. “You can never have too many ways to cut stuff” – From different shapes of scissors and knives, chisels, saws, to powered tools like jigsaws, oscillating saws, etc. A variety of cutting implements is tremendously useful when encountering odd materials, angles, and such. Even when doing mundane things like removing supports from 3D prints, I use various pliers, tweezers, awls, and differently-shaped linoleum chisels. “You can never have too many lights” – With how effective and cheap both LED and battery technology have become, it’s now possible to get a whole bunch of different lighting solutions for any given situation. There’s little excuse to strain your eyes with poor lighting when there are so many choices available.