Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales
subscribers
issues
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #101
Here’s some fascinating proto-CNC cutting from the 19th century. The parser (or passer) drill was a bow-type drill, held against your belly, that used a template to cut a shape into wood (for things like inlay work). In this Pask Makes video, he forges his ow…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #100
Over at Wicked Makers, they created a fun outdoor Halloween display featuring a pirate skeleton fountain. The pirate, sitting in a rum barrel, guzzles wine for all eternity. How charming. There are lots of great tips on creating Halloween haunts in this video…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #99
Most of us who at least dabble in DIY electronics know about DC motors and servomotors. But the world of stepper motors can seem intimidating and overly complicated. If they are for you, check out this excellent beginner's guide by engineer and educator, Jere…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #98
This week I cast a bunch of resin copies of the glass bunny candle holder I made a block mold for in issue #90. The mold turned out perfect and I've been cranking out bunnies with little issue. The mold is still holding up after nine copies. My fiancé is goin…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #97
Via the always-informative Maker Update comes news of a new 3D printed game controller joystick mechanism from Akaki Kuumeri. Akaki has built such devices in the past, but this one transfers all of the functions of the controller to the joystick and uses conv…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #96
Last issue, I included Kevin Kelly's project consideration flowchart which ends with the question: "Would anyone else ever do this?" (If Yes, then don't do it). If ever there was an electronics engineer who works by a similar credo, it's Carl Bugeja. Folding …
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #95
If you watch metalworking videos, you've probably seen a lot of hammer-forming of metal parts over wooden or metal bucks. In this Blondihacks video, Quinn shows how to create a roll-forming mandrel and then how she formed two copper boiler plates for the mode…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #94
It may sound like something from an entirely different realm of human interaction, but in this Hand Tool Rescue video, Eric restores a rare 1913 vise for “obtaining intimate contact with, engaging, clamping bodies of any shape” [Patent here]. Eric calls it a …
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #93
I had to chuckle at this Donald Bell video where he dates himself (these youngsters today!) by arguing the wisdom of using a stiff jumper wire kit instead of flexible cable-style jumper wires. Why, when I was coming up as an electronic hobbyist in the late 80…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #92
Adam Savage is on the Board of Advisors for Fab House, a digital fabrication space and STEAM education facility being built in Glenville, an under-served area of Cleveland, OH. To help them in their space planning, Adam spent this "One Day Build" making a mod…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #91
North of the Border is a YouTube channel where crafter Adam makes really clever book nooks (little dioramas that go on bookshelves). During this Mines of Moria infinity mirror episode, he shares a great tip. When gluing two pieces of material together (especi…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #90
So, what happens when you get a scratch on the polarizing film on your resin printer and resin leaks and cures on your projector glass? Well, according to Make:'s Caleb Kraft, it ain't pretty. In this quick tip video, he explains the trial and error process h…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #89
Because of the home sale, I have been unable to do the next step in our Skill Set series: making the block mold. If you've cast an object using the single mold method, please send it to me. Above is the one that I cast. I did a quick priming, painting, and dr…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #88
I hope folks who've been participating in this series have been having fun learning a new skill. In the last three segments (1, 2, 3), we've learned the basics of molding and casting a 1-part mold. Above is my pour of my 1-part mold. Reader Federico Tobon of …
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #87
In this video, Adam Savage talks about the anchor points of a shop (the machines and workstations that the rest of the shop orbits around), the fact that you can never have enough casters on shop components (and on-hand), and other useful tidbits. For me, the…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #86
On the latest Project Farm, Todd puts ten pairs of work gloves through their paces. He tests impact damage, grip, wear, and cut resistance. The bottom line: The Milwaukee gloves performed the best, but at a cost of $35 a pair. The best performance-to-cost wer…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #85
Ronnie A responding to my piece on infill coasters: The tip about using 3D printer infill as a decorative element reminds me of this functional use of infill to create the structure for photo flash grids (used to control the spread of light from a flash).
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #84
On Jimmy DiResta's Instagram Stories, he shared this little hack -- a bigger, more accessible shutter button that he added to his camera.
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #83
Anyone who reads this newsletter knows that I have a bit of a thang for 1-2-3 blocks. These precision-milled hardened steel blocks are precisely 1" x 2" x 3" and weigh exactly a pound. They were created for machinist-use, but have now been widely adopted acro…
Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #82
In this newsletter, I've frequently talked about buying lots of pencils, rulers, scissors, and other relatively inexpensive go-to tools and stashing around the shop (and home). But this commonly-used tool saturation is not practical for more expensive tools. …