Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #206

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

How to Sand in Tiny Spaces

Most of my readers, especially the more hobby-minded and small project makers, likely know about sanding rods, twigs, sticks, and other specialty tools designed for small-parts sanding. But sometimes, even these solutions can’t cut it. This Model Car Muse video takes a long time to deliver its core idea… TL;DR: Use the tip of a chop stick or small dowel and circles of sandpaper cut with a hole punch and glued onto it. I am definitely going to make a few of these.

Push Reel Mowers

From the Tools for Possibilities newsletter comes this ode to the manual push mower:

Easiest hand mower

Brill Push Mower

When I first realized that my housemates were serious about me using a push mower to cut our yard, I was a little skeptical. Eventually I was won over by the environmental benefits and the sense of accomplishment that I received from using a “reel mower.” The first mower we purchased is literally called the “Prison reel mower” and I wouldn’t recommend it. The Brill Luxus 38 Reel Mower on the other hand is a sweet piece of engineering. It is very light at 17 pounds, weather resistant, and has variable height ranges. It feels good in your hands and seems very well designed. Now that I use it, I wouldn’t even consider buying a gas or electric powered mower for an average size yard. But let me warn you, using a manual mower is physically much harder, takes more time, and is very difficult if not impossible with tall grass (which means regular mowing). Whether you choose to look at that as an environmentally friendly and money-saving workout or a punishment is up to you. — Patrick Chen

My lawn mowing days are long over, but if I was still able-bodied enough, I would definitely spring for one of these. As Kevin Kelly points out in the comments, dull blades on push mowers is what makes them a chore to use, and sharpening is hard (or expensive). The Brill mower is allegedly designed in such a way that the manufacturer claims it only needs a sharpen every eight years.

TOYS! Tiny Rulers Rule!

One of my favorite moments of tool-love discovery is when I find a tool that’s an instant aha and I want to smack my forehead for going so long without understanding its indispensable utility. Enter the diminutive 6” ruler. I love rulers and I have all sorts of them: printer’s ruler, desk rulers, carpenter’s square, machinist’s ruler, sewing gauge, etc. But they’re all at least a foot long. It had never occurred to me to get a 6” ruler until I saw a hobby modeler using one and they pointed out something I understood all too well: Your workbench gets covered in stuff, then you go to, say cut some polystyrene, and you have to move everything out of the way so your 12” or 15” ruler can lay flat on the cutting mat. For small-scale work, the 6-incher solves that beautifully. And, for under $6, you get three. I now have one at each of my workstations.

Extension Cord and Power Strip No-Nos

It’s coming upon that time of the year when the unknowing play electrical-cord fire roulette with their extension cords and power strips. CNet has a service journalism piece on 7 devices to keep far away from extension cords and power strips. I assume Gar’s Tips & Tools readers know these basic extension cord fire hazard scenarios already (space heaters, toaster ovens, microwaves, etc.). But just in case…

Here’s the TL;DR:

“…The big thing to keep in mind regarding extension cords is to never use them with ‘any appliances whatsoever.’ He also said that your average home extension cords [and by that I assume he means 16- and 14-guage cords -ed] shouldn’t be used for anything above 15 amps (1,800 watts), regardless of where or how the device operates. With power strips and surge protectors, those should only be paired with electronics.”

Which Adhesive is Best for HDPE Plastic

In this video, Hacks By Dad tests 13 different tapes, glues, and epoxies to determine which is the stronger bond between two HDPE bottle caps. The caps were glued together and then subjected to a weight-pulling jig. The top three winners were JB KwikWeld (at 20.2 lbs of holding power), Gorilla 5-min Epoxy (25.8 lbs.), and… the winner is: Dap Rapid Rise (at 27.6 lbs). For mounting tape, Duck brand hung on for an impressive 19.8 lbs. before failure.

How to Repair Broken Plastic

In more plastic makery news: I have always been intrigued by plastic hot staple welding. In this Chris Notap video, he gives one a go on a split recycling can. If you’re gonna repair anything plastic, your recycling can seems top o’ the list. We have a split in out municipal recycling bin. Maybe I’ll try to hot staple weld it rather than turning it in for a new one. The kit he used is cheap, at $35, and there are ones under $20. Since this is not a high-use tool for most of us, a cheap tool is probably good enough.

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Consider a Paid Subscription

Gar’s Tips & Tools is free. But if you really like what I’m throwing down and want to support it, please consider a paid subscription. Same great taste, more cheddar to help keep me in tattoo wash bottles. Plus, I’ll occasionally pick paid subscribers at random and send them little treats, tools, or tip-related treasures.

Your support keeps this whole Rube Goldberg contraption lovingly cobbled together and running…smoothly (enough). Thank you!

Special thanks to Hero of the Realm members: Jim Coraci, Donobster, Peter Sugarman, and Will Phillips for your generous support.

11/21/25

Pricier Mexican Residency/SteriPEN Ultralight/Expat Issue Discussions

Nomadico issue #180

Residency Permit Prices Doubling in Mexico

A flood of immigrants has been on the move since January, this time Americans going from the USA to Mexico, and apparently the government is ready to cash in on the influx. If you want to apply for Mexican residency, prices are going to double in January to get legal, per the newly approved budget. Getting one year of temporary residency (which you renew for three more) will more than double to $603 at the current exchange rate, while getting permanent status will cost you $876. There are rumors of the high income/savings requirement adjusting downward under a years-old edict that was never implemented, but that’s not official.

Invest in a SteriPen

I’m back in Mexico, in Baja this time, in one of many countries where you can’t trust the tap water for drinking. Like my blogger buddies at HoneyTrek I spent time with recently in Patagonia, I almost never buy or use bottled water in single-use plastic (though I can’t claim a spotless 14-year run like they can). The secret weapon we long-term international travelers have in our bag is a SteriPEN: a UV wand purifier that turns any tap water into purified water. I’ve used about every model in more countries than I can count, including a lot of years traveling with a family, and never have had stomach problems. I’ve got the Adventurer Opti version now, which is not ideal because it uses CR123 batteries. A better bet is the UltraLight UV version that recharges by USB. It’ll easily pay for itself and our future great-grandchildren will thank you.

Nomads Talking About Nomad Issues

Jason Moore has been giving up the mic now and then lately on his Zero to Travel podcast to let his producer and partnership manager, who are both remote workers, do “Remote Roundup” episodes. The two nomadic women talk about joys and problems they are encountering on the road, with more depth than you get in a typical interview format. Here’s the October one, which covers everything from bad bathroom design to living out of one bag to why it costs less to travel than to stay home. They look at these angles from all sides, like pointing out that being nomadic for months will cost you less than living where you came from, but not if you’re still paying for a house and a car while you’re mobile.

Expats Behaving Badly

Substack writer Julia Hubbel publishes a newsletter called Too Old for This Sh*t, from the point of view of an injury-prone 70-something advising others how to stay active and keep adventuring. I loved the latest one: Don’t Land in Hell by Bringing it With You. It’s a great summary of what many expats see but few mainstream media outlets point out in their rose-colored desk coverage: some people really aren’t meant to move abroad. Some want to shut the door behind them, keeping out “the others.” Others move to a developing country because it’s cheaper and then complain about…the lack of development. Some won’t learn even the basics of their host country’s language, while complaining about transaction misunderstandings and hurdles trying to navigate healthcare or get house repairs done. Read it to avoid problems later if/when you move.

11/20/25

What’s in my NOW? — Molly Harris

issue #231

Bookworm, amateur photographer, and litigation assistant who enjoys the surreal and the silly. Website: galaxygirlgeek.com.

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PHYSICAL

• Digital hygrometer. Turns out my comfort’s much more about humidity than temperature. I plug this into a custom-made calculator that calculates my microlocal dew point and then where that falls on dew-point comfort charts.
• Fidget slider. It feels remarkably well-engineered and solid for a $10 purchase, and helps me when I need to surreptitiously get some nervous energy out of my system.
• These might as well be called “ear canal scratchers.” Q-Tips will tell you they’re not to be put in your ear. I’ve never found something that so satisfyingly scratches the itches that occasionally develop inside my ear canal. (Neither me nor WIMN are responsible if you push yours too far! Take caution!)

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DIGITAL

• Inoreader is an excellent RSS reader, but does a lot more. It lets me monitor YouTube, non-RSS pages, and a lot more. The user interface is extremely intelligent, and it’s very well-featured. The only criticism I have, and it’s a significant one, is that if you have a suggestion for them, you might as well drop it into the Darvanza gas crater for all it’s worth – they proceed on their own plan and timetable.
• Tetr.io is a fantastic tetronimo game with multiple modes. I have been diagnosed with CPTSD, and even if you don’t have a formal diagnosis, nowadays we are all dealing with stress that’s been quadrupled in amount. Studies show that visuospatial interference tasks (like playing a tetronimo game) can help with trauma and stress – and I find playing it when I am stressed, or have had a real bad day, a great way to help towards resetting my brain.

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INVISIBLE

“This too shall pass.”

Originally from an English translation of a 19th century Persian poem. It does the dual duty of giving you inspiration to truly be in, and enjoy, the good moments, for they are not forever; and letting you know that although these bad moments feel like they will stretch out into eternity, they are impermanent, and an end will come to them as well.

11/19/25

The Creative Architect / How to Talk to Girls at Parties

Issue No. 93

THE CREATIVE ARCHITECT – AN ICONIC ‘50S CREATIVITY STUDY FINALLY COMES TO LIGHT IN BOOK FORM

The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study
by Pierluigi Serraino
Monacelli Press
2016, 248 pages, 7.7 x 9.25 x 1.1 inches

Buy on Amazon

In 1958 and ‘59, an unprecedented study was conducted by the Institute of Personality Assessment and Research at the University of California, Berkeley. The idea was to apply the latest psychological tests on the world’s most famous and accomplished architects to try and determine what makes them so creative and successful. In studying them, could some magical key to creativity be discovered?

Astoundingly, some 40 major architects volunteered, including Eero Saarinen, I.M. Pei, Philip Johnson, George Nelson, Louis Kahn, and A. Quincy Jones. The group spent three days being subjected to a battery of tests, sitting for interviews, even evaluating the creative and design prowess of each other. While the idea was to publish the results of the tests at the time, besides some news and fluff pieces about the study, and some superficial conclusions about the nature of the creative impulse that drove these design superstars, the full results of the study have remained unpublished until this impressive new release from Monacelli Press.

The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study is a lovely and thought-provoking time-capsule of a book. Through its numerous black and white photos and reprints of the research materials, correspondences between the subjects of the study and the psychologists, and news clippings of the day, the book paints a surprisingly evocative picture of this unique study and the era in which it was conducted. Reading the test results, in the architects’ own hands, and the evaluations of the researchers, is fascinating.

So, what conclusions did the study finally reach? Nothing earth shattering. Going into the study, the research group had circulated a list of “genius” attributes from a 1957 book about Freud, which included things like “the power of deep concentration, tremendous patience, and self-discipline…” and “ability to generalize from the particular and to separate the significant from the unimportant…” Drawn from the data, the conclusion of the study: “What propels creativity is the unfettered expression of the self,” “finding the solution to a problem is not sufficient to bring them personal satisfaction: there is a further demand for the solution to be elegant,” and the discovery that creative individuals “consistently safeguard their self-determination in order to stay their course and pursue what interests them no matter what, in a fierce escape from conformism of thought and behavior.”

The Creative Architect: Inside the Great Midcentury Personality Study doesn’t contain any easy, replicable recipes for living a creative life, for becoming a design god. But what it does do is curate a captivating collection of literal and figurative snapshots from a peak time in design history and the creative genius that drove it. And that is ultimately very inspiring.

[RELATED: Here’s an excellent podcast episode about the study from 99% Invisible. – Mark] – Gareth Branwyn

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HOW TO TALK TO GIRLS AT PARTIES – NEIL GAIMAN AT HIS BEST WITH FANTASTIC CHARACTER MOMENTS

How to Talk to Girls at Parties
by Neiman Gaiman (author), Gabriel Bá (illustrator), and Fábio Moon (illustrator)
Dark Horse Books
2016, 64 pages, 6.9 x 10.5 x 0.4 inches

Buy on Amazon

How to Talk to Girls at Parties is an adaptation of the Neil Gaiman short story of the same name, originally published in his collection Fragile Things. As adaptations go, this one tells the story pretty exactly as it was done by Gaiman. Two teens named Enn and Vic go to a party with the intention of picking up girls. Vic is handsome and confident, while Enn is shy and awkward. Enn doesn’t know how to talk to girls, and this becomes the central problem of the story. His attempts to seem cool and desirable are both humorous and relatable to anybody who has ever tried talking to a potential love interest. As the night moves on, it becomes clear that something is amiss at this party, but exactly what is unknown to Enn, and a little ambiguous to the reader.

I really like this book. At first glance it might seem like an odd choice for a comic – the story doesn’t reach the heights of some of Gaiman’s other work, for example. But it’s short and sweet and so unique. The story is Gaiman at his best in terms of information release and character moments. You’re never completely ahead of the plot and it is so easy to sympathize with Enn’s awkwardness. The charm of the original story was Gaiman’s ability to play with a young man’s feeling that girls were practically another species, and that aspect thrives in this version. In terms of visual storytelling and artistic prowess, Fábio Moon and Gabriel Bá are absolute masters, and I cannot recommend their work here enough. They have an incredible ability to draw worlds that look like reality, but maybe just a few degrees more fantastic. What perfect partners for Gaiman’s work.

How to Talk to Girls at Parties gets my highest recommendation, both for fans of Gaiman and/or Moon & Bá as well as fans of unique sci-fi. It’s a short book you can breeze through pretty quickly, and then immediately restart to find more hints of what’s really going on. A film adaptation directed by John Cameron Mitchell (Rabbit Hole) is set to debut in 2017, so at the very least this interesting comic will prepare you for the film. – Alex Strine

11/18/25

Coral

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 164

Key to alien life underwater

Coral Reef Guides

A few summers ago I spent a week snorkling in the Bahamas. Descending underwater, I had an out-of-the-planet experience. Minute by minute I realized that I was encountering creatures whose general business in life I couldn’t identify. How did they make their living? Animal, plant, or alien? I couldn’t tell. Life is simply far stranger than we can imagine, and no where is that more evident than in the compressed diversity of a coral reef. I needed a Who’s Who to introduce me to the characters of this underworld. The best beginner’s orientation I found was in Peterson’s Guide to Coral Reefs. It’s fine for a start.

Then a diver tipped me off to Paul Humann’s work. Working with 50 professional biologists, Humann has collected pictures and descriptions of Caribbean marine life into three color bursting field guides: Reef Fishes, Reef Creatures, and Reef Coral. These are working identification books used by divers, biologists and taxonomists themselves. (Comes in durable plastic protection cover; includes species life-check list.) Many of the species ID’d are little known. Most are weird. All are beautiful and wonderful. The guides contain a sufficient critical mass of species that you can be confident you actually saw what you think you saw.

The other way I use these: I sit late at night and page through them. My favorite is Reef Creatures, with back up by Reef Coral. I boggle at WHAT’S DOWN THERE. I read the bios. I swoon over the shocking images in full color. I stare. I re-read the bios. I feel holy, blessed.

Humann (and Peterson for that matter) covers the west Atlantic. There is no equivalent portable guide for waters in the rest of our ocean globe that I am aware of. Like Audabon’s masterpiece of birds in North America it can be used and appreciated in other locals. —KK

1. Iridescent Tube Sponge, Spinosella plicifera. Dull purple with iridescent light blue overtones.

2. Knobby Candelabra, Eunicea species. Thick, bushy, knobby, yellow-brown branches.

3. Stoplight Parrotfish, Sparisoma viride. Gray with red belly; large scales outlined in black.

4. Crenelated Fire Coral, Millepora alcicornis. Tan, smooth; no visible cups; pointed white branch tips.

5. Large-Cupped Boulder Coral, Montastrea cavernosa. Cups distinct, blisterlike, greenish with bright green centers.

6. Tan Lettuce-Leaf Coral, Agaricia agaricites. Flat leaflike plates with concentric rings of cups in connected valleys.

7. Flower Coral, Eusimilia fastigiata. Yellow or tan; cups large, oval, at ends of short branches.

8. Black Wire Coral, Stichopathes lutkeni. Brown or cream; wirelike. Black corals (antipatharians) are found only in deep water.

9. Pillow Stinking Sponge. Ircinia strobilina. Gray; large pointed warts.

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Intense underwater gardening

Natural Reef Aquariums

The folks who know the most about reef ecology are the amateur reefers. These passionate hobbyists explore the essentials of marine life by creating artificial salt-water reefs at home. They can cram an amazing diversity of species – sponges, coral, mollusks, fishes — in a few square meters. The coolest residents are the invertebrates.. So much of this craft is like high-performance gardening. You’ve got grow-lights, pumps, salts, and lots of technical gear. Technology makes the chores not much more difficult than keeping fish. To handle this complexity, though, and the whims of dazzlingly strange creatures, veteran amateurs point to this book as the most helpful. The author stresses using the proper mix of reef organisms to filtrate the water without unneeded mechanics. He guides novices easily through sophisticated methods, keeping it as “natural” as possible. Because home reefer enthusiasts are so attuned to the life cycles of their captives, I learned more about marine life from here than any other source. — KK

• Your grandfather, perhaps 100 years ago or so, could only imagine what wonders the world beneath the sea might contain. Your father could follow the exploits of the first explorers of the undersea realm and could just begin to see and experience the explosion of life on a coral reef. But you and I, we can not only visit this world whenever we wish, but we can also capture a small part of it in an oceanic microcosm of our own making in our own homes.
• Even in the most northerly regions, an aquarium placed in direct sunlight can overheat. Aquarists should avoid placing the aquarium in a sunny window, as seasonal fluctuations in temperature in such a location will make maintaining the correct water temperature a challenge. Artificial lighting, for most home situations, is the better choice, being more controllable, predictable, and programmable for the most convenient viewing period.
• Alternatively, organisms from deeper waters, or specimens that have languished for too long in dim light, may have ceased production of protective pigments. When these specimens are then placed under bright lights, the effect is similar to that experienced by someone who, having spent a long winter indoors, rushes out on the first sunny day and spends an afternoon sunbathing. I believe that the alleged burning of corals by metal halide lights can be attributed to a lack of understanding of how these organisms respond to light and not to any inherent detrimental effect of the lights themselves.
• One of the more vexatious challenges, even for experienced reef keepers, is the appropriate placement of corals within the aquarium. Finding just the right level of light intensity and water motion can mean the difference between a specimen that thrives and grows, showing full polyp extension and brilliant coloration, and one that leads a lackluster existence, with polyps retracted or shrunken, dull coloration, and no growth.

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Presents life’s full diversity

The Shape of Life

This 8-part (4 DVD set) series is a National Science Foundation/PBS production that is the most taxonomic of any presentation I’ve seen. The Shape of Life addresses the 8 major categories of animal life — phylum by phylum. Starts with sponges, heads toward round worms, and so on. You get the full diverse view of life — all intelligently organized around a taxonomic framework (without the vocabulary), and expertly illustrated with great (mostly undersea) BBC-type footage. Despite the wonderful nature photography, the creators work really hard to convey the innovations offered by each phylum, and it works. This series cured me of a rather vague notion of animal diversity, despite my work at All Species. I’d love to ingest the same mind-opening treatment for the plant world, as well as the other 3 kingdoms. — KK

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Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, and the links to them may or may not work. We present these vintage recommendations as is because the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.

11/17/25

Colors of Asia / book.sv / Compression bags

Recomendo - issue #488

Colors of Asia

I am releasing my brand new book: Colors of Asia. In it I present some of my favorite scenes from Asia, but instead of being arranged geographically, they are entirely arranged by color—a whimsical way of paying attention. Out of the dozen books I’ve made, I had the most fun making Colors of Asia. It was a blast to put together, and it made me smile the whole way. The book is exuberant, unique, life-affirming, exploding with color and strangeness—and special for me, it is short (144-pages) and portable (standard hardcover size). Colors of Asia covers the same territory as Vanishing Asia, but with a much lighter touch, and a much more affordable price. This is the book for travel enthusiasts, photography lovers, designers seeking inspiration, and anyone interested in Asian styles. I am not trying to maximize the possible profit for this book; Instead, I am trying to serve my 1,000 true fans. So I am limiting the production run to only 1,000 copies. Once they are gone, it’s gone. I have set up a small-time shop on Shopify to distribute Colors of Asia ($35). Pre-order now, and the hardcover, ink-on-paper books will be shipped starting early December. Sadly we can only send books to US addresses. More about the book here. — KK

Space-saving bags for travel

I think I can retire my packing cubes—recently, I fit two weeks’ worth of clothing into a carry-on using just four of these compression bags. No vacuum or pump needed: just roll to compress and shrink your clothes. I even had enough room to bring back gifts from my trip. The 10-pack set includes three different sizes, is reusable, and costs only $10. — CD

Recommended reading

book.sv, is a free book recommendation engine built by scraping 43 million Goodreads users. I entered about ten favorite books, and the results impressed me. It surfaced other books I’ve read and loved, validating its taste-matching algorithm. More exciting were the new titles it suggested: intriguing picks I hadn’t encountered before (like Black Wings Has My Angel by Elliott Chaze). Unlike Goodreads’ algorithm, this feels like getting suggestions from someone who actually understands my reading taste. — MF

Essential apps for China

I just returned from another intense two weeks of travel in China so I’ve put together a document with all the most essential apps I needed there; I wished someone had told me about them before I left. I encourage everyone to visit China now that it is moving so fast, but you need a different set of apps to get around. Here are my 9 essential apps for independent travel in China. — KK

Radical acceptance for daily annoyances

When small things go wrong—spilled coffee, traffic jams, stubbed toes—we often think “this shouldn’t be happening!” Psychologist Patricia Zurita Ona suggests a better way, based on a therapy method called ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) that separates unavoidable pain (the actual problem) from avoidable pain (getting upset about it). Her three-step approach: Notice what you’re feeling in your body (tight stomach, racing heart). Name it: “I’m frustrated.” Ask yourself: “Will my reaction serve me later on or help me live the way I want to live?” This isn’t about liking what happened — just not making it worse by fighting reality. — MF

Prompt to translate menus

I’m one of those people who loves to look up the menu before arriving at a restaurant, but I often get confused by menus full of complex food jargon. Now, I use AI to translate them for me. My go-to prompt: “Translate this menu into simple, everyday language and describe the taste and flavors of each dish.” This has even helped me become more adventurous and order dishes I’d normally avoid. — CD

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11/16/25

What’s in my NOW? — Molly Harris