06 March 2023
Sewing
Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 24
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
Best sewing skills guide
When a struggling new fashion-designer needs to hone their sewing skills, Project Runway guru Tim Gunn steers them to this Reader’s Digest Guide to Sewing. It’s got the best, clearest, and most complete introduction to 95% of the sewing skills you’ll ever need. It’s practical and methodical in its instructions. Not as good as grandma, but anyone will be able to pick up stitches, cutting and machine use from it. — KK
Easy threading needles
These ingenious sewing needles can be threaded blindfolded. You pull the thread into a spiral from the side, and for the most part the thread will remain in the eye as you sew. That is not true for calyx eye needles (invented a hundred years ago) as a solution to the vexing problem of threading the eye. It’s as easy for the thread to slip out of the open slot at the end of the calyx needle as it is to slip in, and this wavering can fray the thread. The spiral eye needle doesn’t snag, but in my experience it will occasionally let the thread slip out. Expert sewers might find that annoying. It is dead simple to slip back on, and the thread is not frayed, so I can put up with that small inconvenience.
Spiral Eye needles are expensive: $5 each. However they should last a lifetime if you don’t lose track of them (they look very similar to regular sewing needles). What I really want is a side-threading sewing-machine needle. Schmetz makes some in limited sizes, but of a less ingenious design. — KK
Cheapest portable sewing machine
I own, use and occasionally drag around my Brother sewing machine. Like the previous version of this machine recommended in Cool Tools, it’s light, small, cheap and reliable. I use it for occasional household work and mostly to make repairs to uniforms and sew on patches. It can do ten stitches and that’s more than enough for me. Especially handy is the buttonholer. This little box, in combination with a beginner’s sewing book, can help you do everything that you can imagine short of embroidery. It has held up most admirably considering how much I use it. — Angus mac Lir
Sag-B-Gone Jean Button
Larissa Holland of mmmcrafts came up with a good solution for people who don’t like belts or suspenders and also don’t like it when their jeans start to stretch and get saggy as the day goes on: a “sagb-gone” button! The no sew dungaree buttons are available on Amazon. — Mark Frauenfelder
Superior textile cutter
The Engel Hot Knife is fantastic for cutting and sealing synthetic ropes and textiles in one hot cut. Particularly when making kites, bags, tents, or anything with textiles this is faster by a factor of 10 than scissors, more accurate, and also seals the edges against fraying. It has two blade types, one long and arced, great for fast large things, one pointed and small for detail work. The fact it has a work light directed at the blade is a tremendous detail only the German’s would have thought of including. I use it for other things as well, like sealing plastic bags and various plastic welding jobs. This is probably a misuse of the tool, but periodically I find that useful. I own two of these, and have owned them for 5+ years, and I love them. — Saul GriffithPU
03/6/2303 March 2023
Paige NeJame, Writer
Show and Tell #355: Paige NeJame
As one of the writers of The Carbon Almanac, Paige NeJame wrote the “climate change for rookies” section as well as the free kid’s book “Generation Carbon it’s time to start.” Her motto is “the right tool makes work a dream.” She blogs about small business at Paigespage.net and has been a small business owner for 26 years.
TOOLS:
0:00 – Intro
1:08 – Cadence travel capsules
5:13 – The Carbon Almanac
8:55 – The Way Out by Dr. Alan Gordon
13:27 – The Four tendencies quiz by Gretchen Rubin
23:21 – Generation Carbon: A Carbon Almanac for Kids
To sign up to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form.
03/3/2302 March 2023
In Search of the Best Battery-Powered Nailer
Gar's Tips & Tools - Issue #149
Gar’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.
- Send me a tip or tool recommendation.
- Tell me a shop tale.
- Buy my books (Tips and Tales from the Workshop Vol. 1, Vol. 2).
- Advertise your product, service, newsletter, app, book, tool, or anything you’d like to share with GT&T readers.
In Search of the Best Battery-Powered Nailer
Todd at Project Farm did a series of tests to try and determine the best battery-powered framing nailer on the market. The brands he tested were from Milwaukee, Paslode, DeWalt, Ridgid, Craftsman, and Metabo HPT. The nailers were compared for weight, noise, closeness to object for 90 degree nail drive, nailer speed (seconds to drive 25 nails), performance on composite material (depth of nail), and framing nailer tip grip. And the envelope please… the best nailer in the lot was the Milwaukee M18 FUEL nailer, currently available for $289 (w/o battery) on Amazon.
Creating a Simple Shop Vac Manifold to Triple Dust Collection Locations
In this Stumpy Nubs video, James shows how, in about an hour, using some scraps of wood, you can create a manifold for your shop vac that splits the vacuum input hose to service three different workshop machines.
Toys! Cheap Wireless Headphones
When Monoprice contacted me to see if I wanted to review their Bluetooth Headphones with Active Noise Cancelling, I said sure. I was already perfectly happy with my wireless ($120) Sony phones I’d had for the years, but I thought I’d give these a try. Sony phones? What Sony phones? Ever since I put these on, they’ve been my go-to headphones. I love the fit, the multi-day battery life, and the fact that they stay paired with my computer. With the Sony’s, I was having to charge them too often and frequently had to re-pair them (an annoyance I hate). For sound quality, honestly, the Sony phones are markedly better, but I mainly watch YouTube maker videos all day, so the sound is perfectly adequate for that. The noise cancelling is so-so, only cancelling out low, droning background noise — about what you might expect in low-priced wireless phones. At under $50, this is a very decent and reliable addition to my daily toolset.
Tips Busters: Creating Solar Panels from Old CDs? BUSTED!
Spoiler alert: Of course not!
You may seen videos go viral, with tens of millions of views, that apparently show people creating photovoltaic solar arrays by simply wiring copper coils around grids of old compact discs (or even just adhering aluminum foil strips across them). Hey, they look all shiny metallic and solar-y, so they should be able to generate power, right? Wrong! As Robert Murray-Smith points out, this is all obvious nonsense, and he explains why. For starters, CDs are covered with a layer of lacquer, so all you’re doing is winding wires or attaching aluminum foil onto plastic. And that’s just silly.
Understanding Code Libraries in Arduino Programming
As Becky Stern says in the introduction to her latest With Becky Stern video for Digi-Key: “One of the Arduino community’s superpowers is code libraries, bundles of specialized programming that allow you to leverage complex computing tools using simple commands.” You can use these add-on libraries in your Arduino code to do things like control strips of LEDs, read sensors, and create sounds. There are thousands of user-created libraries out there on the innernets. In this video, Becky explains more about ‘Duino libraries, shows how to install them, and demonstrates some of the things they can do with them, in this case, using a strip of NeoPixel LEDs as an example.
Shop Talk
Reader (and artist) Annie Loel Barr responding to my last newsletter’s inclusion of a video on different glues to use for paper art:
”Good stuff as usual, Gareth. I really enjoy your newsletters. I have to say, though, I was disappointed in the video about adhesives; he said nothing about the archival qualities of any of the adhesives, which, if you are an artist planning for your work to hang around for a while, is pretty important. He also didn’t mention how rubber cement eats into the paper, yellows it, and doesn’t stick for very long. It’s a temporary glue mainly for paste up projects. You can get archival PVA glues and archival glue sticks and I think they’re worthy of mention. He also doesn’t cover bookbinder glue like Yes!, or the wonderful archival adhesive, heavy gel Medium. Or epoxy. I just think he left out a lot and it might be good to have another video that is a little more inclusive…?”
Annie basically caught me being lazy. I watched the glue video, liked a few info-bits in it, but ultimately knew it was weak — a 101 for beginners, at best. But I wanted to have enough content to send the issue, and because I thought it might have use to some, I included it. In the future, I’ll try to stick with my gut and not include things that I don’t feel meet the standards I’m trying to maintain here. From now on, if a newsletter is short an entry or two, I’ll just send it anyway. Real stuff, no fluff.
03/2/2302 March 2023
Choosing Where to Live/Goodbye Golden Visas/Purifying Bottle Cap
Nomadico issue #41
A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.
Deciding Where to Live Part 1: Head, Wallet, & Heart
A key part of deciding where to live in the world if moving abroad is evaluating the pros and cons. Even for a 3-month stay, why Thailand and not Vietnam? Why Medellin and not Cartagena? The “head factors” and the “wallet factors” can be done on a piece of paper or through a hashed-out priorities discussion if you’re a couple, but the “heart factors” really require a visit/trial run. Some places look great when you’re researching, but they just don’t feel right once you’re there. See more here.
Deciding Where to Live Part 2: The 90/10 Rule
This rubric is aimed more at people deciding where to live in their own country, especially parents, but it can be applied to nomadic types as well. The difference is we can back out easier if it doesn’t work out. This “rule” says you should give most of the decision weight to the things that will impact 90% of your waking hours, not the factors that you’ll only occasionally experience. So for working travelers, good coffee, a good workspace, and agreeable weather should probably win out over cultural events you’ll only attend once every two months.
The End of “Golden Visas?”
Portugal is the latest country to end its “golden visa” program whereby wealthy foreigners could buy their way in with enough investment, following similar moves by the UK and Ireland. It’s not that the programs didn’t work, it’s that they worked too well, with a flood of foreigners buying up property and often turning apartments into short-term rental units. Since housing prices have risen faster than local wages, pressure was on to stop the practice, with a banning of new short-term rental licenses as well. See the full story here.
Super Simple Water Purifier
I have lost more than a few water bottles on trips but the one I lost on this current one bums me out because the cap was a UV water purifier. The Crazy Cap is simple to use because it’s already the topper on a Swell-shape bottle. It kills everything inside with UV light and usually lasts me a week or two before I need to recharge. Use it when you need it, or it’s just a regular top when you don’t. This is one lost item I need to replace before my next trip to a place where you can’t trust the tap water.
03/2/2327 February 2023
Clamps
Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 23
Once a week we’ll send out a page from Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. The tools might be outdated or obsolete, but the possibilities they inspire are new. Sign up here to get Tools for Possibilities a week early in your inbox.
Hold anything mount
I have been using this little vise since my interest in electronics was sparked by Make and Hackaday.com. Before I was just using the standard two-arm alligator-clip and magnifying glass holder from Xacto.
The Panavise is much more stable, adjustable and appropriate for breadboard soldering. It has the little grooves on the arms that your board can slip right into and a nice heavy base which means it doesn’t need to be attached to a table if you like to move where you work around a bit. I’ve built several kits and designs of my own using this little vise. I am comfortable knowing *before* I start any project that this is one problem I am not going to have to solve. — David Van der Voort
Little lifters
I discovered Bench Cookies at the Rockler woodworking store more than a year ago. Billed as “work grippers,” they have smooth plastic sides and textured rubber surfaces on top and bottom. You just place them under objects you’re sanding, sawing or painting to hold the object in place. There’s no clamping or screwing involved. They’re amazing. Wood chips and dust have no effect – they do exactly what they’re supposed to. So instead of rummaging for scraps of wood or an old book or two to prop up a project, I reach for bench cookies.
I took them to the print shop where I do intaglio printing. Inking and wiping a large copper or zinc plate on a glass table used to be a nightmare – bench cookies make it a breeze. They hold the plate in place and I can pick it up and turn it as I work, and since it’s off the table I can wipe the edges, too. I don’t think Rockler had any idea how useful they’d be in an art studio. Their great function and inexpensive price make them a perfect present for anyone that does any kind of project. Turns out Rockler’s even made some nice black ones now for uses outside the workshop, like holding up your turntable, keeping it stable and providing vibration reduction. — Jeff Woodbury
Quick jigs
Because Lego blocks are machined to extremely high tolerances, you can use them for quick, cheap but very accurate jigs, perfect for gluing, squaring, molding, etc. Here is an example of how Jef Raskin, who taught me the trick, used them. He built up the exact jig positions by stacking bricks of various thicknesses. In the case shown below he built up a jig to square up wings on his radio control model airplanes. All you need is the large Lego baseplate glued to a heavy duty flat foundation. — KK
Crafting assistant
The “Third Hand” is a low cost helper that has been an indispensable assistant for many of my projects in electronics. It holds circuit boards in place as you put in components, or if you need to solder delicate parts which require a steady hand (sometimes, more than two) it gives you a few more. It’s also pretty tough to find someone to help you at 3am when most of the important work seems to happen. Two adjustable metal clips hold in your circuit boards (or whatever else) and a magnifying glass gives you a little zoom in action for the really tricky constructions. Perhaps I anthropomorphize useful things, but on an otherwise cold work bench, the Third Hand looks like a little robot pal with claws raised, always eager to help. — Phillip Torrone
Quick-release clamping
Bessey Ratcheting Spring Clamps
A significant improvement to the original screw clamp, these ratcheting spring clamps feature quick releases similar to a vice grip. You can hold your project in place with one hand and attach the clamp with the other — all with one squeeze of a trigger. Allows you to spend more time on your project and less time screwing around (…and around, and around).
We purchased two of the four-inch clamps at Lowe’s about a year ago and use them a lot in our boat repairs. In the last month, they’ve come in handy on two projects: to hold an awkward-shaped piece of fiberglass in place while we trimmed it; and to clamp some teak to the workbench so that it could be sanded. We have also used them to attach a straightedge to 4×8 pieces of plywood to provide a cutting guide.
We don’t normally take the clamps with us out to sea (or let any of our tools get wet for that matter) so they should hold up fine. The clamps are made out of heavy duty resin, so they should never rust; this also explains why they’re so lightweight, especially compared to old-fashioned metal clamps. — Nancy Roth
Adjustable woodworker’s clamp
Bessey VarioClippix Spring Clamp
While I have a wide variety of woodworking clamps in my workshop, over the past year, this adjustable plastic clamp is the one I’ve found myself reaching for first. It has an adjustable arm that slides easily on a notched shaft and locks into position when pressure is applied, allowing me to quickly resize a 4″ clamp for 1″, 2″, and 3″ jobs. It is feather light with comfortable handles and a decent throat depth. The spring pressure is just right and the pivoting faces provide a firm but soft grip (other spring clamps have narrow pads that contact the surface, causing possible indents on softer wood, for instance). If you’re a woodworker you already have plenty of clamps. I’ve been doing woodworking for almost 50 years and currently have four pipe clamps and about ten old traditional all-steel medium to large screw-type C-clamps. Most have either deep throats or an extra-wide opening. I also have a number of simple metal spring clamps in a variety of sizes. I seldom use them anymore. Since the VarioClippix clamps are adjustable, a single clamp replaces all the various-sized ones, which also reduces the clutter in my workspace. Ever since I spotted them in the Lee Valley catalog, these clamps have singlehandedly handled about 70 percent of my clamping requirements. — David King
02/27/23
26 February 2023
Creep Mart/Legacy batteries/Perplexity.ai
Recomendo - issue #346
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Fantastic fake toys
Creep Mart is one of my new favorite Instagram accounts. The feed consists of AI-generated images of imaginary monster toys, complete with retro boxes. I think some of these would make excellent real toys, like the Scary Patch Machine or the Spooky Slime. — MF
Legacy rechargeable batteries
I have some legacy devices (like hefty flashlights) that use the old large D and C size batteries. I am done buying batteries. But I wondered if I could get one last round in rechargeable big batteries? Yes, indeed! They make rechargeable Ds and Cs! But you’ll also need a versatile charger. While I was at it, I also upgraded my Maglite flashlights to 10 times brighter LED bulbs. Brilliant! — KK
Powerful answer engine
As an alternative to Google I’ve been asking Perplexity.ai all my questions, because it provides more than just a list of results. It searches a wide range of sources, including academic papers, and writes up a quick summary with cited sources I can click on for further research. It also guesses my follow-up questions. It feels more like a conversation than just search results. — CD
Cheap landline
If you have high-speed internet service and want a cheap landline, try Voiply. We’re paying $9 a month for service. They’ll send you an adapter in the mail. It connects to your cable modem’s ethernet port. You connect your phone line to the adapter. It required no other setup or configuration. — MF
Free movies and audio books
OpenCulture is a clearing house directory for thousands of free movies to watch, thousands of free audio books, free ebooks, free textbooks, free online courses, and all media free and open. — KK
Digital book of mindful recommendations
Reco•mind•o: Mindful Recomendos for Life and Work is now available as a downloadable PDF with clickable links for $2.99. It is a collection of my personal tips distilled from more than 300 issues of Recomendo. It has less product recommendations and more invisible tools to improve the inner and outer aspects of life. The full-color paperback is still available on Amazon. — CD
— Kevin Kelly, Mark Frauenfelder, Claudia Dawson
02/26/23ALL REVIEWS
02/23/23
Kreg Pocket-Hole Jig 720 Pro
Creates pocket-hole joints in plywood from 1/2 to 1 1/2-inch thick
EDITOR'S FAVORITES
COOL TOOLS SHOW PODCAST
WHAT'S IN MY BAG?
22 February 2023
ABOUT COOL TOOLS
Cool Tools is a web site which recommends the best/cheapest tools available. Tools are defined broadly as anything that can be useful. This includes hand tools, machines, books, software, gadgets, websites, maps, and even ideas. All reviews are positive raves written by real users. We don’t bother with negative reviews because our intent is to only offer the best.
One new tool is posted each weekday. Cool Tools does NOT sell anything. The site provides prices and convenient sources for readers to purchase items.
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We recently posted a short history of Cool Tools which included current stats as of April 2008. This explains both the genesis of this site, and the tools we use to operate it.
Kevin Kelly started Cool Tools in 2000 as an email list, then as a blog since 2003. He edited all reviews through 2006. He writes the occasional review, oversees the design and editorial direction of this site, and made a book version of Cool Tools. If you have a question about the website in general his email is kk {at} kk.org.
Mark Frauenfelder edits Cool Tools and develops editorial projects for Cool Tools Lab, LLC. If you’d like to submit a review, email him at editor {at} cool-tools.org (or use the Submit a Tool form).
Claudia Dawson runs the Cool Tool website, posting items daily, maintaining software, measuring analytics, managing ads, and in general keeping the site alive. If you have a concern about the operation or status of this site contact her email is claudia {at} cool-tools.org.
