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A Master Class in Prototype Making
In response to John Baglio’s search for a series of prototyping videos he’d run across, Talon Chandler immediately responded with:
“He’s probably talking aboutDan Gelbart. Dan is a local legend among engineers in Vancouver, BC. He founded Creo, a printing technology company that sold to Kodak circa 2005, and several other companies including Kardium, a growing healthcare company. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Dan once (I interned at Kardium close to 10 years ago), although I haven’t had the pleasure of visiting his extraordinary shop.”
Others also messaged me and told stories about the impact of Dan’s videos on them. They are amazing. I haven’t found a treasure trove like this since discovering TubalCain/MrPete222 some 15 years ago. Anyone interested in precision machining, prototyping, water jet cutting, and a wealth of general machine shop wisdom should check out this channel.
Expanding the Usefulness of 1-2-3 Blocks with a Hardware Kit
I’ve long been a fan of 1-2-3 blocks and always have them handy when doing a host of different projects. They’re great for quick measuring, aligning, holding parts together for gluing/ fastening, as shop weights, and countless other applications. One of the features that few people outside of machining use are the holes drilled into the blocks. These are not just there to keep the overall weight down. They are threaded and non-threaded holes designed for attaching the blocks in various configurations (such as for making right-angle or T-shaped jigs).
In this Stumpy Nubs video, James introduces a clever little hardware kit for easily attaching blocks – and attaching them with nothing proud of the surfaces. As he points out, you can source these screws and through-hole fasteners yourself, but why not support the guy who came up with the idea for this kit? That guy, Mike Taylor, sells a kit of 6 hex-head screws, sized for 1″, 2″, and 3″ attachment, 4 threaded through-hole dowels, a hex key, and a slotted driver head – all housed in a handy little plastic box. I immediately bought a kit (only $10) and I love it. Mike also makes really high-quality blocks at an affordable price ($20/pair). I snagged a pair of those, too. It always feels good to support a maker small business.
Using Finger Pressure to Match Hex Head to Wrench
On the Twitter account of software engineer Roach, he posted this clever way of matching a hex head to a hex wrench. Pressing your finger into the head will leave a dimple that you can use to size the appropriate wrench.
A Prompt Book for Better AI Art Generation
If you’ve spent any time on social media lately, you’ve likely seen some of your acquaintances go down the rabbit hole of artificial intelligence image generators like Midjourney, DALL-E, and Google’s Imagen. These programs take descriptions that you feed them and return AI- generated art interpretations of that input. It’s very addictive and fun and has huge disruptive potential. My wife Angela and I were joking a few weeks ago that in the future, art will be nothing more than the ability to input the most fulsome description of what you want. And then, just a few days later, Recomendo shared a link to The Prompt Book, a free PDF of instructions, examples, and tips for refining your input commands. It’s directed at the DALL-E program, but its ideas can be applied to any of these art generators. In the future, art will be incantation.
Making a Shop Paper Roll Dispenser
Poking around on the ‘Tubes, I came across a series of DIY videos, called Try, that Kevin Kelly did on Cool Tools in 2020-21. How did I miss these? Here’s one on building a kraft paper roll cutter for your shop and a really charming one about the sign that he made for the Kelly compound in Pacifica, CA.I hope he gets inspired to do more of these.
Maker Slang
Jargon, slang, and tech terms from the many realms of making.
FEP – (Fluorinated Ethylene Propylene) A tough, no-stick plastic material commonly found in the bottoms of resin vat 3D printers. Its translucence allows the light source beneath it to shine through the vat, curing the resin onto the build plate.
Holidays – A term used by professional painters and gilders/gold leafers to refer to gaps in coverage. It derives from the joke that a painter must have taken some time off, a little holiday, by not covering an area they should have. [Hat tip to gilder Michael Kramer]
Minimal viable product – A phrase used by Italian maker and product developer, Giaco Whatever. In creating a product, you want to pare your idea down to its minimum possible components. See also: KISS (keep it simple, stupid)
Real job – A project that’s a series of tasks and challenges that imply significant time and effort – as opposed to a task which can be quickly accomplished. “That’s a real job. I need to set aside an afternoon for that.”
Resilient idiot – A self-deprecating admission that sometimes knowledge and skills seemingly won’t stick, not matter how hard you try and learn them. Coined by Donald Bell. Not to be confused with Andy Birkey’s similar: actual moron.
“This is a very common tool for locksmiths when dealing with vehicle lockouts. The inflatable pry bar can generally create enough space for the locksmith to drop a loop down to grab the lock pin from the interior of the door frame and gain entry without having to damage or possibly ruin the actual lockset on the car door. But don’t underestimate their power. I used one on an old car when I locked my keys in and it bent the door to the point that it never fully aligned to the door frame gasket again.”
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Cool tools really work.
A cool tool can be any book, gadget, software, video, map, hardware, material, or website that is tried and true. All reviews on this site are written by readers who have actually used the tool and others like it. Items can be either old or new as long as they are wonderful. We post things we like and ignore the rest. Suggestions for tools much better than what is recommended here are always wanted.
I’ve been wearing a Fitbit since late 2009 and overall I highly recommend it.
The Fitbit is expensive for a pedometer ($99), but in return you get wireless syncing of your steps to your computer and to fitbit.com. Plus you can add friends as “Fitbit buddies” to compare how many steps everyone took each week. I’m currently in a year-long competition with my brother-in-law to see who can take more steps. Inspired by the Fitbit, I will often do 1:1 meetings as a “walk and talk” around the block instead of sitting in a room. I take the stairs at work instead of the elevator. I park my car a couple hundred yards from work instead of close to the building. So far since later 2009, I’ve taken 7,715,383 steps. That’s 3000+ miles towards better health!
What’s not so good? The Fitbit costs a bit much, although I think it’s worth it.
The other (mild) issues I have with the Fitbit are that:
Water can short it out. Don’t go swimming with it on, and attach it somewhere that won’t get 100% drenched in sweat.
Overall, I think wearing a pedometer (Fitbit or otherwise) is one of the easiest/best things you can do for your health. This tool is highly recommended.— Matt Cutts
I use a Fitbit, too. The wireless syncing means that you don’t need to think about it. The hardest part for me is to remember to move the device if I change my pants. The simplicity of the website, and of the user interface on the object, entice you to use it, and to pay attention to the results. It is a small thing that works well and a habit that is very sustainable over the years. — KK
I’ve been using my Withings WiFi-enabled scale since 5 Dec 2009, at which point I weighed 246.9 lbs. Today, I weigh 183.5 lbs, and this scale helped me reach my goal. It shows weight, percentage or lbs of body fat, and BMI. Because it’s WiFi-enabled, the readings are picked up and displayed graphically on my Web page (password protected) at their site with the option to share it with other web-based weight loss sites. Moreover, I can use the data locally by downloading the readings in a format suitable for a spreadsheet.
I weigh daily, and the graph has greatly helped in my weight-loss efforts. Now I can easily see the trend, which helps manage it. I’ve had a series of scales that measure both weight and percentage body fat, including a couple by Tanita. As part of my weight loss effort, I did have some professionally administered body-fat measurements, and the Withings readings were consistent with that, within the limits of accuracy with respect to one’s daily weight fluctuations. If you have multiple people using the scale, it’s easy to set up multiple accounts (it has a maximum of 8 users). —Michael Ham
High-capacity measurer
Digital Freight Scale I’m a big dude so most scales don’t even cover my weight. Consequently I had to think different to get a decent scale. I found this digital postage scale. It reads up to 400lbs in half pound increments, has a remote, mountable readout auto tare (useful when weighing the dog). It isn’t particularly pretty but being in the top percentile in weight and height has certain drawbacks and requires special tools. — Bryan Covington
A physicians’ balance beam scale is consistently accurate. We’ve had one now for at least 25 years; its accuracy has remained constant through many moves, changes in humidity, and so forth. Measurement is in 1/4 pounds, which is good enough. There is a readjustment knob if you think there is an error when changing the scale’s placement. If only my weight and height had remained so constant….— Martha Robinson
If you want consistency and accuracy in a body scale, I strongly suggest an old-fashioned balance beam scale. Even a cheap one (<$200) will do a better job than most expensive electronic scales. Also, they are kind of fun to use, they have an eye level display, and the batteries never run out. — Danny Hillis
I’ve been using the BodyMedia FIT armband for the past 3 months and it is the only diet and exercise system that I’ve found that really works. The system works through the use of an armband that you wear on your left arm throughout the day. As you go about your regular routine the armband measures your caloric burn. The armband uses four sensors to track over 9,000 variables from heat to sweat to steps to calories burned every minute of every day.
You can track your daily burn and steps taken through an optional display, but the real power is in syncing the armband to the BodyMedia web site which allows you to see charts of calories burned per minute, steps taken, exercise levels, sleep cycles, etc. You can also track your weight measurements in the tool. The great thing about the online tools is that it lets you enter your daily caloric intake (just search for a food and add it to a meal), and compares your incoming calories to outgoing calories. By entering your calories on a daily basis you can ensure a realistic caloric deficit which is guaranteed to help you lose weight safely. It’s very helpful for making sure you don’t starve yourself by eating too little, or conversely, that you don’t go crazy and eat too much.
Since I started using the armband I’ve dropped 20 pounds that I’ve managed to keep off with almost no trouble. It’s become pretty simple for me. I can eat a healthy but normal breakfast and lunch, then I check my calorie burn before dinner and make sure to eat the appropriate amount to ensure I maintain my target calorie deficit.
What I love about this tool is that it eliminates estimation. Everyone has different basal metabolic rates depending on what they do during the day. Whereas most diet systems target a fixed number of daily calories, those fixed amounts could mean anywhere from a 500-2500 calorie deficit depending on the person. Anyone who’s dieted knows that when you get into high calorie deficits you’re body stops losing and you go into the so called starvation mode where your body actually holds onto the weight. With this that never happens. If I have a lazy day at work and am on target to burn 3200 calories then I know I can eat 2200 and maintain my 1000 calorie deficit. But say, I go for a long run on the weekend and do some yard work I could get up to 5500 calories burned. If I stuck with a 2200 calorie diet, my body (and my willpower) would rebel. However with BodyMedia, I know that on those 5500 calorie days I can eat 2000 more calories and still be on target for weight loss.
Long story short – I absolutely love this system. — Marc Ryan
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.
