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Comparing Circular Saw Blades
In this Project Farm video, Todd tests 15 different circular saw blades to find out which ones are the best. He tested blades for performance in ripping 2×4 lumber (before and after striking nails) and compared for performance while cutting through oak and ripping an 8’ pressure-treated 4×4. Bottom line? The Makita blade ($10) was best overall. The Spyder also performed surprisingly well for its $5 price tag (at time of testing), although that price is currently over $12 each, so look for it on sale. Doing a web search, I see it’s available at some e-tailers for under $7.
Cutlist Optimizer
Speaking of cutting things. If you have a woodworking project that involves a fairly complicated cut list, there is a free app called Cutlist Optimizer. It allows you to both organize your cut list to better keep track of all of your pieces and allows you to optimize the parts you can get from your sheet goods.
How to Calculate 555 Timer Frequency and Duration
Ah, the venerable 555 chip. One of the most useful and popular ICs in electronics history. Invented in 1971, released in 72, it remains a go-to solution for a myriad of timer, delay, pulse, and oscillation applications. In this Digi-Key video, they cover the steps for calculating the necessary resistor and capacitor values needed to achieve the frequency and signal duration that you’re after in your project.
The Power of Great Reference Books and Knowing the Names of Things
As both a maker and a word nerd (I edited Wired’s “Jargon Watch” column for 13 years), I’ve always tried to impress upon people the power in knowing what something is called. Knowing the proper name for something allows you to look it up, learn about it, track it down (if it’s a tangible object). In this Adam Savage video, he harps on the same thing. He does so while extolling the virtues of a book he recently discovered and loves, the Backstage Handbook. This visual technical reference is for stagecraft, but most of its contents–divided into tools, hardware, materials, shop math, electrics, and architecture–can be applied to all manner of making. You you get to learn the proper names for all of the tools, hardware, and materials it covers. Magic!
TOYS! StylusReach Flexible Flashlight
Cool Tools has launched a new newsletter called Tools for Possibilities. Every week, subscribers get sent a page from the CT book: Cool Tools: A Catalog of Possibilities. I was tickled to see that the first page I was sent had a review that I wrote on the StylusReach flashlight. The Cool Tools catalog was released in 2013. Nine years later and I still have, use, and love this flashlight. Good tools do that.
Newsletter reader Paco Hidalgo sent this in response to the piece in the last issue on water and baking soda as a CA glue accelerator.
“I first tried the Zip Kicker CA accelerator and found its smell very disagreeable, nauseating, and the spray bottle made it very difficult to apply just a small drop. I later leaned that cyanoacrylate glues “set” (polymerize) by the mere presence of trace amounts of water vapor in the atmosphere. This infographic explains.
“So, I concluded that if that is the case, then liquid water would certainly accelerate the polymerization. I found that just a drop of water from a toothpick or needle onto a blob of the glue does indeed accelerate the setting process. I never heard of using baking soda but that would add a foreign material to the bond. Why do that? [See comment below] There would be no reason to mix baking soda with water since water alone does a good job.
“BTW: A ‘secret’ that I learned from the guy at the counter of a mall hobby shop, is that CA glues will keep indefinitely in the freezer. I think the dry environment prevents the glue from polymerizing. The manufacturers don’t want you to know that so they tell you not to freeze their glues. I keep partial bottles of different types of CA glue, including LOCTITE, sealed inside a ziploc bag in the freezer that are at least 10 years old. I can take a bottle and use it immediately without waiting for it to come to room temp. It is liquid and works just as fast. I wipe the tip with acetone after each use and keep a common pin in the narrow opening so it doesn’t clog.
“I keep all my solvent glues, including Lexel, E6000, and Goop in the freezer too, with the same result. I think the cold environment keeps the solvent from evaporating and escaping from the imperfect seal that normally shortens the shelf life. I keep epoxy glues in the refrigerator. This is enough to prevent them from self-polymerizing.”
[Just to clarify: Baking soda is commonly used by itself as an accelerator, especially in the hobby/modeling communities. Besides being an accelerator, it adds more structure to the join. Large amounts of baking soda can be added to CA glue to create a very hard material. This soda and CA combo as a structural material is common among luthiers repairing bridges and fret boards. It can be sanded, drilled, etc.]
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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.
CarMax is a great source for when you are in the market for a certified, warranted, used vehicle. I don’t know of any other dealership where you can test drive a used car, in excellent condition, and not have to go through a hard sell sales pitch, or a torturous bargaining phase when you decide to purchase it. The no-bargain price is right on the vehicles, and is often quite a bargain (with notable exceptions, so you have to do your independent price-point research ahead of time). The salespeople have no incentive to make a hard sell because of the way their commissions are set, and the fixed prices (so don’t bother bargaining). Additionally, if you decide within five days of your purchase that it was not the right car for you, you can return it for a full refund, regardless of how much you drove it (and yes, I have actually tested this out) with no reason needed beyond simply that you didn’t like the car. They also make a similar no-bargaining, no-low-balling offer for your trade-in, and let you know with 30-45 minutes exactly what they are willing to pay you for your car. And, as it should be, the two transactions don’t have to be tied to each other. They also have a decent website that lets you find the car you want nearby, or sign up to be notified via e-mail if a car matching your criteria shows up in their lots. Their Service Centers also seem to be squeaky clean and very impressive. They seem to be the elusive Car Dealership with a Conscience. My advice to anyone looking to buy or sell a used car, it behooves you to at least see what CarMax has to offer before making your final decision. — Surkhab Niazi
To find the best deal when buying a new car I use The Autoline. I can’t recommend them highly enough. For a modest fee they will find the car you want (or recommend the car you should buy based on your budget and requirements) and call you back with the best no-haggle price they can find. (They also do leases.) I’ve used them four times now and am very happy with the results. Each time they’ve arranged for dealer to deliver the car to my house, so I never have to set foot in the dealership or hassle with the guy who pressures you to buy useless “clear coat” and other pure profit add-ons.
Don’t be put off by their 1993-style website — all business is conducted by phone and email. — Mark Frauenfelder
Getting quotes from Get Used Parts is nice and all but for the more hands-on “just give me the info” approach, Car-Part.com is a better fit. It actually gives you a list of all the places that have your part, their prices, condition etc with contact information for the seller and you can filter the results by area or state. A lot of parts are too big/heavy to ship or cost prohibitive so it helps to find nearby sellers. They even have a handy tool to help you figure out what a part is called if you don’t know.
The prices quoted online have been accurate and the parts are almost always available when you contact the seller. Most places have 800 numbers so its no big deal to call a few if need be or to find the best shipping prices. My dad has found several items to repair our family’s cars and has been happy with them. Of course the shipping costs, accuracy of item descriptions, etc will vary depending on the seller, but we haven’t had any issues to date. — Isaac Good
After recently being involved in a minor fender-bender that resulted in a cracked tail light on my Subaru, I found that replacement parts would cost about $300 brand-new. A thorough web search confirmed that no lower prices could be found for new parts. Then I thought of trying to find the parts from a junkyard, but soon realized that would involve calling all of the junkyards in my area and then traveling to get the part, if one could be found. So I did what any person would do in this day and age and searched Google for used or salvaged auto parts and found this website. Once I entered in the year, make, model of my car and the exact part I needed, I received a phone call a half our later from a junkyard in Alabama that had exactly what I needed. They sent me the part for $95, including shipping.
There are several other sites that do essentially the same thing, i.e. use a standardized format to send a parts request to multiple junkyards and salvage lots around the country. I use this one because it has the nicest interface and I received the best and fastest quote on the parts I needed. One thing I noticed in using these sites is that they all used the same software for selecting the year, make, model of the car and parts needed. Some entrepreneurial software company must have identified this niche and they now monopolize the market for this specialized type of software. — Jason Spitzer
For the last five years I’ve used a synthetic chamois called The Absorber to dry my boat and cars. It is so good I can’t bear to use anything else. It holds more water and absorbs faster than towels or real chamois. The chamois I used years ago had to be thoroughly dried out after use or it would rot, and when dry, was hard to store. Then you had to get it wet before use and wring it out frequently since it didn’t hold much water. A towel, once wet, doesn’t leave a dry surface (all those spots). The Absorber when moderately wet leaves your surface utterly dry. It’s kind of amazing, really.
After you’re done using it, just fold it in half, roll it up wet and tuck it in its hard plastic storage tube. It says you can machine wash it but I haven’t tried that myself.
On the company website, you can read details on its PVA open-cell material. The company claims that the product is “the best drying tool you’ll ever discover” and I have to agree it is — it is superior drying technology. I now own four of them in different colors. The site says you can use it to dry pets but I have never tried it on my dog (she’s a short hair model and doesn’t really need it), but I will try it on myself. —Steve Leveen
Winding Road is a free digital car magazine that arrives once per month — you can either view it online in flash or download it in PDF. Apparently the magazine hired away some of the good writers from the other well-known car magazines. They are doing a pretty decent job. The magazine has cool videos and audio interviews throughout, and the photos are very good. They also have a daily news site. With Winding Road I can get all the car magazine stuff I need, without having to pay, and they never asked me for a credit card number or any of that. I’ve cancelled my Car and Driver subscription because I don’t need it anymore. — Roy Nesseth
We had the Smart EV for several parade loops around Brooklyn and Manhattan, and certainly the cars were 100 percent in their element here. We do completely adore the in-cabin sitting-at-the-wheel relationship; it’s still near perfect and tremendously comfortable. The spatial attitude of the driver and our view out of the car are both near perfect in urban situations as well.
Acceleration to 37 miles per hour is quoted at 6.5 seconds, and top speed is capped at just 62 mph. That speed cap will keep drivers from routinely sucking the 16.5-Kwh, Tesla-Daimler lithium-ion battery pack dry, and thus falling way short of the quoted 82-mile range. The transmission is just an on/off switch really, with a single-speed system overseeing things. This automatically makes the ForTwo ED better than the gas-powered sibling, as the five-speed simplistic SofTouch automatic is, frankly, quite an awful experience.
Another mixed message: until the 2013 model year, these initial Smart ForTwo ED cars are available only on exorbitant 48-month leases at $599 per month. That’s $28,752 total, but the federal income tax credit is bound to be for the full $7500 possible,thus bringing the take down to $21,252 or, in the end, about $4,000 less than the base Nissan Leaf.
Evo has gotten an early drive of the BMW i8 prototype in northern Sweden.When driving, there is a whine from the three-cylinder motor, but it isn’t what one would consider bad. They describe it as sounding a bit like an early Porsche 911.
Volvo has introduced a new engine family called Drive-E with two offerings, one of which is both turbocharged andsupercharged.
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.
