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I got a phenomenal response to my request for input on this newsletter. Thanks to all who messaged me. Turns out, an overwhelming number of you like the newsletter the way it is and simply offered encouragement. I also got several excellent suggestions for new features which I’ll be rolling out in the coming weeks. Keep those cards and letters coming!
How to Restore Yellowed Clear Plastic
In this quick Tested video, Adam Savage sets out to restore the lid of a gorgeous vintage Nagra IV-S audio recorder he recently acquired. The machine is in surprisingly good condition, but the clear plastic cover was scratched and badly yellowed. Doing research, he found many recommendations for using 12% hydrogen peroxide. He tried it with partial success. He discovered that finishing it up with plastic polishing compound returned it to something close it is original glory.
Making a Cheap, Simple Air Cleaner for a Small Shop
In this I Build It video, John shows how he made a simple and inexpensive air cleaner for his small woodshop. The air cleaner was made from little more than a small fan, a piece of duct piping, some scrap ply, and a several shop vac air filters. I love the way it can be expanded (with additional filters) via a threaded rod that holds the filters in place.
IKEA Wrenches on Your Pegboard
I just discovered a use for all of those hex wrenches that come with IKEA and other flat-pack furniture. They make perfect pegboard pegs!
Oil Can!
The tin man in dire need of maintenance.
The other day, while oiling a squeaky hinge with some lithium grease, I flashed on my granddad. A consummate tinkerer and inventor, Gramps was obsessed with maintenance. He frequently had his spring-bottom oiler in hand, blue shop rag tangling from his back pocket, going around the house, the yard, his backyard workshop, the car, lovingly maintaining the machinery of his life. I decided in that moment to try and be better at doing the same. Moments later, on Twitter, I saw this Kurt Vonnegut quote: “Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” Exactly. OIL CAN!
Maker Slang
Slang, jargon, and technical terms for the realms of making things.
Crown pulley – A pulley designwhere the center has a larger diameter than the outer edges, thus a “crown.” Perhaps counter-intuitively, the belt on the pulley will always seek the area of highest tension, returning it to the crown. Via Maker Update.
Promptcrafting – In AI art, it’s all about the quality of the prompts you craft. The better your invocation, the better the magic that gets returned.
Rewilding your attention – Writer Clive Thompson has been promoting the creative benefits of exposing yourself to the novel, the offbeat, the serendipitous. Look beyond what the online algorithms feed you – rewild your attention!
Shop Talk
As stated in the intro, I received many fabulous emails from you, dear readers. Here is one from Paul Cryan. Look for some tips from Paul in a coming issue!
“Thanks for doing all you do. Your tip books [Ed: Vol 1, Vol 2.] are great and I’m really enjoying the newsletter. I bought and devoured both of your books, in Kindle and PDF formats. I refer to them often and having the search function (via either the Kindle app or iBooks, respectively) is really handy. Every few days, I find myself looking at objects in new ways and going back to your references. This past Friday, I didn’t have a clamp within getting-up-from-my-chair distance at my office desk, so I ended up using a pair of pliers and a rubber band to hold together a plastic part I was gluing. Thanks for putting that seed in my head.
“The only problem I have with the weekly newsletter is that it gives me way too many things to think about and try per unit of time!
“With your tips books, I’ve got months to read through them and try things out. This week, I experimented with the lanolin mineral oil mixture to rustproof tools out of your latest tips book and it seems to hold much more promise than Johnson’s Paste Wax for keeping my old restored Shopsmiths looking and working great. I still need to test whether the stickiness can be buffed sufficiently off the power-tool surfaces to avoid particles grabbing, but so far so good. And who doesn’t like that faint smell of ungulates on their metal? 😉
“With the newsletter, I’m interested in just about everything you cover, which leads me to a weekly frenzy of investigation and implementation. Within the past month I’ve upgraded our broken sink strainers to the OXO type (love them), picked up a Williams ratcheting screwdriver (my new favorite ‘good enough’ tool), and bought Fat Boy pencils and FastCap markers that have me wondering how I didn’t know about these things before. And now I’m browsing saw blades!”
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After three years of research and thousands of interviews, The 5 Types of Wealth offers a framework for building a truly rich life — one defined not just by money, but by time, relationships, mental clarity, and physical vitality working together across every season of your journey.
Core Principles
Time Wealth
Time is your most valuable and finite asset. Time Wealth means having the freedom to choose how you spend it, where you spend it, and whom you spend it with. It requires three things: awareness that time is limited, attention to spending it on what matters, and control over your own schedule. The ultimate goal isn’t more time — it’s the freedom to allocate it according to your preferences.
Social Wealth
Social Wealth is about depth over breadth — cultivating deep, meaningful connections with a small group of people rather than shallow relationships with many. Your inner circles, communities, and the quality of your bonds determine much of your life satisfaction. Remember: everyone you love is on loan for a short period of time.
Mental Wealth
Mental Wealth shapes how you experience everything else. It consists of purpose (a vision that guides your decisions), growth (eagerness to learn and change), and space (time to think, recharge, and listen to your inner voice). The greatest discoveries come not from finding right answers but from asking right questions.
Physical Wealth
Treat your body like a house you have to live in for another seventy years. Physical Wealth rests on three pillars: movement (daily activity focusing on cardio, strength, and flexibility), nutrition (whole, unprocessed foods), and recovery (prioritizing sleep). Minor issues become major issues over time — repair them early.
Financial Wealth
Financial Wealth means defining what “enough” means to you and building toward it. Money enables the other four types of wealth but doesn’t replace them. Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough. Your wealthy life may involve money, but it will ultimately be defined by everything else.
Try It Now
Rate yourself 1-10 on each type of wealth: Time, Social, Mental, Physical, Financial. Which one is most neglected?
Identify one area where you’ve been “occasionally extraordinary” but inconsistent. Commit to being “consistently reliable” instead.
Write down your definition of “enough” financially. What number would give you freedom without endless striving?
Schedule one thing this week that invests in a non-financial type of wealth you’ve been neglecting.
Quote
“Never let the quest for more distract you from the beauty of enough.”
The tin man in dire need of maintenance.
