Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.
Every time a newsletter goes out, I get wonderful emails from readers telling me how much they enjoy it. At the same time, I get a spate of unsubscribes. Often, the subs go up by the same number they go down. It’s frustrating. Because of the positive emails, I know there’s an audience for what I’m doing here. Can you help me reach more of it? Can you post a link to this newsletter in your social media? Share with other maker enthusiasts? Thanks so much for your help.
Let’s Talk About Clamps
In this “Ask Adam Savage” segment on Tested, Adam is asked about shop clamps. This leads to a typically-Adam thoughtful and wise deep dive into the many uses and types of clamps: c-clamps, bar clamps, vice grips, quick-grip clamps, welding clamps, jeweler’s clamp, bench vises, lever clamps, kant twist clamps, and last but not least, spring clamps. One great tip takeaway: Don’t ever buy one clamp. Buy at least two, and if you can afford it, but 4 or more.
I subscribe to FineScale Modeler magazine, even though I’m not really a scale modeler. I was as a teen and still like looking at what people are up to in that hobby. Mainly, I look for modeling tips that I can apply to my hobby of miniature painting and tabletop game modeling. Here’s a great case in point. You can use a scribbing compass to cut circles in styrene. You just have to be patient, make multiple passes, and finish up with a hobby knife if the piece is thick or stubborn.
A Collection of Razor Rules of Thumb
A “razor” is a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making. Here’s a collection of the sharpest razors gathered by Sahil Bloom and posted on Twitter.
The Feynman Razor Complexity and jargon are used to mask a lack of deep understanding. If you can’t explain it to a 5-year-old, you don’t really understand it. If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something, they probably don’t understand it.
The Luck Razor When choosing between two paths, choose the path that has a larger luck surface area. Your actions put you in a position where luck is more likely to strike. It’s hard to get lucky watching TV at home—it’s easy to get lucky when you’re engaging and learning.
New Column: Ask Gar
If you have questions about tools, things you might have read here in the past, resources you’re in search of, email me.
Reader Rick Griggs asks: “I need to buy headmounted lighted magnifying glasses. I don’t know what to look for, and thought you’d reviewed (or linked to a review) of these in a distant past newsletter that I could read/watch to learn more, but I can’t find anything. If you have done this, please point me to which one.”
Hey Rick,
I’m not sure it was in the newsletter. I know I talked about these in my old tips column on Make:. The one I have is shown above. It costs under $10 on Amazon! For my purposes (miniature painting), it’s great. It has two lenses that offer 1.5X magnification each and a third monocle lens at 7X magnification, providing intensities at multiples of 1.5, 3, 8.5, and 10. The light angle is adjustable in two directions and the light pack can even be removed from the headband for use elsewhere. A lot of features for under ten bones!
***
My old pal, Steven Roberts, asks about racks to hold Stanley organizing cases:
“Do you know of any quick-turn kits/products to handles stacks of Stanleys? Of course the solution is obvious, but I have so many projects that I don’t want to do it. If someone has made one, or published a good repurposing of something like a bakers rack or other off-the-shelf (heh, so to speak) tool, I’m all ears!
”If you have responses to questioned asked by readers here, let me know.
Regarding the term Minimal Viable Product (MVP). It was coined by Eric Ries in his book The Lean Startup as a way of learning what potential customers found valuable before spending a lot of time and money building something that people didn’t want to buy. Unfortunately, I think Reis did not do a very good job of naming this because it really doesn’t mean a stripped down product. In his world, it refers to anything that you can quickly learn from. Some examples could be a fake landing page which actually does nothing but gather insight about whether customers click on the link or not. I know of a company that used wire frames drawn on paper as an MVP to learn what people would pay for. Yes, it can be a stripped down version of an actual product, but in most cases, if you’re doing that before you’ve learned what people want to pay for, it’s overkill.
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Photosynthesis for people. In a 2018 blog post on productivity, Sam Altman wrote that using a full-spectrum LED light for 10 minutes in the morning while reading emails was a “ridiculous gain,” so I obviously had to try it. It’s hard to know if it is the placebo effect, but I do feel extra productive with a fake sun blasting my face during meditation. Worst case, I’m a well-lit overachiever. Best case, I’ve hacked my circadian rhythm and achieved peak human performance.
Sleek minimalist wallet that’s always ready to be found. “Hey Siri, find my wallet” is a daily ritual for me. The Ridge Wallet does the trick with form and function. They sell an AirTag cash strap add-on for those as prone to losing things as I am.
Solving the airline headphone jack tragedy. You board a flight, settle in, and realize your Bluetooth noise-cancelling headphones are useless. The AirFly Pro connects them wirelessly to in-flight entertainment, gym treadmills, and more. It’s basically a peace treaty between past and present technology.
DIGITAL
Some see photography as art, a job, or a hobby. For me, photography is about connection. Photography is connection to the transient moments that are once and never again. Photography is connection to the beauty in the mundane. Photography is connection to the organized chaos of the world. Photography is connection to a common human spark. Photography is connection to the life living life all around me. Antarctica. Cuba. Istanbul. India. Myanmar. Nepal. Bali. New York. Rwanda. Tanzania. Ghana. Sri Lanka. Japan. And beyond. Top 50 photographs of all time.Turn up the sound. Hit full screen.https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/nKcbBlD_1KM?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
Imagination as the Path of the Spirit, John O Donohue. Two of my favorite takeaways: A blank white page is the best mirror + A death bed is a great place to feel alive.https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/RkXRaFm33Eg?rel=0&autoplay=0&showinfo=0&enablejsapi=0
INVISIBLE
"The exclusive purpose of human existence is to purify our hearts." — Radhanath Swami
So clear, and as far as I can tell, so true. This is why it feels so good to be around people who are pure. People who, as my partner Hari says, "want something for us, not something from us." It is also why life's difficulties are necessary. They cultivate humility and purify the heart. And why it feels so good to serve others, spend time in nature, sing in the shower, and have a dance party with kids.
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