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New Electronics Series from Becky Stern
My old Make: colleague, Becky Stern, has a new video series that she’s doing for the electronics component company, Digi-Key. Becky has always done an impressive job of explaining what can be intimidating technical information in an entertaining and digestible way. If this first installment, an introduction to LEDs, is any indication, this series looks to deliver more of her welcome brand of accessible tech education.
How to Get Clearer and Stronger Transparent FDM Prints
In this CNC Kitchen video, Stefan shows the special settings you can use to create superior-looking clear prints using an FDM (Fused deposition modeling)printer and clear filament. He also looks at how these parameters make your parts super strong.
Making Your Own Vinyl Stickers
If you’ve been attracted to the idea of creating your own custom vinyl stickers, this video shows you how. All you basically need is a crafting vinyl cutter (a few hundred dollars) and some sheets or rolls of vinyl material.
CA Glue Accelerator from Baking Soda and Water
One of the best takeaways from this Bill Making Stuff video (where he celebrates his 50th episode) is his tip for creating your own accelerator for CA glue. As you likely know, there are commercial accelerators, but they smell funny, have nasty stuff in them, and are combustible. You’re even supposed to wear eye protection when using them, though nobody does. You may also know about using baking soda as an accelerator. It works great, but it leaves a dusty powder on everything that you have to clean off. Bill mixes his baking soda with water in a spray bottle and has found that it works great and creates less mess. I will definitely be trying this.
How a Gas Pump Knows When to Turn Itself Off
If you’ve ever wondered how a gas pump nozzle knows when to shut off when your tank is full, this video reveals the clever design. Venturi tubes, Bernoulli principle, negative pressure — it turns out the design is far more complicated that you might expect. I always assumed it was some sort of an electronic sensor, but it’s purely mechanical.
“I was surprised to see a recommendation for the OXO sink strainer. I love OXO products, but that strainer is a disappointment to me. I do like the inversion feature, but stuff still gets stuck in and around the holes. The silicone gets slimy. I have black slime after a week in my kitchen drain, probably from teensy bits of lettuce and herbs and salad dressing. UGH. (Cleaning out the bowl with a paper towel before washing it seems to help.) I don’t know that a standard issue strainer would make me any happier (though I’d love to quit using so many paper towels). I’m glad yours pleases you; my experience is just different.”
This is a great example of that adage made popular by early hacker culture: “Your mileage may vary” (YMMV). When I posted my review of the strainer on Boing Boing, the first few responses were similar to Candy’s and I got nervous, thinking I had prematurely decided a tool was a winner without giving it an honest testing myself. But then the positive reviews came and they were the overwhelming sentiment. And on Amazon, it has 17.5K reviews at 4.7 stars. After a month, we are more than happy with ours, but, as in all things, YMMV. Thanks for sharing your experience, Candy!
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I have watched so many tape measure tips and tricks videos over the years that you’d think I’ve seen everything. But there’s always more to learn about any tool, so it’s always worth giving them a peek. In this Honest Carpenter video, he covers things like not marking under the curve (that’s built into the tape for stability and strength), not marking too close to the case, and understanding how the end tab works for getting accurate inside and outside measurements. All pretty basic stuff, but definitely a must-watch for any beginner.
https://youtu.be/FVQkFmQld3Q
The Best Adjustable Wrench Might Surprise You
https://youtu.be/0RcyBViaqUY
Adjustable wrenches are a must-have in any toolbox, but do you really need to spend over $100 on a Snap-On to get the best? Todd of Project Farm recently test-compared budget-friendly options (as low as $10) against high-end models ($136), putting them through strength, precision, and grip tests. Surprisingly, the $25 Milwaukee outperformed many competitors, offering a solid grip, six points of contact for better stability, and resistance to self-adjustment under vibration. Craftsman and SK also delivered impressive results at a fraction of Snap-On’s $136 price. For pros who need the absolute best and don’t mind paying for it, Snap-On still dominated in turning power and durability, but if you're looking for big bang for your buck, Milwaukee is the way to go. Want a wrench that won’t round bolts and will literally last a lifetime? Weight, precisionmachining, and a solid adjustment screw make all the difference.
Getting Rid of Toxic Liquids
Did he just say he uses diapers? That was my response when I overheard an artist friend talking to another artist about how he gets rid of waist acrylic paint instead of dumping it down the sink. He buys cheap adult diapers, keeps them in his studio, and then when he’s done cleaning his brushes and tools, he dumps the waste water into the diaper. That got me thinking about other safe disposal methods for other toxics. Below is a video of Dirt Farmer Jay discussing various methods of getting rid of latex paint. What are some of the methods you use for getting rid of nasty liquids in in the shop?
https://youtu.be/LXNZAhABPQk
Buying Locally
I’ve also always been a fan of the concept of resilient community, efforts to create local communities that are strong, that have intelligent systems in place for natural disasters and other threats, that encourage sustainability, small businesses, local farm-to-table, etc. Lately, I’ve made it more of a priority to support small businesses here in my small town, and every time I do, I feel like I’m contributing positively to our community’s growth and well-being. It feels good to go to the local hardware store, talk to actual people who know tools and materials, and buy from them rather than an online source. I also try and support small online businesses, like Taylor Toolworks and Adafruit.
3D Printed Soldering Station/Fume Extractor
https://youtu.be/5-Qx-JZ_bk0
I love this 3D-printed fume extractor that The Byte-Sized Engineer created to marry with the iFixit portable soldering station. As Zach points out, there are instances where you need your electronics to be away from your workbench. This little set-up is perfect for that. In the video, Zach tests out different ways of powering the 12-volt PC fan for the extractor before settling on using the second USB-C port thoughtfully included in the soldering station. He added a USB-C breakout board and a USB-C Power Delivery (PD) board. Some CAD work and 3D printing later, and he now has a sweet little portable, battery-powered soldering station.
In more 3D printing and soldering news, the 3D guru himself, Josef Prusa, posted this to his Instagram channel. It’s a solder spool pencil where your feed the solder to your workpiece with a scroll wheel.
More of Your Inspired Objects
I’m still getting fun and interesting responses to my inspired object piece from a few issues ago:
Michael Finn: The Europiccola from La Pavoni is not just a thing of beauty, but an elegant tool that one must practice and work at to achieve coffee brilliance. Even if I never become a latte artist, my Europiccola will be my favorite expression of coffee making. This one is from 1983 rebuilt and used every day.
John Young: My candidate is my Nikon F camera. This 56-year-old photo shows me, still in high school, using one that I bought from a returning Vietnam vet. After using it heavily in high school and college, it served me through a 30-year newspaper career and still functions as new after thousands of rolls of film. The design of the Nikon F — if not the durability --was mimicked by just about every camera-maker into the digital age. Few shop tools outside of a hammer could survive that level of use and abuse while maintaining functionality — certainly nothing as complex as a camera’s mechanisms.
Gar’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.
