Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #195

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

What Are Your Inspired Objects?

I love the concept of the “inspired object,” first introduced to me by maker-philosopher, bike guru, and “shade tree mechanic,” Mister Jalopy. An inspired object is something — a tool or other physical object — that manages to inspire or elevate you whenever you use it. It’s usually something that embodies one or more of the following qualities:

• It’s perfectly designed; a marvel of appropriate technology.
• It’s beautiful, pleasing to the eye, feels good in the hand.
• It’s incredibly well-made, high-quality in every regard.
• It’s imbued with memories — maybe something that you made yourself or has been handed down to you.

An inspired object always impresses you with its extra-special qualities whenever you use it. The effect is almost magical.

So, what are your “inspired objects?” Let me know — share pics!

Maker’s Formulary

Homebrewed recipes, formulas, and low-cost supply substitutes

Periodically, I’ll be sharing these formularies around different areas of making, For this first entry, here are some useful craft and hobby painting recipes.

Paint Washes

• Acrylic paint or artist’s ink (color of choice)
• Matte medium
• Distilled (de-ionized) water
• Flow Aid (optional)

Washes are used in a lot of hobby painting, such as tabletop miniatures, scale modeling, and cosplay costuming. Washes add realistic weathering, aging, and deep, contrast shading. To make your own, all you need is a few drops of your desired paint color or artist’s ink, some matte medium, and distilled water. There are many wash recipes online. Some add Flow Aid (used in airbrush painting) to the mix to help the wash resist clinging to high surfaces and flow better into nooks and crannies where you want it.

Matte Glaze Medium

• Distilled water (~ 6-8 oz)
• Matte medium (~ 4-5 drops)
• Flow Aid (few drops, optional)

Thinning paints in water tends to separate the water and pigment, making it difficult to get a thin coat with adequate coverage. Enter matte glaze medium. It is designed to maintain the integrity of thinned paint for fuller, smoother coverage. There’s no set recipe here. Experiment with the amount of matte medium (and Flow Aid) until you get a nice, thin but pigment-rich mixture.

Acrylic Paint Thinner

• Distilled Water (1 part)
• Matte Medium (1 part)
• Dish Soap (Drop or two)

Airbrush Cleaner

• Windex (without ammonia) or Glass Plus (2.5 oz.)
• Distilled water (5 oz)
• 91% Isopropyl alcohol (25 mil)
• Glycerin (Around 15 drops, available at most drugstores)

Have You Been Doing Loctite Wrong?

Loctite is a go-to product for preventing bolts from loosening, but many people misuse it. In this High Performance Academy video, Matt from Loctite explains the differences between purple, blue, and red thread lockers—and how to apply them correctly:

• Purple: For small, adjustable fasteners.
• Blue: Medium strength; removable with hand tools.
• Red: Permanent; requires heat for removal.

One common mistake is overusing red Loctite—many assume stronger is better, but Red is meant for permanent applications and can be a nightmare to remove. Another issue is applying too much; only two drops are needed where the threads engage. Any excess stays liquid and doesn’t add strength.

Another major error is using Loctite on high-heat components like turbochargers and exhaust manifolds, where heat degrades its effectiveness. Instead, use mechanical fasteners and anti-seize to prevent galling.

Proper Loctite application:

1. Clean the fastener surface.
2. Use a primer on coated or non-ferrous metals.
3. If working with a blind hole, apply Loctite inside the hole not just on the bolt.

Using the right thread locker correctly ensures bolts stay secure without creating unnecessary headaches.

DIY Tablesaw Fence System

Maker pal Geof Meston sent me this video detailing his DIY answer to the Bow Xtender Fence System. innovative DIY table saw fence system that enhances accuracy, safety, and infeed support—all while being more affordable than commercial alternatives like the Bow Fence Extender. The Bow Fence Extender is a popular upgrade, but it comes with drawbacks. It’s expensive, costing around $259 (£240), and its 8.8 lbs (4kg) weight makes it cumbersome for job-site saws. Instead, Geof’s DIY solution uses aluminum extrusion, 3D-printed brackets, and other affordable hardware, reducing the total cost to just $120 (£95) while maintaining excellent functionality. The key improvements in Geof’s system include hold-down clamps to prevent kickback, a thin-rip jig for precision cutting, and customizable support brackets for infeed and outfeed stability. The setup is lighter, just as sturdy, and fully adjustable, making it a great alternative for woodworkers who want a high-quality fence without the high price tag.

More on the Harbor Freight Mini Toolbox

My quest for the mini Harbor Freight toolbox continues. I waited patiently for them to come back into stock (store-only), but by the time I got to my local Freight, they were already sold out. While I’m waiting, I’ve been watching more reviews of the box and videos from makers who’ve created storage trays (and other accessories) for them. What’s kind of hilarious is how controversial these boxes have become. Some people love them, and see the utility in a tiny, sturdy toolbox for small tools and parts. Others see it as a useless gimmick. I guess your use case (and personality type) will determine what you think about this product. I plan on buying at least two and using them for scale modeling tools, airbrush parts, Dremel accessories, and similar.

Simple Green is Simply Great!

I assume most of my readers are familiar with Simply Green. It’s a versatile, biodegradable, non-toxic cleaner used for all sorts of cleaning tasks, both in the shop and around the house. Besides water, the main ingredients of Simply Green are Ethoxylated alcohols (surfactant/detergent), Sodium Citrate (a pH buffer and water softener for adjusting pH and improving cleaning effectiveness), and Sodium Carbonate (washing soda/alkaline builder for more cleaning power, and grease-cutting). I use it for everything from stripping acrylic paint to getting stains out of carpet (diluted) and many other around the house and office cleaning tasks. Recently, I used it to clean a really stubborn, impossibly sticky spill of an ant trap in my office. With a spray of Simply Green and a plastic razor blade, the goo came right up.

Shop Talk

Tips & Tools readers join in the conversation

About the Disaster Prep docs piece in the last issue, Cool Tools reader Stephen wrote:

While it may seem like a good idea to have all those documents stored somewhere in the cloud (Someone else’s server) in case of a disaster. Be careful on where that is, because not all cloud servers are created equal and this list contains everything a would-be threat actor would need to wreak havoc on your identity and life…Use a service like Fidsafe or Trustworthy for important docents like these.

Consider a Paid Subscription

Gar’s Tips & Tools is free, but if you really like what I’m doing here and want to support me, please consider a paid subscription. Same great taste, but more cheddar for me to help keep a warm pad under my aching old bones. I will also pick paid subscribers at random and send them out little treats on occasion.

Special thanks to all of my paid subscribers so far and an extra special thanks to Hero of the Realm, Jim Coraci.

Gar’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.

03/14/25

Oscar-winning Travel Movie/UK Entry Fee/Searches Without AI

Nomadico issue #146

An Oscar-winning Travel Movie

There were plenty of surprises at the Academy Awards, but A Real Pain from Jesse Eisenberg had already pulled in BAFTA and Critic’s Choice trophies before Kieran Calkin got the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. On the surface, it’s a story about two cousins going on an organized Jewish remembrance tour of Poland and we travel along with them. Of course the real story is the family history and personality dynamic between the two characters and how it plays out with the guide and other group participants. I watched it on a Delta flight and highly recommend it, streaming available on Prime and Hulu according to IMDB.

Apply and Pay an Extra $12.50 to Visit the UK

Our co-founder Kevin Kelly reminded me that the Electronic Travel Authorization to visit the UK is in place already for non-EU citizens since he had to apply for one recently. Since the UK is no longer in the EU, European visitors will soon have to cough up extra money too: 10 British pounds, as of April 8. Despite this process feeling just like getting a visa, the government insists that “An ETA is not a visa, it is a digital permission to travel.” This seems like a minor semantic difference when “it is still recommended to allow up to 3 working days.”

Wi-Fi on the Big 3 U.S. Airlines

I had surprisingly good free Wi-Fi on my most recent U.S. flights from Delta and United. On Delta I just needed to log in with my loyalty account info, on United with my T-Mobile info. One of these days American Airlines will join them, but right now they’re just trying it on three routes. “The airline emphasized that the free WiFi is only in the testing phase right now and did not say when or if it will expand the complimentary service to wider parts of its network.” Meanwhile, a flight of theirs got delayed for hours last month when a passenger named their phone’s WiFi hotspot “I have a bomb.”

Searches Without AI

It’s no secret that Google’s search results have deteriorated badly the past couple of years, partly because of advancing their own ad interests above everything and partly due to favoring AI results over researched articles from real experts. You’ll get a lot less of both from making Duck Duck Go your default search engine (with less invasive tracking too), but if you want more human results from Google or Bing, you can put “-AI” at the end of your query—a shortcut for “minus artificial intelligence.” Apparently swearing in your query works too, though I haven’t tested that.

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

03/13/25

What’s in my NOW? — David Stackleather

issue #204

I’m an independent consultant based in Austin, Texas, who helps teams and organizations become better. Better in the sense of increased teamwork, increased flow, increased learning, and increased passion for their mission. — David Stackleather

---

PHYSICAL

• Clever Coffee Dripper: After years of settling for mediocre Nespresso Americanos (you know, the kind where cream and sugar are less “optional” and more “mandatory”), I discovered the Clever Dripper. Five minutes to coffee nirvana with cleanup so simple you’ll wonder why you ever put up with those tiny capsules. Perfect for when you want coffee that you can reliably drink black.
• Tidbyt: This retro LCD display has absolutely zero productive purpose, and that’s precisely why it’s terrific! It’s become the unexpected star of my video calls (hanging out behind me). Visitors inevitably ask, “What’s that thing?” which is precisely the point. Sometimes, the best gadgets are the ones that make you smile.
• Baronfig Mastermind Desk Pad: As a dot-grid enthusiast (yes, I’ve collected the entire Baronfig lineup–don’t judge), the Mastermind Desk Pad is my canvas for everything from concept diagrams to… well, mostly doodles during meetings that should have been emails.

---

DIGITAL

• NotePlan: I’ve been a heavy Obsidian user for years, but I always struggle with keeping notes together for meetings. NotePlan, which also relies on simple text files like Obsidian, is tailor-made to collect notes for meetings, tasks, and your communication with individuals or companies. It makes it super easy to reference back discussions in previous meetings I’ve had with someone and keep track of tasks across a busy day. And best of all, since the data is just in text files, it’s easy to migrate later, so you’re not locked into a specific tool.
• DevonThink Pro: DevonThink Pro is my all-purpose storage for any documents I need. This includes mundane stuff like medical records, car maintenance documents, or the manual for my refrigerator, as well as reference material I may need to review later. It indexes everything, including the contest of PDF files, and is backed by a pretty fantastic search function. It’s also an excellent PDF reader on the iPad (where you can highlight and notate, which will sync across all your devices).

---

INVISIBLE

You are always wrong; it’s just a question of degree.

03/12/25

Food Anatomy / Kaijumax Season One

Issue No. 57

FOOD ANATOMY – A CROSS BETWEEN A VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA AND A FOUND SERIES OF FIELD NOTES

Food Anatomy: The Curious Parts and Pieces of our Edible World
Julia Rothman
Storey Publishing
2016, 224 pages, 6.5 x 9 x 0.6 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Leafing through The Julia Rothman Collection, which includes the author/illustrator’s Farm Anatomy, Nature Anatomy, and, her newest book in this illustrated exploration of the natural world, Food Anatomy, the reader feels as though she has discovered a cross between a visual encyclopedia set and a found series of field notes. Each book dissects its subject into its endless parts (plant, animal, environment, implement), then further dissects those parts into their uses, histories, and, in some cases, their actual parts. Rothman does this through multiple taxonomies, both written and drawn. Not surprisingly, there is often overlap throughout the books, but there is not often redundancy. For example, mushrooms are featured in both Nature and Food, and chickens appear in both Farm and Food, but the focus on fungi and fowl is different in each book.

I can’t help wishing my grade school science books showed the anatomy of a landform, a storm, or a leaf in the way that Rothman does. Perhaps the clear hand of the artist in each image would help to create more of a connection between reader and subject, a kind of unwritten note from the illustrator that says, “Look! I saw this thing. I held it. I knew it. I drew it. It’s real, just like you.”

These books are packed with information but are structured in easily digestible chapters and are perfectly suited for flipping through to whatever page or picture grabs your interest. Each one has recipes, facts, how-tos, lists, and micro essays on context and culture, making them perfect books for the nightstand, the coffee table, and even the kitchen. And, of course, they are full of drawings that are just plain fun to look at, which is made that much easier thanks to the 10 prints included in this set and the beautifully illustrated book box that’s sturdy enough to withstand the inevitable frequency with which it will be taken off the shelf. – Mk Smith Despres

---

KAIJUMAX – LIKE ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK, BUT THE PRISONERS ARE MONSTERS STRAIGHT FROM GODZILLA

Kaijumax Season One
by Zander Cannon
Oni Press
2016, 168 pages, 6.6 x 10.1 x 0.4 inches (softcover)

Buy on Amazon

Kaijumax is a fun comic that will make you get all the feels for giant city-destroying monsters. It’s like Oz or Orange Is the New Black, only the prisoners in this case are monsters straight from your favorite Godzilla movies. The monsters are kept in check by guards who have Ultraman-like power suits, allowing them to grow to skyscraper size and lay down their own form of justice.

The story follows Electrogor, a monster and father who was apprehended for chewing on power cables in order to feed his children. As the new monster at Kaijumax, you follow him as he learns the ins and outs of how the prison works. There’s everything you could possibly hope for in a facility that houses the world’s deadliest creatures: corrupt guards, drugs, gangs, and a cult of mecha-monsters.

The artwork’s incredible. It brings a lightness to the otherwise surprisingly heavy subject matter. If you’re a fan of Godzilla, Power Rangers, Ultraman, or any other Kaiju movie or show, you’ll see some familiar characters hidden throughout. This is one of the weirdest comics that I’ve read in a while, but I loved every minute of it. Give giant monsters a chance, and check this one out. – JP LeRoux

03/11/25

 Mushrooms

Tools for Possibilities: issue no. 128

Introduction to edibles

Mushrooming Without Fear

Can you tell the difference between a head of cabbage and a head of lettuce? Then you can safely pick and eat some wild mushrooms. The key is to learn to identify a few easily identifiable delicious species, and then stick with these easy ones for a while. This book does a fantastic job of holding your hand every step of the way. It gives you reliable rules for learning 10 or so yummy and safe mushrooms. I wish I had this book when I was first starting out. It is a great substitute for going out with an expert. — KK

---

Portable mushroom guru

All That the Rain Promises and More…

The best mushroom hunting book ever. Delivers amazing lore, practical tips, and the most concise (yet reliable) bullet points for identification of fruiting fungus. The seasons and species are biased to the west coast but this back-pocket-sized book is perfectly useable anywhere in the country. It’s inspiring and delightful. Puts the fun back in fungi. — KK

• Mining for MushroomsIt was a long time ago, in my hippie days. I was living on a commune, and I was sick and tried of all the bickering and brown rice. I really needed some space, so I split for Arizona, where I heard that there was nothing but, to see the spring wildflowers. So get this: we’re driving down this crusty, dusty desert road on the way to a scenic overlook — the most unlikely place in the world for mushrooms — and I see this glimmer of white in the ditch by the road. We stop for a look and, sure enough, it’s an old Agaricus bitorquis. Jade says it must be the only shroom in the state of Arizona, and I’m about to agree when I start noticing all these cracks everywhere in the hard red clay along the road. It was shroom city. There were hundreds, big clumps of them, veins of them , but all underground! Most were several inches under, some more that a foot. “Dig this!” I said to Jade. “With what?” she wanted to know. We used our hands, making piles of them on the road as we walked along.Of course we were noticed. An RV stopped, and this older couple from Long Beach got out and wanted to know what we were doing. “We’re mining for mushrooms,” I said, pausing for effect, “and we’ve just struck the mother lode.” We could tell they really wanted to try their hand at it. They sold life insurance and had been traveling for three months, visiting every national park in the country and this was their final stop, their last scenic overlook, and they were so burned out, they really wanted to do something exciting. But duty called, they just had to go on to the overlook.Five minutes later they were back for some fun. Along with everything else in the world they had brand new shovels with them which they’d been wanting to use for months, and they started pulling giant buttons out of the ground like clams. Boy were they stoked! Mushrooms, edible mushrooms, under the sun-baked desert crust! It was totally incredible to them. It wasn’t in their tourist guides or on their itinerary, the auto club hadn’t said anything about it, it had never occurred to them to eat wild mushrooms, so they just got more and more excited and started scurrying around yelping and babbling like kids, “Look at this sonofagun over here!”; “Mine’s ever bigger than yours!”; “Holy Cow, it’s hard as a rock!”, I can’t believe I’m doing this!”Another RV pulled over to see what all the commotion was about. One of them also sold insurance and of course they had shovels, so they dug right in. Then another RV joined us, a Mormon family from Moab, a bicyclist bound for Lubbock, and two local Navajo. We must have pulled up a couple hundred pounds, and we left lodes behind. Talk about “overlook” — we wouldn’t have gotten any if that one old cap hadn’t made it above the ground!There was only one campground in the area and we were all staying there, so that night we had this incredible spontaneous mushroom feast with gourmet foods and drinks they’d stashed away in their RV’s for that one really special occasion, and what could be more special than this? We ate fabulously and got along famously, and the couple from Long Beach wanted to know if this was what it was like to live communally and I said: “Sure, we do this every night.”I guess you could say we made their day. In fact, they said it was the best thing that happened to them on their whole trip! We had more for breakfast the next morning, and sun-dried the rest, and that one couple just couldn’t stop taking about how excited they were. I kept getting letters from them afterwards, and I bet they’re still talking about it, twelve years later, telling their grandchildren about the mighty once-in-a-blue-moon shroom bloom beneath the Arizona desert. Me, I’m not much of a talker, but I’m sure tempted to go back — I never did make it to that scenic overlook.

---

The mushroom bible

Mushrooms Demystified

Veterans of wild mushrooming quickly graduate to author David Arora’s masterpiece, Mushrooms Demystified, which is the undisputed bible of mushroom knowledge in North America. Where All That the Rain Promises and More… is breezy and succinct, Demystified is encyclopedic and exhaustive. You take Rains out to the mushrooms in the woods; you bring the mysterious ones back to the heavy Demystified tome at your kitchen table. — KK

• LBM’s: Little Brown MushroomsThe cap is brown, the stem a shade browner, the gills browner still. This can be said of nearly one half of all the mushrooms you find. On even the most casual jaunt through the woods, you’ll find dozens and dozens of Little Brown Mushrooms sprouting at your feet, and very likely under them as well. The fact is, Little Brown Mushrooms (“LBM’s”) are so overwhelmingly abundant and uncompromisingly undistinguished that it is more than just futile for the beginner to attempt to identify them — it is downright foolish.

03/10/25

Whisk/Burning Man/Bracket City

Recomendo - issue #452

Cool Tools Omnilist

I created a searchable archive of every product we’ve recommended in Recomendo and our other newsletters since 2020. The database includes thousands of items (with photos) that you can filter by category, date, or keyword. Want to see all the knives we’ve reviewed? Just type “knife” in the search field. This makes it easy to browse our entire review history or find specific recommendations. The site is ready to explore, though I’m open to suggestions for improvements. — MF

Imagery playground

I still regularly create AI imagery of my dreams using Midjourney, and I recently discovered Whisk, a Google lab tool for blending different visual elements into something entirely new. I just drag and drop the images, and I’m able to merge styles, subjects, and scenes. I can provide some visual guidance with text, but you don’t need to be an expert at writing prompts to have fun with it. It feels like a playground for creative visualization. — CD

Unforgettable experience

Like the Grand Canyon, or the Pyramids, I believe Burning Man is something you should experience at least once in your life, no matter who you are. This year is a good time to go, because it is no longer cool and you can easily get tickets. It is still a spectacle of art and creativity, a wonder of urban design, a singular example of a miraculous gift economy, and the best bicycle city on Earth. The cliches about it are all true, yet it will astonish you. I will make this guarantee: If you have never been to Burning Man, and you go this year and are bored, I will personally refund your ticket price. The festival erupts north of Reno, Nevada from August 24 to September 1, 2025 and the easiest way to attend it is in an RV. — KK

Clever Word Game: Bracket City

I discovered a delightful five-minute word puzzle game called Bracket City. The gameplay is simple — you just start typing words to solve crossword-like clues in brackets that are nested within other clues. What makes it addictive is how the clues build on each other, with each solution revealing new parts of connected puzzles. Here’s the tutorial example: [where [opposite of clean] dishes pile up] or [exercise in a [game played with a cue ball]]. You can peek at the first letter of any clue if you’re stuck. I’ll bet the NY Times will end up buying it. — MF

Top-rated things to do

Things.in is useful for creating a travel guide and a curated list of the top sights, restaurants, and places to stay in a city. I’m currently planning a trip to London and feeling overwhelmed by all the history and important sights to see. This tool is helpful in narrowing down my itinerary. — CD

Electrician’s magic wand

I noticed several professional electricians using this thing: The Klein Non-Contact Voltage Tester is a small magic wand that beeps when it detects a live current in a wire, or a switch or a cable or anything electronic. The cool thing is that you don’t need to bare the wire or contact, you just wave this near the wire. That is both much safer and way quicker. It can detect voltages between 12 and 1,000 which will be enough for most uses. For me it has replaced several devices in my toolbox I used to use to detect a live current. — KK

Sign up here to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.

03/9/25

What’s in my NOW? — David Stackleather