{"id":37470,"date":"2020-12-10T09:00:44","date_gmt":"2020-12-10T16:00:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=37470"},"modified":"2020-12-11T14:39:13","modified_gmt":"2020-12-11T21:39:13","slug":"cheap-fluke-digital-multimeter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/cheap-fluke-digital-multimeter\/","title":{"rendered":"Cheap Fluke Digital Multimeter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cheap Fluke Digital Multimeter<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The

The 101 of reliable DMMs<\/p><\/div>\n

In\u00a0this video<\/a>, Adam Savage looks at digital multimeters (DMM). He talks about high-end models, like the\u00a0Fluke 77<\/a>, and a cheap starter Fluke,\u00a0the 101<\/a>, which is just over $40! I\u2019ve had the\u00a0Fluke 117<\/a>\u00a0for years, and like Adam, have a lot of loyalty to the brand.<\/p>\n

Truing Rough-Cut Lumber<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Jimmy

Jimmy D droppin’ the science.<\/p><\/div>\n

In\u00a0this interview<\/a>\u00a0on Jimmy\u2019s\u00a0YouTube<\/em>\u00a0channel, interviewer Adam Price asks Jimmy a bunch of questions about his process, from designing, to materials, to fastening and gluing, to hardware.<\/p>\n

In the above drawing, Jimmy is showing how you can \u201ctrue\u201d an edge of a piece of rough-cut lumber. If you have a surface planer and a table saw, you can save money by buying rough-cut, he says. It\u2019s cheaper because it comes unplaned, but it has no true (or \u201cfactory\u201d) edge. After planing it down, you can add a true edge. You nail the rough-cut lumber to a piece of wood that does have a factory edge and feed the rough-cut through your table saw. In the above sketch, that\u2019s the table saw\u2019s fence on the far right, a piece of plywood with a factory edge against the fence, and the rough-cut lumber nailed to the plywood. That little hump upper-left is the saw blade. When done (and de-nailed) that resulting cut becomes your true edge. See this part of the video starting at 15:22.<\/p>\n

Give the Gift of Restoration<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The

The gift of referb<\/p><\/div>\n

The latest issue of\u00a0HackSpace magazine<\/a>\u00a0(free PDF) has\u00a0a piece<\/a>\u00a0I wrote on tool restoration. In it, I show off a simple tool I restored for my beloved Angela last Christmas. This is her art studio hammer. She bought it at a Goodwill store for $1.99. As you can see on the left, it was covered in paint, spackle, putty, adhesive, and the handle was split at the head. Shabby. I \u201cborrowed\u201d it from her and went to work on restoring it. It was a fun project to work on for a bit every night after dinner. The results are on the right. I included a photo of the before-hammer in the package. She loved it.<\/p>\n

This is a great gift to give to someone. Take one of their old, exhausted tools, or buy one at a charity shop\/garage sale, and restore it back to its original glory.\u00a0Important Note<\/strong>: Make sure they\u2019re OK with tool restoration before doing this. Some people freak out at the very idea of restoring old tools and tool boxes. They think the wear, gunk, and imperfections are what give the tool its story, its character (see the Japanese concept of \u201cwabi-sabi<\/a>\u201d).<\/p>\n

Turning Grocery Delivery Pouches into Mailers<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"An

An eBay purchase ready to mail out.<\/p><\/div>\n

I don\u2019t know about you but I have a ton of these large foil bags used for Amazon food deliveries. I\u2019ve started using them to mail out my books and merch I sell on eBay. I also cut them up and use them for packing inside of mailing boxes. You can easily cut them down to any size you need and assemble with shipping tape. They also look cool as a mailer.<\/p>\n

Snakes on a Drain<\/strong>
\n\"snakedrain\"
\nAs several people pointed out in response to\u00a0my DIY Drano recipe<\/a>, decloggers only act on the trap, not the rest of the pipe. For that, you need a snake. I have a snake, but it\u2019s old and funky (it came with the house). I need a new one and want one with both manual and drill-powered capability. I\u2019m\u00a0looking at this one<\/a>. If you have a snake that you think is a good buy,\u00a0please recommend<\/a>.<\/p>\n

(De)merit Badges<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Oops.

Oops. Looks like someone released the magic smoke.<\/p><\/div>\n

There\u2019s no shame in failure. That\u2019s one of the greatest ideas driving the maker movement: creating a supportive environment where it is OK to fail; that making mistakes is part of the learning process, a feature not a bug. To celebrate this notion, the\u00a0Tested.com<\/em>\u00a0team is offering (de)merit badges so that you can wear your f-ups with pride. So far, they have\u00a0a short-circuit badge<\/a>\u00a0(above), a\u00a0measure once, cut twice badge<\/a>, and an\u00a0injured hand<\/a>\u00a0(de)merit sticker. They promise more in the future and are looking for suggestions.<\/p>\n

Maker’s Muse<\/strong><\/p>\n

\""The

“The street finds its own uses for things.” -William Gibson. Pallet stairs.<\/p><\/div>\n

Shop Talk<\/strong>
\nIn response to my\u00a0last newsletter\u2019s piece<\/a>\u00a0on cleaning \u201chacks,\u201d I immediately got an email from reader\u00a0Megan M<\/strong>. She wrote: \u201cPlease do not clean your silver this way. It etches the surface, leading to more susceptibility to tarnishing and shortening its lifespan.\u201d She thoughtfully provided\u00a0this link<\/a>\u00a0to what looks like silver polishing best practices. Thanks, Megan!<\/p>\n

May I Issue You an Artistic License?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Don't

Don’t leave home without it.<\/p><\/div>\n

If you\u2019re looking for some gift ideas for the artists and makers on your holiday list, consider supporting my work here by buying some of my merch. I sell these Artistic License cards. They come in a wax-sealed envelope and are made of thick card stock with a durable finish. They are $5 each or 5 for $20 (postpaid in the US, foreign orders pay the extra postage). I have them ready to ship.\u00a0Email me<\/a>\u00a0if interested.<\/p>\n

Also consider buying my book,\u00a0Tips and Tales from the Workshop<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Crack

Crack the sweal, release the muse lurking inside.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth\u2019s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales \u2013 Issue #71<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37479,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2371],"tags":[2372],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37470"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37470"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37522,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37470\/revisions\/37522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}