{"id":40099,"date":"2022-07-21T14:14:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-21T21:14:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=40099"},"modified":"2022-07-20T14:17:57","modified_gmt":"2022-07-20T21:17:57","slug":"lineage-and-the-nobility-of-a-trade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/lineage-and-the-nobility-of-a-trade\/","title":{"rendered":"Lineage and the Nobility of a Trade"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Can you do me a huge favor? If you\u2019ve read the second volume<\/a> of my tips book (and liked it :), could you take a few minutes to write a review on Amazon<\/a>? It really does help.***Unclassifieds:<\/strong> Promote your tool, newsletter, book, blog, video channel, app, etc. via the Unclassifieds<\/em> at the end of this newsletter! Share your work with fellow readers and help support this publication in the process. Click here<\/a> for the skinny.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Lineage and the Nobility of a Trade<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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My dad passed away on June 14th at the age of 90. He was a civil engineer and a building contractor. He was an engineer in the Air Force during the Korean War, building runways. His father, my granddad, was a talented jack-of-all-trades and a clever, whimsical inventor (he made himself a pair of convertible pants and a shirt several decades before the concept was patented). They both instilled in me, from the earliest age, the do-it-yourself ethos. When I was 5, I almost electrocuted myself when I tried to take the kitchen toaster apart with my Handy Andy tool set to find out how it worked \u2013 while it was still plugged in!

Here\u2019s something I wrote in my\u00a0first Tips book<\/a>\u00a0(which was dedicated to dad and granddad) about watching my dad seemingly effortlessly build things when I was a kid:

One of my early memories was being with my dad while he worked. I remember riding in a Gradall Excavator with him when I was a wee one. I thought my dad was basically the coolest guy on Earth because he could confidently pilot such an impressive, intimidating machine. As a pre-teen, I remember watching him swing a hammer while he was adding some rooms to the basement of our home (which he\u2019d also built) and realizing how regular and perfect he was with his swing. It usually took him the same number of strikes each time to drive and countersink a nail \u2013 one swing to set the nail, one to drive it most of the way in, and a final whack to counter-sink it. I don\u2019t remember exactly how old I was, but it was probably the first time that I instinctively understood the nobility (and the efficiency) of perfecting a trade. If you do something enough, you get impressively good at it.

Tools are an extension of our bodies, our intentions. Like specialized \u201cend effectors\u201d on a robot, they instantly give us special abilities; superpowers. Combine the right tools, the right materials, and the proper know-how, and human beings create worlds. Tools are the physical interface between our dreams, our imagination, and their real-world realization. But our tools are not only powerful extensions of ourselves, they also contain stories (see above).<\/em>

My dad (and my granddad) taught me about both the power of tools and the power of storytelling. Little did they, or I, know when I was growing up that my job would end up combining these two powers.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Knurled Knob Generator<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Who doesn\u2019t love a handsome and grippy knurled knob? This OpenSCAD script<\/a> on Thingiverse<\/em> allows you to generate knurled knobs of various sizes that slide over bolt heads. The script requires the OpenSCAD<\/a> compiler to generate the 3D models.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Using Syringes to Clean Out 3DP Resin Vats<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Back in January, I wrote about Daniel Herrero<\/strong>\u2018s \u201chack\u201d of using a peristaltic pump to clean out his resin vat for his 3D printer. And then, based on comments to his post, he got a better idea: using large syringes to suck out the remaining resin<\/a>. He experimented and determined that a 150ml syring<\/a>e works best. Once again, YouTube comments to the rescue. He complains in the video about the hard plastic syringe head scratching his FEP film<\/a> at the bottom of his vat. Commenters suggested adding a short bit of rubber tubing to the tip of the syringe. He also mentions the resin scraper that comes with printers scratching his FEP and viewers remind him that a silicone plastic spatula (I got mine from the dollar store) won\u2019t scratch the film.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Do Different Formulations of Motor Oil from the Same Brand Really Behave Differently?<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Todd<\/strong> at Project Farm<\/em> wanted to know<\/a> if different formulations of oil from the same brand (Penzoil) perform differently, and is the high-end oil all that different from the cheapest one? The formulations tested were Pennzoil Synthetic Blend<\/a>, Full Synthetic, Platinum<\/a>, and Ultra Platinum<\/a>. He sent the oils out to a lab for analysis and also tested them for evaporative loss, lubricity or film strength, and cold oil flow both new oil and after exposure to heat. Additionally, in a final test, Pennzoil Ultra Platinum was exposed to 10% gasoline and another sample to antifreeze to test the impact it had on lubricity and oil performance. Bottom line? This looks like a \u201cyou get what you pay for\u201d result. The most expensive of the lot, Ultra Platinum<\/a> ($28 on Amazon at time of test, $14.22 currently), definitely performed the best. That\u2019s actually lower in price than the cheapest one at time of testing (Synthetic Blend, at $17). And, if you buy 6 quarts<\/a> on Amazon, the Ultra Platinum blend is only $8.60\/qt.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Fantastic Free Class for Learning Arduino<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Via the always-informative Maker Update<\/a> comes word of this really wonderful series<\/a> of beginner educational videos on the hardware, development environment, and code used for the ubiquitous Arduino microcontroller. If you\u2019re interested in getting into Arduino, there is no better gateway.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
TOYS! Liquid Chrome Markers<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I recently saw Adam Savage<\/strong> use these chrome markers<\/a> in a video where he was weathering a prop that he\u2019d built (the motion tracker from Aliens<\/em>). I immediately bought a set and man do I love them. If you have a need to faux chrome anything\u2026<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
FrogPod is Now on Kickstarter<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I\u2019ve been a big fan of Thomas Baisch<\/strong>\u2018s Instagram<\/em> page, InfiniteCraftsman<\/a>, for a while now. He posts one innovative shop solution after another, most of them 3D printed. One of his most brilliant creations is the FrogPod, a flexible, magnetized three-legged camera mount that you can slap onto metal surfaces. He recently launched a Kickstarter<\/a> to raise an army of FrogPod users.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Maker’s Muse<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"FigurengruppeFigurengruppe Theater Schw\u00e4bisch-Hall, Germany, Karl Henning-Seemann. H\/t Vickie Jo Sowell.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Shop Talk<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In response to my piece on witness marks<\/a>, my ol\u2019 pal Steve Roberts<\/a> sent me a photo of these fascinating marks inside of his Waltham pocket watch.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #126<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40100,"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":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40099"}],"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=40099"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40104,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40099\/revisions\/40104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}