{"id":42973,"date":"2024-10-20T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-10-20T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=42973"},"modified":"2024-10-17T15:56:19","modified_gmt":"2024-10-17T22:56:19","slug":"retro-recomendo-workshop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/retro-recomendo-workshop\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Recomendo: Workshop"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started eight years ago, that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we\u2019re trying out something new \u2014 Retro Recomendo<\/strong>. Once every 6 weeks, we\u2019ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 8 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Powerful tube squeezer<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Big Squeeze Tube Squeezer<\/a> forces every last drop of goop out of a tube. It can handle tubes up to 3.375\u201d wide. To use it, insert the end of the tube between the two rollers, squeeze the handle and turn the key. The tube is completely flattened, and because of the serrated design of the rollers, the tube is crimped so it stays flat. I\u2019ve used it on tubes of toothpaste, acrylic paint, and lithium grease. It\u2019s all metal and heavy duty. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Super easy paint touchup<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

After you finish painting a room, pour a little of the left-over paint into one of these small touch up bottles<\/a>. One for each color. The plastic bottles contain a small applicator brush inside (plus a marble to shake\/stir the paint) which makes it super easy to break it out to touch up as things happen. Gareth Branwyn<\/a> suggests keeping the touchup bottle in a drawer in the room itself, making it a no-brainer to grab when needed. Touch ups will never happen when the paint is at the bottom of a can in the basement. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Toolshop tips<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m enjoying Gareth Branwyn\u2019s new email newsletter, Gar’s Tips & Tools<\/a>. Each weekly issue has several handy tidbits about interesting tools, novel ways to use tools, and how to maintain your workshop. The latest issue has a tip from Adam Savage on where to store infrequently used tools: \u201c\u2018If I didn\u2019t have it right now, where would I look for it?\u2019 And that\u2019s where he stashes it. He tries to not get clever, not overthink it, but rather, he goes with the first place that pops to mind.\u201d \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dirt cheap magnification<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve sung the praises of this 40x lighted hand held magnifier<\/a> many times before. I splurged and bought three. I can now read the numbers on tiny capacitors, inspect splinters in great detail, and check my kid\u2019s head for louse nits. Uses 3AAA batteries (not included). \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Better than sandpaper<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve started whittling spoons again and I recently discovered flexible sanding sheets made by 3M<\/a>. I\u2019ll never use sandpaper again. These sheets are made from some kind of semi-stretchy plastic that makes it very easy to get the grit into tight spots (like the hollow of a spoon). They last much longer than sandpaper, too. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Save your knees<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I bought this 11 x 18 inch Fiskars Ultralight Kneeling Cushion<\/a> in 2011 for $8 and have used it hundreds of times since then. It has come in handy when repairing appliances, working on and washing cars, weeding, and any other activity that requires getting on my knees. More recently I bought these Fiskars Ultralight Knee Pads<\/a>, which let me crawl around the backyard or garage without pain. \u2014MF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo – issue #432<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":0,"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":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42973"}],"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\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42974,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42973\/revisions\/42974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}