{"id":43308,"date":"2024-12-11T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-11T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=43308"},"modified":"2024-12-10T11:47:32","modified_gmt":"2024-12-10T18:47:32","slug":"gars-tips-tools-issue-191","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/gars-tips-tools-issue-191\/","title":{"rendered":"Gar’s Tips & Tools – Issue #191"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gar\u2019s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up\u00a0here.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gar\u2019s Favorite Tools of 2024<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Here are some of my favorite (mostly small) tools from this past year. This is in no way a comprehensive list, just a miscellany of go-to tools and tool discoveries I made this year.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Every maker\u2019s coffee table (or workbench) needs this gorgeous, eye-opening tool tome<\/a>. Same approach, structure, and design as Gray\u2019s amazing The Elements<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I actually bought this Fiskars folding utility knife<\/a> in 2023, after seeing a Project Farm<\/a><\/em> video<\/a> comparing folding utility knives. It\u2019s become a near-daily go-to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These Amazon Basics heater<\/a>s, at $23, were another great Project Farm find<\/a>. So far, we\u2019ve bought two of them for my wife\u2019s art studio and our guest room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Another surprisingly decent Amazon Basics product \u2014 a set of three groove joint pliers<\/a> for $27. Perfect for lightweight, periodic use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In response to my piece<\/a> about the expensive but really great JustRite dispensers<\/a>, Cool Tools\u2019 Kevin Kelly <\/strong>introduced me to these plastic acetone dispensers<\/a> (just $7 for 2!). They now happily sit on my painting desk, dispensing acetone<\/a>, alcohol, and Goo Gone<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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My tool of the year would definitely be the Workpro 18-in-1 multitool<\/a>. At $20 (sometimes as low as $17), and with such surprising quality and feature set, I can\u2019t stop buying them to hand out to family and friends. Stocking stuffers!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I have finally found an amazing pair of socks that my feet don\u2019t hate! These Carhartt Men’s Force Performance Work Socks<\/a> are comfortable, don\u2019t make my feet sweat, and don\u2019t bind my calves too tightly. At $15 for three pairs, the price is great, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Via Scott at Essential Craftsman <\/em>comes his recommendation for the ideal filthy shop cleanup combo: Fast Orange<\/a> and good ol\u2019 Tub o\u2019 Towels<\/a> (which we\u2019ve covered here before).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I bought one of these vortex mixers<\/a> (widely used in the salon business for mixing nail polish) for my miniature painting. It works great. I don\u2019t get to paint on the regular, so my paints settle in their small dropper bottles. With this device and two mixing balls added to bottle (which come with the mixer), you\u2019re quickly good to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Via Adam Savage<\/a> comes a recommendation for these brass jaw pliers<\/a>. As he points out, pliers are a great way to accidentally mangle hardware and other materials. These pliers are brass-lined, soft, and smooth to prevent marring of finished or delicate parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I\u2019m not going to lie. I\u2019ve been known to strip a few screws in my day. This magical mixture<\/a>, a polyvinyl alcohol with a gritty mineral filler, adds some grip to fastener heads for sinking them in without stripping or for backing out lightly stripped heads. It\u2019s worth having in your toolkit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Weird things can change your life. Unexpected things. We finally decided to get one of these heated mattress pads<\/a> for our bed, and oh man, has it been a revelation! I can\u2019t belief I\u2019m six decades in (never you mind the raw number) and have never had one of these. As my wife said the first night we slept on it: \u201cIt\u2019s like a trip to a spa!\u201d Warm, relaxing, good for tired muscles, and it allows us to keep the nighttime house temp lower without getting uncomfortably cold in bed. This pad has two zones and two controllers, three layers of soft, quilted fabric, a quick-heat feature, 10 heat settings and a 12-hour timer. If this at all appeals to you, don\u2019t be like us and wait years to get one!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Your Favorite Tool?<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

What were your<\/em> favorite tools for 2024? I\u2019d love to see (and share)<\/a> some of the tools that made your life and projects easier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY<\/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":[2371],"tags":[2372],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43308"}],"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=43308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43321,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43308\/revisions\/43321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}