And we’re back with our twelfth installment of Your Comments. Here are our favorites from the past week, from Make: Online, our Facebook page, and Twitter.
Skull artist Noah noticed when the Silver Skull Spoons article was re-posted on Craft:
I love Tom’s skull spoons! You might be interested to know that he was inspired by my own “skoon” that I created as part of the Skull-A-Day project!
In response to Gareth’s Lost Knowledge column on knots, Ed Oshinski, from Austin, Texas, emailed us:
Thanks for the great post on knots. One of my all time favorite books is The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford Ashley, first published in 1944, and still readily available. I bought my copy with my first paycheck after graduating from college.
The book illustrates 3,900+ knots, and includes 7,000+ drawings. The subtitle is, appropriately, “Every practical knot – what it looks like, who uses it, where it comes from, and how to tie it.” For example, one of the 41 chapters is on occupational knots including those used by the archer, the angler, the baker, the bookbinder, the butcher, the canoeist, the carpenter, the circus man, the cowboy, the farmer, the fireman, the fisherman, the mountain climber, the net maker, the parachutist, the prospector, the sailmaker, the surgeon, the weaver, and many more.
The book is an encyclopedia of knowledge on knots, a masterpiece of the subject. I have owned it for 30 years, and find something new every time I pick it up. It is endlessly fascinating. I recommend it to anyone interested in knots.
We had to agree with ricklon’s assessment of the How-To: Build a soldering iron stand from a coathanger project:
This is way better than my beer can soldering stand,
However, commenter Brick Moon’s conclusion was spot on:
Rick, you have to send that to thereifixedit.com.
Peter had some helpful suggestions to add to the Repair and maintenance tips from Laura’s dad:
A couple more tips: – ALWAYS remove the spark plug wire before turning the mower over (no way it can start with no spark) – After sharpening, suspend the blade from a dowel through the center hole to make sure it’s balanced. Remove additional metal from the low side until the blade balances horizontal. Sharp tools are safer!
And jason_scope had one as well:
Longer screws! Pre-hung doors come with screws only long enough to secure the hinges to the jamb. If tightening the screws doesn’t help, replace a hinge screw with a 3″ wood screw. You can probably find one to match the finish on the hinge. If the door swings open, shim the lower hinge. If the door swings closed, shim the upper hinge. Pizza boxes & such make good shim material. Easily cut to the shape of the hinge, and 2 layers will fit into the hinge mortise. Don’t forget you can shim the door-side, as well as the jamb-side.
Over on Facebook, Bill Bourn was, erm, confused about How-to install a penny countertop:
I’m having trouble making heads or tails of this post. So my thoughts aren’t worth your penny.
Prompted by the DIY penny pusher, mikegreenhalgh explained how the commercial ones work:
I used to work with these machines, at either side of the ‘bed’ with the coins on is a hole which leads down to the machine’s cashbox. At the front of the bed is an adjustable lip, as the coins get pushed forward they encounter this lip and start bunching up, coins from behind meeting this mass get pushed sideways causing some to drop down the holes at the side of the bed. The machines profit percentage is adjusted by adjusting the size of the side holes (via sliding plates that make the holes bigger or smaller) and by moving the lip up or down. At the place where I used to work we would empty the machines every few days and would generally take >£100 out from the cashboxes under the machine(but it was very busy).
DeadlyDad found a better deal on the Camera lens coffee cup:
You can get it with insides made of plastic ($15.80) or stainless steel at DealExtreme.com.
Like these comments? Be sure to sound off in the comments! You could be in next week’s column.
ADVERTISEMENT
