In a recent DiResta vlog, Jimmy was hanging out with Eric from Hand Tool Rescue, talking about tools and tool restoration. I had never heard of Hand Tool Rescue, but thanks to Jimmy’s recommendation, I spent the weekend binging on a bunch of the videos on the channel. Eric lives his Saskatchewan, Canada. He lovingly […]
Take a tour of a growing letterpress printing machine collection.
Here at Make: we love using and discussing the latest, most innovative tools. After all, better tools help us build better projects. But what happens to the old tools we no longer need? Evidently, some of them receive a second life as items in the Antique Tool Museum in Nevada City, California. Tools were the last thing […]
A rose engine is a type of geometric lathe used to produce complex radial engravings called Guilloché, which are used both for decorative and security (i.e. anticounterfeiting) purposes. Those of you with more than $238,000 of disposable cash lying around may be irked to discover that the auction for this stunningly beautiful antique specimen is long closed. At least we can all still enjoy the gorgeous photographs…
A pump drill is an ancient tool traditionally been used to generate friction heat for starting fires, as well as for boring holes. The principle of a pump drill’s operation is similar to the button spinner or whirligig, in which rotational momentum is built and maintained by repeated twisting and untwisting of a cord. After reading about them in a book about primitive technology, I got interested in the idea of a “modern” pump drill, operating on the same principle as the ancient tool but manufactured from industrial-age materials instead of wood, stone, and bone.
I love this photograph of the old wooden-gutter ball-returns on the antique pool table that Scott and Alex Mueller sent us.
Last summer, the city of Boston’s North Street municipal print shop was closed down. Now, the contents of the shop, which served the city for 78 years, are going up on the auction block. From Boston.com:
