Skill Builder: Tuning Planes and Chisels
Master woodworker Len Cullum shows you how sharpen, or “tune” your woodworking chisels and planes.
Toolbox
Folding precision tweezer
Just saw these in a magazine and, although have never tried a pair, I am intrigued. If, like me, you’ve spent a lot of time fumbling with cheap tweezers, I might humbly suggest that, like me, you will discover that a bit of extra scratch spent on a quality pair will prove well worth it. And if, like me, you’ve ever ruined a pair of nice tweezers by tossing them carelessly in your luggage, you may, like me, also be curious about these folding precision tweezers from pocketweez.com. I’m gonna spring for a pair, I think, and I’ll let you know how it works out. In the meantime, if anybody’s got any first-hand experience or opinions, kindly let us know, below!
Cardboard bins!
OK, that may not be the most exciting headline I’ve ever written, and I’m not sure the exclamation point really helps all that much. But I am, personally, nonetheless very excited about cardboard bins right now, because thanks to them, for the first time in almost five years, I am no longer burdened by a giant unsorted junk parts bucket. I have tried a lot of organizational systems, over the past few years, and I’ve finally decided that bins are where it’s at. Unfortunately, professional parts bin systems are prohibitively expensive for the number I need to satisfy my organizational compulsion. But these fold-up corrugated bins I bought off Amazon only cost 69 cents apiece, including shipping. I took an old bookcase and added an extra “halfway” shelf to each level; 6″ per shelf leaves plenty of room to toss parts into the bins without wasting space. The finished unit holds ninety 4 x 4.4 x 12″ bins, which are labeled with a thermal-tape printer and arranged alphabetically. You can see the whole enchilada in my Flickr set.
Matryoshka knives
I am normally immune to high-design tomfoolery, but if I lived in a universe where I could justify spending hundreds of dollars on a set of nesting kitchen knives, I would snap these up in a second.
Lovely handmade wooden door latches
Matthias Wandel writes:
My dad originally started making wooden door latches for the cottages he built at Amogla camp. Conventionally available doorknobs and strike plates don’t allow for a lot of latitude in terms of dealing with shifts in the buildings from frost heaving. That, and the available door hardware just didn’t suit his style.The door latches pictured above are for the house he built for the main house, more than 10 years after making his first door knobs and latches. They are an evolved version of his original door handles.
Matthias’ site bills itself as “an engineer’s approach to woodworking.” If you like what you see here, chances are you’ll find it worth the click.
User-Configured Multitool
Switch is the ultimate modular pocketknife, with 17 different attachments so you can mix and match your most frequently used tools. Customize your Switch’s width by swapping out the inner axles, or group your tools into different “themes” – home, office, outdoors, etc. However you choose to do it, Switch is your tool, your way. […]
Apple wants to screw you out of your phone!
Our pal Kyle Wiens of iFixit writes: Apple is switching to a new type of tamper-resistant screw across their product line. It is not a standard Torx, and there are no readily available screwdrivers that can remove it. They chose this ‘Pentalobe’ fastener specifically because it was new, guaranteeing repair tools would be both rare […]
