In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange, or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your […]
Use a ring binder to store and organize small parts and electronic components.
Once the growing sprawl of electronic parts starts showing up in your dreams, you know you’ve got some tidying up to do. It can be a challenge to spend quality hacking time on humdrum sorting & parts organization, but of course, in the long run it’s a no-brainer. I’ve yet to discover a magical motivator* […]
I don’t know how long they’ve been available, but Timothy J. Silverman’s lovely photo (uppermost) just alerted me to the existence of these dual-reading dial calipers that simultaneously report inches and meters on the main scale and the dial. I do remember wanting such an instrument a couple of years ago and Googling around trying to find one with no success. The version pictured immediately above (and, I think, in Timothy’s photo) is this Chinese model imported by TFT Tools, but many other models are available.
Cool Tools ran a DIY Contest. The winner was Steve Hoefer and his “Hand Lights:” There are tons of head mounted lights to light your work, but they only put light where you point your head. And when your viewpoint and your lighting are close together everything appears flat with little or no shadow. Enter […]
Tormach wants to sell you an upgrade package for your Mach3-compatible CNC robot that includes a 1.3M USB microscope with 220X optical magnification, a mounting bracket, and all the necessary software to turn your CNC equipment into a scanner. The cool part is they’ve also produced a video showing how to hack together a slightly-less-powerful system using a $20 pen cam and some free software that will let you make 2000 dpi scans limited only by the size of your CNC bed envelope. The “killer app” for this equipment is automatic reverse-engineering of parts, but you could also use it to easily scan maps, posters, artwork, or other oversize stuff. [via Hacked Gadgets]
When I was a kid, I was very hard on school supplies, and I remember dreaming about “industrial grade” school supplies–Kevlar backpacks and, particularly, sheet aluminum binders with piano hinges. These days, you can actually buy such binders, but they are relatively expensive. So why not make your own? Instructables user cowscankill did, with a salvaged snap-ring mechanism and riveted leather hinges. I want one.
