In response to my Toolbox column on screwdrivers, maker “Funky Space Cowboy” sent this picture and explanation of his “split nut driver:” My favorite driver is one I made from scratch. It’s a sawmaker’s split nut driver, used in making traditional Western style hand saws. I’ve made several of these over the years but this […]
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 […]
Over the years, there are few tools I’ve reviewed more often, or with more enthusiasm, than the Leatherman. I’ve had one on my belt for decades, and I bet many of you wear one too, or at least have one close at hand. As I’ve pointed out countless times before, if you want to understand […]
This is a concept design, aka Rain Drum, from one Dong Min Park, whose personal web presence, if it exists, seems to be eluding me, possibly because it originates somewhere in Asia and is completely orthogonal to my English-language googling.
Another hint that whoever created these images is not a native English speaker: The onomatopoeia he or she has chosen for the sound of rain striking the membranes is “doom,” which is not exactly great marketing, but is pretty amusing, both in and of itself, and because it evokes The Doom Song from Invader Zim.
There’s a great thing that happens, every so often, when people have access to machine tools: They go a little bit nuts. They’re bumping along one day, doing what they do, and some mundane object crosses them for the last time. This or that thing never works as well as it should, or breaks too easily, or gets misplaced once too often, and it occurs to them: Hey, I could fix that–and not just for myself, for today or for the next couple of weeks or months, but for the rest of my natural life and possibly those of my descendants for the foreseeable future of the species. And something like this solid 6061 aluminum Scotch tape dispenser from Henry Herndon is the result. The sea may be vast, our boats may be small and constantly buffeted by the gales of an indifferent universe ruled by a howling demon of entropy, but that Scotch-tape-dispenser-problem is fixed now, by God. On to the next thing.
Here’s the video of Adam Savage’s wonderful talk at Maker Faire Bay Area 2010, captured by our friends at FORA.tv. Adam Savage Presents Problem Solving: How I Do It — Maker Faire More: Adam Savage, at Maker Faire, talking on the importance of failure
Brian Dereu and his family have a thriving cottage industry machining these pocket concealments from real currency and selling them online. I have one of their MicroNickels, shown above, and it may well be the coolest thing I have ever owned. It’s sized perfectly to conceal a Micro SD card, and when assembled it really is indistinguishable from a regular nickel. So, you know, just don’t lose it.
