Admittedly, there are lots of ratcheting screwdrivers in the world. Especially nowadays. But I love the Easydriver, and I suspect I always will, and not just for the warm glow of nostalgia the one from Dad’s toolbox evokes for me. The Easydriver, IMHO, is a classic of modern industrial design. It belongs in a nice coffee table book, somewhere…
I tend to do my fine-detail circuit work inside the house on my electronics workbench, and rougher work in my garage workshop. I have vises installed in both places, each chosen to suit the work: in the house I use a PanaVise Jr. Mini-Vise mounted on a tray base; in the garage it’s a heftier swivel vise bolted to my workbench. Now, PanaVise has turned things upside down by offering this new Vise Buddy Jr., which is a small, precision vise head that you can quickly clamp into your bigger bench vise.
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A regular hacksaw frame is fixed to the blade at both ends. These restricted-access hacksaws, on the other hand, are fixed to the blade only at the back end, closest to your hand, and support the front end using a reciprocating, spring-loaded bar with a thin guide slot and a rubber shoe. The shoe rests up against the workpiece, during the stroke, and the blade moves back and forth through the guide slot, which keeps it from flexing away from the intended cutting path. The upshot is that, unlike a regular hacksaw frame, you can make cuts in stuff with almost zero backside clearance.
Our workstation is CNC-cut from half-inch plywood. It is rock-solid sturdy, yet comes apart easily for transport or modifications. It features a main computer bay with an optional door, five spacious drawers that can’t fall out, enough room on top to comfortably fit a laptop (in addition to the main computer), stainless hardware, polyurethane casters, […]
MAKE reader Michael Newman reviews the Shapeoko CNC Mill Kit.
I picked up a pair of these German-made drills from Garrett Wade: the 9″ Mini Hand Drill ($25.50) and the 12″ Larger Hand Drill ($46.50), which has an additional wood knob opposite the crank handle. Since the Mini reminds me more of the old eggbeater, I’m using that. It looks shiny and new, but the solid construction and tight engineering hark back to the days when tools weren’t considered disposable.
