Tools

Toolbox: My little repair kit

Toolbox: My little repair kit

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 […]

How-To: Drill into a ceiling without getting plaster in your face

How-To: Drill into a ceiling without getting plaster in your face

Instructables has a good thing going with their regular “theme” contests. They just finished up with paracord; now they’re starting in on coffee cups. Reminds me of the “MacGyver Challenge” that ReadyMade magazine used to run back before their facelift. Shown above is user bertus52x11’s simple hack for catching the plaster that would otherwise fall everywhere when you drill into the ceiling.

Impressive laser-cut Mars rover model…er, kinda

Impressive laser-cut Mars rover model…er, kinda

This elaborate laser-cut plywood “Spirit” model is one of many cool designs available from WoodMarvels.com. They sell PDF plans, EPS files, and parts kits. Caveat: This image, and pretty much every image I can find on their website, is a computer generated rendering. I’m sure their models go together in the real world just fine, but personally, I’d kinda like to see some photos that prove it. [Thanks, Rachel!]

Fold-up “robotagami” figures

Fold-up “robotagami” figures

Lubbock, Texas artist Dustin Wallace, whose larger one-off/limited edition transforming robot sculptures I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, also makes these wicked little “robotagami” dudes that are CNC-cut from sheet metal (stainless steel or copper), ship flat, and get slotted together and folded up to make a dimensional figure by the buyer.

Make: Time & Space, the notebook edition

Make: Time & Space, the notebook edition

In Make: Time & Space, our series on organizing your lives physically and mentally, we’ve talked about tips for arranging your tools and being more productive. What about your notebooks? I read this excellent Slate review of a book about Agatha Christie’s messy notebooks. Apparently she wrote anything in them, merging day-to-day stuff like shopping […]