Matt Velderman, Black & Decker Tool Designer
Cool Tools Show 098: Matt Velderman
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Our guest this week is Matt Velderman. He’s a DYIer, an engineer, inventor, and he leads Stanley Black & Decker’s Breakthrough Innovation Group.
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Show notes:
FlexVolt Miter Saw ($699)
“This is one of the ones I’m most excited to tell you about. This is a new product for Dewalt as of June of last year, I think. In Dewalt we have a platform called 20 volt max, and it’s a very large platform. There’s 130 tools or something like that that run off a 20 volt, but we wanted to make more powerful tools and ones that were more efficient. One of the ways to do that is to make a higher voltage …. so we made a battery that actually converts between 20 and 60 volt mode. That’s a world’s first. What’s really cool about it is you could take two 60 volt batteries and put them in series and get 120 volts. If you know anything about the power grid here, it’s 120 volts AC coming out of your wall. We made a miter saw that runs both off two 60 volt batteries, 120 volts DC, and it will also run off of 120 volts AC coming out of your wall with safe performance, whether it’s corded or cordless.”
Rockwell JawStand ($45)
“A clamp / stand combination that allows me to do a variety of work solo that would otherwise require another set of hands. I use it for holding doors, outfeed for a table saw or surface planer, as a support for long boards in the bench vise, to hold a deadman for installing hanging cabinets, etc.”
Honda Electronics Ultrasonic Cutter ($305)
“This is probably one of my favorite tools in the lab at work. We do a lot of modification of plastic. We have to make very quick prototypes and usually hacking up something that already exists. This gives me super precision to make precise clean cuts off existing prototypes or production parts. What it is is it’s like a penknife that has a small ultrasonic motor, for lack of a better word, inside of it, and it oscillates at a very high frequency with very minute movements and more or less melts the plastic as it cuts through the prototype or whatever you’re trying to hack up. I just have not found a better way to modify things. Tools like a Dremel or any of the kind of power tool that rotates just doesn’t have the precision to mate stuff together and make these clean cuts.”
Stanley Removable Compartment Professional Organizer ($16)
“A great way to store random small parts. The real value of this system is when you commit to the system, get a bunch of them, and create a DIY storage cabinet. This an alternative to Adam Savage’s sortimo recommendation. It’s basically the same thing, but at a lower cost and more available. I recommend both Stanley and Harbor Freight varieties.”
