{"id":36771,"date":"2020-08-06T09:00:58","date_gmt":"2020-08-06T16:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=36771"},"modified":"2020-08-04T13:53:53","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T20:53:53","slug":"adding-a-sharper-to-your-tape-measure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/adding-a-sharper-to-your-tape-measure\/","title":{"rendered":"Adding a Sharper to Your Tape Measure"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adding a Sharper to Your Tape Measure<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Sharp!\"

Sharp!<\/p><\/div>\n

A few seconds into\u00a0this Laura Kampf video\u00a0<\/a>(on building a simple folding table), I spotted this cool little \u201chack.\u201d She attached a\u00a0schoolbox pencil sharpener<\/a>\u00a0to the back of her tape measure for hands-free sharpening on the fly. Great idea!<\/p>\n

Basic Molding and Casting<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Making

Making a molding box from Legos for casting small parts.<\/p><\/div>\n

Creating quick casts and molding small parts is a lot easier than you might think. There are all sorts of products for making one- and two-part molds and different liquid plastics and resins you can use for casting.\u00a0This video<\/a>\u00a0shows how you can quickly duplicate small parts using a simple, one-part\u00a0silicone rubber\u00a0<\/a>mold and a\u00a0polyurethane casting plastic<\/a>. Also note the use of Lego bricks and plates to construct a mold box.<\/p>\n

Tales Told by the Oldest Tools in the Shop<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Wait,

Wait, is that pink nail polish on your driver handle?<\/p><\/div>\n

Shop tours are my jam.\u00a0This tour,<\/a>\u00a0by a bored, house-bound\u00a0Ben Heck,<\/strong>\u00a0is a bit different than most as he focuses only on the oldest tools he owns and regularly uses. I love \u201cshop tales\u201d (see newsletter title above) and there are some great ones in here, like the origins of the above two screwdrivers. The worn-off pink on the top one is from nail polish Ben\u2019s sister painted on there when they were kids. He\u2019s had these drivers since childhood, uses them nearly every day. and says he would likely literally cry if he lost one of them.<\/p>\n

Color-Coding Your Keys<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"It

It only takes a few seconds to color-code your keys.<\/p><\/div>\n

For years, I\u2019ve had a small square of cellophane tape on my house key so that I can easily ID it on the chain.\u00a0R Andrew Doan<\/strong>\u200e\u00a0<\/a>posted this oldie but goodie to\u00a0<\/a>the\u00a0Shop Hacks<\/a>\u00a0Facebook<\/em>\u00a0group. A little enamel paint and a couple of minutes and you can color-code your key set for easy identification. And they\u2019ll look swanky, too!<\/p>\n

TOYS!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"My

My next favorite thing?<\/p><\/div>\n

Years ago, I got turned on to the\u00a0Canary Cardboard Cutter<\/a>\u00a0via an early episode of\u00a0Donald Bell\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0Maker Update<\/a>. I\u2019ve bought at least a dozen of them since and given them away to family and friends. In a recent\u00a0Izzy Swan<\/strong>\u00a0video, he raved about this\u00a0ceramic-blade cardboard cutter<\/a>. I just ordered one. I\u2019ll review it in a later edition.<\/p>\n

Designing in Whimsy, Art, Humor, FUN!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Let

Let the Good Lord judge the accuracy of your machine work.<\/p><\/div>\n

I\u2019ve been watching my way though\u00a0Uri Tuchman\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0YouTube channel<\/a>. Uri is an artist, designer, inventor, and maker of all trades. One of the things I love most about his projects is that he always incorporates art, whimsy, and a sense of humor into his creations. He makes an optical center punch but carves it into the head of The Beatles\u2019 Sgt. Pepper. He turns a machinist\u2019s test indicator into Michelangelo\u2019s hand of God. He shapes a tiny hammer into a whale. In Uri\u2019s world, tools have personality and make you smile as they go about their jobs. If you ask me, the world needs a lot more of this.<\/p>\n

Maker’s Muse<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"I'm

I’m sure that was oddly satisfying. Spotted on the 2600 Magazine FB group.<\/p><\/div>\n

Shop Talk<\/strong>
\n\"soupcontainers\"<\/p>\n

Reader\u00a0Stephen Rudy<\/strong>\u00a0writes: \u201cI wanted to throw my 0.2 cents into the\u00a0art cup arena<\/a>. In my shop, we use\u00a0inexpensive soup containers\u00a0<\/a>from the restaurant supply store for lots of things. They are the type Wonton soup usually comes in. They make great forms for making silicon molds in addition to the mixing and storage applications.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve written about my friend\u00a0Hans Gerhard Meier\u2019s<\/strong>\u00a0MakerMap\u00a0<\/a>before. He wrote to tell me that has now launched it to the world. If you have something maker-related to “see, buy, or meet,\u201d consider adding it to the MakerMap.<\/p>\n

<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #56<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13684,"featured_media":36779,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[2371],"tags":[2372],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36771"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13684"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36771"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36771\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36782,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36771\/revisions\/36782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36779"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36771"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36771"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36771"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}