{"id":39729,"date":"2022-02-10T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2022-02-10T16:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=39729"},"modified":"2022-02-08T13:30:33","modified_gmt":"2022-02-08T20:30:33","slug":"new-maker-show-coming-to-netflix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/new-maker-show-coming-to-netflix\/","title":{"rendered":"New Maker Show Coming to Netflix"},"content":{"rendered":"

Got a tip to share? A tool to recommend? A tall tale to tell? Please\u00a0share with the class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

Got a tip to bust (or confirm)? I\u2019m still looking for readers to pick a tip they see in the wild and put it through its paces to see if it works as advertised.\u00a0Let me know<\/a>\u00a0if you\u2019re interested in testing a tip. I have one volunteer so far.<\/p>\n

New Maker Show Coming to Netflix<\/strong>
\n\"newmaker\"
\nI\u2019m excited to finally get to share news of a new Netflix show from my friends\u00a0Jimmy DiResta<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0John Graziano<\/strong>\u00a0(along with\u00a0Pat Lap<\/strong>,\u00a0Derek Forestier<\/strong>, and\u00a0Paul Jackman<\/strong>). Called\u00a0Making Fun<\/em>, each week, these five master makers are challenged by children to bring crazy kid ideas to life. Apparently (and maybe not surprisingly, given their half-pint taskmasters), lots of farts, dinosaurs, and unicorns seem to be involved.\u00a0Making Fun<\/em>\u00a0will premier on Netflix on March 4th.<\/p>\n

Folks on social media were quick to point out that this show concept is alarmingly similar to a YouTube channel called\u00a0Kids Inventing Stuff<\/em><\/a>. It is indeed, although the\u00a0Making Fun<\/em>\u00a0folks say it\u2019s simply a case of parallel thinking. They say they didn\u2019t know about this channel\u00a0<\/em>until after they\u2019d wrapped production. Give\u00a0Kids Inventing Stuff<\/em>\u00a0some love, too. It\u2019s great!<\/p>\n

Losing Faith in the Godhand<\/strong>
\n\"godhand\"
\nI read the breathless reviews. I succumbed to the hype. I bought a $62 Godhand, nippers specifically designed to de-sprue plastic model parts from their frames. The main selling feature is that they\u2019re designed to cut super-close to the part, meaning very little after-cutting clean-up (something I hate). I certainly loved the functionality of the tool\u2026 while it worked! Last weekend, while de-spruing some models \u2013 the very thing they\u2019re designed to do \u2013 one jaw of the cutters sheared right off. This was only about the 5th time I\u2019d used the tool. For such an exorbitant price, this is absolutely unacceptable. I\u2019ve had an $8 pair of cutters for years and they work just fine (although they\u2019re not nearly as efficient at flush-cutting). I\u2019m just going to go back to those. I just\u00a0bought an extra pair<\/a>. If you read through the Godhand reviews on Amazon you\u2019ll see plenty of others complaining about the cutters easily shearing like mine did. Do yourself a favor, heed these warnings. This Godhand is a false god, a demiurge!<\/p>\n

How to Make a Cool Rope Bottle Cady<\/strong>
\n\"coolrope\"
\nHere\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0a fun way of making a 4-bottle drink caddy using a length of rope.<\/p>\n

Laser-Engraving EVA Foam<\/strong>
\n\"evafoam\"
\nHere\u2019s something exciting I hadn\u2019t thought about. On\u00a0Knarb Makes<\/em><\/a>, he was sent an inexpensive (around US$500) hobby laser engraver to test out. It was way too weak to cut through material like MDF, but he found that it loved\u00a0EVA foam<\/a>. Using the machine, he was able to engrave floor and wall tiles for tabletop game terrain. A cheap machine like this could be an extremely handy and useful tool for tabletop game crafters, cosplayers, diorama builders, and others who use EVA \u2018craft foam\u201d in their projects.<\/p>\n

Why Wood Screws are Only Partially Threaded<\/strong>
\n\"woodscrews\"
\nThis\u00a0Steve Ramsey Instagram video<\/a>\u00a0explains how woodscrews actually work and why they\u2019re only partially threaded.<\/p>\n

Why Do Power Plugs Have Holes in Them?<\/strong>
\n\"powerplugs\"
\nSeveral months ago, I saw\u00a0a video<\/a>\u00a0on YouTube about why plugs have holes. I\u2019d always wondered, and like many, was under the impression that it was to help hold the plug in place. Turns out, that\u2019s a myth, at least with modern plugs. The original 1913 patent for the wall plug (aka the Separable Attachment Plug) did, in fact, have a mechanism inside the socket to engage notches in the plug. Those notches eventually turned into holes. Over the decades, it was apparently decided that this plug security feature was unnecessary. Sockets stopped including a means of utilizing these holes. So, why are they still on so many plugs? Is it just that they\u2019re expected now?\u00a0This video<\/a>\u00a0runs through the history of the plug and the notches\/holes, the patent, and the eventual loss of their utility. What the video doesn\u2019t mention (somebody in the comments does) is that the holes are apparently now re-purposed, used in an alignment process for molding the plastic plug jackets. You can see this in action\u00a0here<\/a>. The holes have also been adopted as a lockout mechanism where a small padlock is attached through the holes to prevent someone using a machine without proper access (i.e. the key to the lock).<\/p>\n

Using a Peristaltic Pump For Handling Resin in Your 3D Printer<\/strong>
\n\"pump-resin\"
\nIn\u00a0this video<\/a>, Daniel Herrero shows how he uses an\u00a0inexpensive peristaltic pump<\/a>\u00a0to remove resin from the vats of his 3D printers without having to remove the vat. As he points out, for small-bed resin printers, pouring off the remaining resin isn\u2019t such a big deal, but it can become more unwieldy on printers with larger vats. In such cases, you might want to try this pumping solution.<\/p>\n

Shop Talk<\/strong>
\nReader\u00a0<\/em>Andy Leviss<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0wrote in response to the piece I included\u00a0<\/em>several issues back<\/em><\/a>\u00a0on making your own multi-outlet power cords:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cHey, Gareth! I\u2019m probably not the only person to reach out about this, but that tutorial on making multi-outlet extensions is super dangerous and violates the National Electrical Code (NEC). You never make anything externally mounted with those junction boxes\u2026they\u2019re not rated as an external enclosure, primarily because the knockouts can get accidentally knocked in and short across conductors causing electrocution or fire. Please send out a correction and delete this from the online version of the newsletter, it\u2019s incredibly dangerous, on top of being against code nearly everywhere in the US, since almost all local codes follow the NEC.\u201d
\n***
\n\"screwdriver-gareth\"
\nMy question about screw driver design preferences got quite a response. Here\u2019s\u00a0<\/em>Walter Baron\u2019s<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0answer:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cJust read\/saw the screwdriver video. Very interesting. I have several of those old Stanley screwdrivers I bought originally about 40 years ago, and I agree they are very nice. But my favorite is the\u00a0Snap-On ratchet screwdriver<\/a>\u00a0with interchangeable bits. As a boat builder, I usually drive screws with a cordless drill\/driver (Festool<\/a>), but I often need to drive or remove\u00a0one or two small odd screws. The Snap-On has storage in the handle for several different sizes and styles of bits, and you can use any insert-style bit you can find. The ratchet is very fine, and it is guaranteed for life. Mine is at least 20 years old.\u201d<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

\"leesBag_1\"<\/p>\n

\"leesBag_2\"<\/p>\n

Reader\u00a0<\/em>Lee Licata<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0is looking to replace a leather toolbag given to him by his dad in 1975. He writes:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of the 5 \u201cfeet\u201d on the bottom and the zipper are industrial grade or beyond. None of the feet have ever fallen off and the zipper functions like new. I would appreciate whatever you can do to help me find a replacement. Internet searches have not been very successful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Do any newsletter readers have suggestions for Lee? Please\u00a0<\/em>send them to me<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"fluiddispenser\"<\/p>\n

Sydney Smith<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0wrote in to recommend\u00a0<\/em>these shop fluid dispensers<\/em><\/a>:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI saw one being used on an Adam Savage video. I use mine for denatured alcohol and acetone. They are on Amazon. The ones I bought several months ago are of a slightly different design. These enable storage and dispensing in a much better way than the cans these solvents come in. \u201d<\/p>\n

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

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #110<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39730,"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\/39729"}],"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\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39729"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39729\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39741,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39729\/revisions\/39741"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}