{"id":40176,"date":"2022-08-17T02:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-17T09:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=40176"},"modified":"2022-08-16T14:36:44","modified_gmt":"2022-08-16T21:36:44","slug":"lets-talk-about-clamps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/lets-talk-about-clamps\/","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Talk About Clamps"},"content":{"rendered":"\nGareth\u2019s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here.<\/a>\n\n\n\n
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Every time a newsletter goes out, I get wonderful emails from readers telling me how much they enjoy it. At the same time, I get a spate of unsubscribes. Often, the subs go up by the same number they go down. It\u2019s frustrating. Because of the positive emails, I know there\u2019s an audience for what I\u2019m doing here. Can you help me reach more of it? Can you post a link to this newsletter in your social media? Share with other maker enthusiasts? Thanks so much for your help.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Let’s Talk About Clamps<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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In this \u201cAsk Adam Savage\u201d segment<\/a> on Tested<\/em>, Adam<\/strong> is asked about shop clamps. This leads to a typically-Adam thoughtful and wise deep dive into the many uses and types of clamps: c-clamps<\/a>, bar clamps<\/a>, vice grips<\/a>, quick-grip clamps<\/a>, welding clamps, jeweler\u2019s clamp<\/a>, bench vises, lever clamps<\/a>, kant twist clamps, and last but not least, spring clamps. One great tip takeaway: Don\u2019t ever buy one clamp. Buy at least two, and if you can afford it, but 4 or more.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Packing with Expanding Foam<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Here\u2019s a great idea<\/a> from the engineering.equip<\/a> Instagram channel. Using expanding spray foam<\/a> to create secure, form-fitting packaging for equipment.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Making Lego Handles for Your Shop<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ruth Amos<\/strong> (of Kids Invent Stuff<\/a>) created these handles<\/a> for her new backyard workshop out of Lego bricks.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Scribbing\/Cutting Circles in Styrene<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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I subscribe to FineScale Modeler<\/em><\/a> magazine, even though I\u2019m not really a scale modeler. I was as a teen and still like looking at what people are up to in that hobby. Mainly, I look for modeling tips that I can apply to my hobby of miniature painting and tabletop game modeling. Here\u2019s a great case in point. You can use a scribbing compass<\/a> to cut circles in styrene. You just have to be patient, make multiple passes, and finish up with a hobby knife if the piece is thick or stubborn.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A Collection of Razor Rules of Thumb<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
A \u201crazor\u201d is a rule of thumb that simplifies decision making. Here\u2019s a collection of the sharpest razors gathered by\u00a0Sahil Bloom<\/strong>\u00a0and posted\u00a0on Twitter<\/a>.

The Feynman Razor<\/strong>
Complexity and jargon are used to mask a lack of deep understanding. If you can\u2019t explain it to a 5-year-old, you don\u2019t really understand it. If someone uses a lot of complexity and jargon to explain something, they probably don\u2019t understand it.

The Luck Razor<\/strong>
When choosing between two paths, choose the path that has a larger luck surface area. Your actions put you in a position where luck is more likely to strike. It\u2019s hard to get lucky watching TV at home\u2014it\u2019s easy to get lucky when you\u2019re engaging and learning.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
New Column: Ask Gar<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
If you have questions about tools, things you might have read here in the past, resources you\u2019re in search of, <\/em>email me<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Reader\u00a0<\/em>Rick Griggs<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0asks:<\/em>
\u201cI need to buy\u00a0headmounted lighted magnifying glasses. I don\u2019t\u00a0know what to look for, and thought you\u2019d reviewed (or linked to a review) of these in a distant past newsletter that\u00a0I could read\/watch to learn more, but I can\u2019t find anything. If you have done this, please point me to which one.\u201d

Hey Rick,<\/em>

I\u2019m not sure it was in the newsletter. I know I talked about these in my old tips column on Make:. The\u00a0<\/em>one I have<\/em><\/a>\u00a0is shown above. It costs under $10 on Amazon! For my purposes (miniature painting), it\u2019s great. It has two lenses that offer 1.5X magnification each and a third monocle lens at 7X magnification, providing intensities at multiples of 1.5, 3, 8.5, and 10. The light angle is adjustable in two directions and the light pack can even be removed from the headband for use elsewhere. A lot of features for under ten bones!<\/em>

***

My old pal,\u00a0<\/em>Steven Roberts<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, asks about racks to hold Stanley organizing cases:<\/em>

\u201cDo you know of any quick-turn kits\/products to handles stacks of Stanleys? Of course the solution is obvious, but I have so many projects that I don\u2019t want to do it. If someone has made one, or published a good repurposing of something like a bakers rack or other off-the-shelf (heh, so to speak) tool, I\u2019m all ears!

\u201dIf you have responses to questioned asked by readers here,\u00a0<\/em>let me know<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
Shop Talk<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In response to the\u00a0<\/em>\u201cMaker Slang\u201d column<\/em><\/a>\u00a0last week,<\/em>\u00a0John Seiffer<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0writes:<\/em>

Regarding the term\u00a0Minimal Viable Product<\/em>\u00a0(MVP). It was coined by\u00a0Eric Ries<\/strong>\u00a0in his book\u00a0The Lean Startup<\/em><\/a>\u00a0as a way of learning what potential customers found valuable before spending a lot of time and money building something that people didn\u2019t want to buy. Unfortunately, I think Reis did not do a very good job of naming this because it really doesn\u2019t mean a stripped down product. In his world, it refers to anything that you can quickly learn from. Some examples could be a fake landing page which actually does nothing but gather insight about whether customers click on the link or not. I know of a company that used wire frames drawn on paper as an MVP to learn what people would pay for.\u00a0Yes, it can be a stripped down version of an actual product, but in most cases, if you\u2019re doing that before you\u2019ve learned what people want to pay for, it\u2019s overkill.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n
<\/div><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales – Issue #129<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40177,"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\/40176"}],"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=40176"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40181,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40176\/revisions\/40181"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tkdev.kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}