You know they love you when during spring cleaning they save the vintage Popular Mechanics magazines and ship them to you. They must really love me because I got twenty-one pounds from the 1960’s in the mail! I can’t wait to read them all, but so far I’ve only made it half-way through July 1962, which contains “Your Complete Concrete Guide” and “The Desperate Flight of Airtransit 13” among other treasures.
Thanks to Kaden‘s recommendation, we get the Lee Valley & Veritas catalogs. The February 2008 edition arrived not too long ago, reminding us of what a good catalog is all about. Lovely photos and clear, tempting descriptions are are often augmented by illustrations. Sprinkled throughout are tips on how to choose and use various tools.
The catalog is forty pages plus an insert. There is a nice assortment of items from their hardware, woodworking and garden catalogs. What more could you ask for in a catalog? How about a fold-out cable tie spread and a technical bulletin? Your wishes are granted.
On page four there is a fabulous two-page spread of cable ties. The “Master Set of 1550 Ties” includes basic, heavy duty, and specialty ties. Specialty ties? Mounting ties, label ties, and releasable ties! One can never have too many cable ties.
If you can make it past the cable tie spread, you’ll get to the tools and hardware. I just don’t get tired of looking things like planes, picture screws, and drawer slides, and there is a truly impressive selection of the drawer slides. Right now I’m drooling over the double edged flush-cutting saw, which is used “to cut off a projection without damaging the surrounding or adjoining face.” I’m certain I will need one someday. I might have to come up with a project specifically for it, but I’m sure it will be worth it just to have an excuse to use the flexible yet rigid blade.
The center insert had an added bonus beyond the usual order page: a technical bulletin. With articles on whittling utensils and using food-safe finishes it contains lots of interesting information and useful tips. The bulletin ends with this note: “These bulletins are intended as keepers, thus the three holes. We will publish them as often as we have something to say and as we have time to put it to paper.” I look forward to the next time they have something to say.
Nothing makes us more gleefully happy than taking things apart. On the table today: a pedometer. Lots of gory pictures after the jump.
Can’t figure out what to do with all of your leftover conversation hearts after Valentine’s Day? It turns out they do a passable impression of sidewalk chalk, even without being a significant source of calcium!
Not that we would know anything about having too many candy hearts. The giant melted together heart ought to work like those multicolored crayons. That could actually be a good use for it.
Last year as Valentine’s day approached we suggested writing new messages on your conversation hearts and loading up your trebuchet. We still advocate catapults for Valentine candy distribution and disposal, but we’ve upgraded the presentation a bit. With a rubber stamp kit and a food-safe pen, you can stamp your messages so they look nearly authentic, but have much more appropriate messages.
Continue reading Conversation hearts: Stamp your own messages
Your task this week, should you choose to accept it, is to do everything in The Guerilla Art Kit (available at Amazon, Powells, SFMoma, and your local bookstore) by Keri Smith. Maybe doing everything is a little ambitious, but we exhort you to try these projects, or at least read the book.
We recently got a copy. We had to, since it had the subtitle “for fun, non-profit, and world domination.” Being in the world domination business ourselves, it’s important to know the competition. It turns out that she’s good. Very good.
Continue reading Project: Guerilla Art
The iPod Touch (or iPhone, for that matter) is a slim little thing that fits well in all kinds of places. However, in pockets and bags, it runs the risk of getting scratched unless you protect it. Here is a super quick fabric sleeve you can make to keep your lovely device safe. It is snug enough that it won’t fall out, even when shaken upside down. As an added bonus, you can even use the multi-touch screen through the fabric. A few minutes and a few cents worth of fabric seem like a bargain when compared with the exorbitant prices and shipping costs (or, even worse, a trip to the mall!) for the commercial variety.
Continue reading Five Minute Project: iPod Cozy
I just found out [via CO] that trinlayk used our computational method to make cat beds! She used this pattern, modified, of course, to accommodate the specific volumes of her cats, Megumi (pictured above) and Seimei. Megumi looks mighty pleased with the situation. Thanks for putting the pics in the Auxiliary, Trinlay!
A few weeks ago we showed you how to build a BristleBot, a tiny vibrating robot (vibrobot) that is formed from the unlikely union of a toothbrush (with directional bristles) and a vibrating pager motor. Despite its simplicity, it drives like a drunken bat out of hell– propelled by the ratcheting action of the vibrated bristles.
Of course, toothbrushes aren’t the only system where you can find find oriented bristles. Approaching this process from an entirely different perspective, it turns out that certain types of velvet can also form a directional bristle system that can be driven with vibrations. Here we build a plush racing snail– a velvet vibrobot that crawls forward… at a snails pace.
Continue reading A Velvet Bristlebot Racing Snail
