Gar's Tips & Tools - Issue #190

Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY

Simple Shop Pencil Hack

TL;DR: Put a rare earth magnet inside some heat shrink tubing on the eraser end of your shop pencils and stick them all over your machinery. Great idea! This could also work on other light marking, measuring, etc. tools.

Ten Uses for an Oscillating

In this Essential Craftsman video, Scott extols the virtues of oscillating multitools. He especially looks at uses that you may not have thought of. For instance, oscillators excel at removing tough adhesives like glue, caulk, and paint more efficiently than traditional scrapers or blades. Their precision makes them ideal for sanding in tight corners and intricate edges, where other tools might struggle. Oscillating tools also shine in cutting tasks, from removing grout to trimming door jambs (to accommodate flooring), and slicing through embedded nails or screws. For remodeling projects, they offer a clean, dust-minimal solution for drywall cutting and detailing tasks like trimming baseboards and cabinets. P.S.: I have this cordless DeWalt tool and love it!

Arduino for Artists

The Arduino microcontroller has proven to be a transformative tool for artists and other creative types looking to build interactivity, sensing, and movement into their projects. Designed specifically for non-engineers, the Arduino offers an affordable entry point to programmable, digital control with a $25 board and free software. In this DigiKey episode, Becky Stern runs through the ways in which Arduino can be used as an artist tool. She looks at beginner-friendly projects, like kinetic sculptures and interactive lighting, and explains Arduino’s open-source ecosystem, which includes free resources, forums, and libraries to help you learn and innovate, and an active and helpful user community. She talks about how iteration and testing are essential—prototyping and learning from failures are key to refining your ideas. Finally, she recommends joining maker spaces and online communities to connect with others, get help, share knowledge, and collaborate. If you have any interest in playing around with microcontrollers, but are not an engineer or programmer, Arduino is a great gateway product. Here’s a decent and affordable Arduino starter kit.

Custom Clothing Labels with Your Branding

Van Neistat’s “Spirited Man” logo.

Watching a Van Neistat video recently, I was tickled to discover that he covers the labels of his work clothing with his own custom “Spirited Man” label. I kind of hate prominent branding and for years used to use a seam ripper to remove visible labels from my clothes. But custom-branding them is a fun, clever idea, too. And, with the holidays coming up, getting someone’s logo on a label so they can customize their work clothes is a great gift idea. There are lots of custom label providers online. I haven’t worked with any of them, but this one looks good.

Best Hand Cleaner for the Shop

Here’s another video from Scott of Essential Craftsman, this time testing different hand cleaners for the workshop (with a disturbing amount of grease on his hands). He looks at most of the products you’re likely familiar with, from dish washing liquid to various flavors of Goop. In the end, he settles on Fast Orange and good ol’ Tub o’ Towels (which we’ve covered here before).

Free E-Book of Maker Projects

Via Maker Update comes word of Make It Yourself, an amazing, free, 220-page ebook collecting over 1000 DIY projects. The book is simply and beautifully designed with pages of black and white drawings for each project, hyperlinked to the projects themselves. Projects featured range from home and garden to recreation (cycling, skateboarding, camping, boardgames) to electronic and mechanical tools. This impressive collection of projects could keep you busy for a long time, just pursuing them, let alone making them!

3D printed cantilevered toolbox by Michal Fanta.

Shop Talk

Readers offer their feedback, tips, tales, and tool recommendations.

My online friend of many decades, Stefan Jones, sent me this message:

As you know, I build model rockets. Sometimes, it takes me years to get around to building a model. Decades, even! I have some bought-at-auction models dating back to 1970. The water-slide decals included with many kits get dry and brittle over time. More often than not, they fall to pieces when dunked in water. I've found that spraying two or three coats of "crystal clear" spray on the decals, then letting them dry thoroughly, reduces the chance that they’ll fall apart when placed in water. I managed to successfully use most of a sheet of 50-year-old decals using this technique!

Reader Tom Brock writes in:

Hello, hello — Long-time fan. Here’s a good one:

Do I paint, draw, or do anything similar? No, that’s my wife. But if we’re talking “things that hold things,” then you have my undivided attention. I had a few aha moments here — external clipboard and plastic were definite great idea moments for me. This inspired me to work on a “temporary project box” with one of my many leftover plastic tool cases. Thanks again for everything you do! 

Wishing you plentiful gravy this week.

Plentiful gravy to you and yours, too, Tom, and to all my Gar’s Tips & Tools readers. You all inspire me and I’m so grateful for the little maker community we’re building through this newsletter. You all are a blessing. Thank you!