Gar's Tips & Tools - Issue #200
Access to tools, techniques, and shop tales from the diverse worlds of DIY
Our 200th Issue
Hard to believe I’ve now done this two hundred times! Composing this newsletter is more than just the issue you end up reading, it’s a daily/weekly process of exploration, research, and engagement. Since leaving Maker Media and publishing my won tips tomes (Tips & Tales from the Workshop - Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), this newsletter has been my way of remaining anchored in the DIY world and the worldwide community of makers I’ve come to know, admire, and call friends. And that includes you, dear reader! Thank you so much for all of your support, encouragement, and participation. You keep the machinery of this little enterprise humming along. Shall we shoot for another 200?
Most Popular Issue
Probably not surprisingly, the most popular Gar’s Tips & Tools has been issue #167, the Ten Top Tips That Will Change Your Life special issue. This was the summation of my talk at Bay Area Maker Faire 2023 where I presented ten “meta-level” tips that can have a significant impact on your work, your mindset, and your problem-solving skills. I hope you’ll take the time to read (or re-read) this issue and take it to heart.
Favorite Tip
As someone who’s been trading in tips for decades, it’s a challenge to pick the best one I’ve ever shared. Some of the most transformative advice can be found in my Ten Top Tips That Will Change Your Life (see entry below). But the one I return to regularly is deceptively simple:
Store your roll of trash bags at the bottom of the trash can.
It’s such a small thing, but for someone like me with severe spinal arthritis, it’s actual relief. No more bending down under the sink to fish for a fresh bag. When it’s time to take out the trash, I just reach in and grab the next bag on the roll. The difference is real, and it matters.
[Note that some people have pointed out how this can go very wrong: A leak. But we’ve been doing this for several years now and have never had this issue. We use heavy-duty bags.]
And there’s a bigger principle here:
Store tools with their supplies (when possible) .
Blades with the utility knife. Sanding discs with the sander. Paper under the printer. Instead of a big, central supply area, when possible, keep what you need where you use it. It’ll save time, energy, and keep you in your flow.
Favorite Tool
Another difficult choice is trying and think of the most impactful tool I’ve covered. I’ve thought long and hard about this and decided that the most high impact, day-to-day tools I can think of are also the most humble. And I can’t decide on just one. So, here are three:
Workpro 18-in-1 Multitool
I still can get over this tool and how decent it is for under $20. I love a tool with this level of quality and utility at a price where you can afford to get one for the house, the car, the shop, your belt, easily give as gifts, etc. [Here’s my initial review.]
Fiskars Pro Folding Knife
Another tool that never disappoints is the Fiskars Pro Utility Knife. I always have this close by and reach for it daily. It’s also a tool that, when anyone else picks it up and uses it, they comment (“Nice knife!,” “Feels good in the hand,” “Wow, sharp!”). [My initial piece on the knife.]
Plastic Razor Blades
Who would think something as seemingly silly as a plastic razor blade could prove so gosh-darn useful? I’ve been an evangelist for this homely little tool ever since I was first introduced to it through Donald Bell’s Maker Update. [Here’s my previous post.]
Favorite Fail: Tips Busters!
It was a middle-of-the-night ah-ha moment (a nightbulb): Tips Busters!, a feature in this newsletter that tested out and rated popular tips and YouTube tips channels for truth and accuracy. I thought, if it was successful, I could even expand it into a YouTube spin-off of Gar’s Tips & Tools. Eureka! I’ll be rich! But I personally didn’t have time to do all the testing and rating, so I put out a call for volunteers. A few people responded and reader (and a former Make: colleague of mine) Sam Friedman took on a tip and wrote it up. But that’s as far as this idea ever went. I still think it’s a great idea and would love to re-surface it (now that I have nearly 10,000 subscribers). If you’re interested in being a member of my tips-busting team, send me an email and we’ll talk.
Favorite Must-See Maker TV
My wife and I discovered The Repair Shop several months ago, and we now watch an episode every night. It’s become a relaxing evening ritual, a balm at the end of the day. The show is packed with goodness. First and foremost, it’s a maker’s show, full of tips on restoration and craftsmanship in all its forms: woodworking, metalwork, ceramics, jewelry, bookbinding, toy repair, leather work, just to name a few. While the focus is squarely on the human stories, you inevitably pick up a lot about techniques, materials, and tools along the way.
But The Repair Shop is really about people: the charming, highly skilled craftspeople who inhabit the workshop, and the folks from all over the UK who bring in their battered heirlooms and sentimental treasures. What they lay on the table is often laughably far gone, faded, shattered, worm-eaten, hanging on by a thread. But the stories behind them are usually touching, and the restorations often breathtaking.
The show’s “set” is a character in its own right: an 18th-century, reed-thatched barn nestled in the Weald & Downland Living Museum in Singleton, West Sussex. The barn, with its weathered beams and golden reed-light, adds warmth and a sense of timelessness that deepens the show’s emotional resonance.
In a world of harsh tribalism, fast takes, and terrible fakes, The Repair Shop is quiet, compassionate…and slow-paced. It’s a reminder that care, craft, conservation, and human connection still matter, and that sometimes, even the most broken things can be made whole again.
Consider a Paid Subscription
Gar’s Tips & Tools is free. But if you really like what I’m throwing down and want to support it, please consider a paid subscription. Same great taste, more cheddar for me to help fund my growing collection of 1-2-3 blocks. Plus, I’ll occasionally pick paid subscribers at random and send them little treats, tools, or tip-related treasures.
Your support keeps this whole Rube Goldberg contraption lovingly cobbled together and running…smoothly (enough). Here’s to another 200!
Special thanks to Hero of the Realm members: Jim Coraci, Donobster, Peter Sugarman, and Will Phillips for your generous support.
Yet another wonderful issue. My fave? "Favorite Must-See Maker TV" introduces a sweet and very human rewarding show...
Repair Shop is fabulous! We’ve watched every episode we could find. We tried introducing it to family members and we enjoy the people, just as you said. The way they work together plus their knowledge makes the show. The happiness of the people when they see the results is the biggest reward!