Gar's Tips & Tools - Issue #209

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

Simple Work Piece Clamp with Hinge

On the always-inspiring Takuwoodcraft, Takurou shows how he made a simple, clever clamping work piece holder out of a butt hinge and some scrap wood. It would be great for door planing.

Comparing Lithium and Alkaline Battery Performance

In this Project Farm video, Todd tests 26 Lithium and Alkaline AA battery brands. He tests for total milliamp hour capacity, internal resistance, initial voltage, performance in subfreezing temperatures, and performance in a flashlight over a 5.5 hour test. Not surprisingly, the Lithiums ran rings around the Alkalines. He found a performance/price sweet spot in the PKCELL AA lithium at $1.33/ea (at time of testing). That’s still around 3x the cost of Alkaline, but especially in applications where you need long-term performance and reliability, it’s worth the extra cost.

The Problem with Cheap 1-2-3 Blocks

In this fun, snarky Stumpy Nubs video, James prattles on about “Big Block,” the shadowy corporate conspiracy to sell us all cheap 1-2-3 blocks. He makes clear that all such blocks are not created equal. He claims that, as 1-2-3 blocks, known to machinists for decades, became increasingly popular among woodworkers and popular YouTube makers, Chinese manufacturers decided to get in on the action by producing cheap blocks that aren’t really up to the precision standards of machinist blocks. They cut corners on things like the threaded attachment holes (only threading half the depth), impacting the ability to attach blocks together into precise stacks and right angles. The video is basically advertainment for Taylor Toolworks’ 123 Block Attachment Hardware Kit. It has the fasteners (and tools) you need to attach blocks from the inside so that they properly line up and don’t leave any hardware proud. I have a large collection of 1-2-3 blocks and also swear by the Taylor Tools kit.

Under $2 Pocket Notebooks

For decades, I’ve carried a Moleskine Cahiers notebook in my shirt pocket. When I went to reorder a pack (of 3) recently, they were out of stock, so I bought a cheaper alternative. Instead of three 3.5” x 5.5” blank Moleskines for $13, I got six Twone-brand notebooks for $10. I love them and don’t expect to switch back. They have good quality cover stock and internal pages. They don’t have perforated, removable pages, but I rarely use that feature anyway. They do have fewer pages. The Moleskine has 80 pages, the Twone has 60. But that’s a feature for me, not a bug. My notebooks get pretty beaten up and bent, so switching them out sooner keeps them in better shape.

More Praise for the iMini Flashlight

The iMini flashlight I raved about here and gave away as a holiday promotion is continuing to make a splash across the makersphere. In this See Jane Drill video, Leah expresses her enthusiasm for this awesome little tool-of-the-moment

Poor Org in Plain Sight

For the past three years or so, I’ve gone to bed every night with no place to easily offload books, magazines, comic books, and papers (whatever I’m reading before bedtime). The top of the low bookshelves by our bed has only had room for a water glass and my glasses. The rest of the surface was filled with carved wooden boxes, framed art, remotes, my phone charger, pens and markers, etc. Lying there the other night, staring at the top, I realized that two-thirds of what was on it didn’t need to be there. I even had a bunch of available space on the bottom shelf. The next day, I cleaned up, moved things to the lower shelves, and now I have a generous space to plop down whatever is in my hands when it’s time to kiss the Mrs. goodnight and turn the lights out.

To me, this is a stellar example of the kind of organizational blindness we often acquire in areas that we don’t think of as needing evaluation and re-organization. It’s embarrassing to me that I went so long annoyed by the lack of temporary bedside storage without ever stopping to actually do anything about it. It only took a few minutes and it makes a huge difference.

If you look around your own living and working environs, where might you be tolerating a small, solvable annoyance simply because you’ve stopped seeing it a long time ago? Pick one such blind spot today and fix it. It’ll take less time than you think, and the relief will be immediate.

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