A friend of mine in Louisiana pointed me to an interesting site a few days ago. Scoraig Wind, a website full of one man’s experience and accumulated knowledge from years of making his own power with wind turbines. Using primarily wood, old pipe, and junkyard car alternators, Mr. Hugh Piggott and a few of his mates have had some impressive success harnessing the wind, and it’s all done in spare time from their garages.
Whether or not you buy into the green revolution, you have to admit that making enough of your own juice for the city to pay you is a pretty cool notion. I really like the idea of an off-the-grid house, and if you happen to live in the right area, wind power might be a great trick to save a buck or three. The site’s primary offering is a book with step-by-step instructions for making a completely scratch-built turbine, right down to arranging the stator yourself from purchased magnets. Not a bad way to kill a few weekends.
MNPCTech’s Bill Owen has laid out the steps for a great mirror-finish paint job, complete with video tutorials, tips, and tricks. I’ve no idea how many Toolmongers would want to go through all this work for a computer case, but I’d bet a quarter that there are a few projects out there that could use a perfect finish like this!
Maybe Chuck and Sean will go for this on the shop truck…
Tell your story about your Warn winch, share the photos or video, and win a Warn winch… It sounded better when it wasn’t only for people who own Warn winches. Still, if you do own a winch, from Warn, you’ve got till August 30, 2008 to tell your story and maybe win a new M8000 winch. (more…)
You can rekey a lock quickly and simply, in an evening — it might qualify as a “One-Beer” project, if you’ve got just one lock to rekey. Change-A-Lock and other companies make kits that allow you to change the key for a lock. But if you want a key you already have to fit all your doors, you’ll probably have to either hire a locksmith or do the work yourself.
Doh! Tie down your load, know the length, know the height! Obviously this story happened in 2006, but breaking S#!$ is cool any time. Check out more photos of this whoopsie on Snopes.com.
While we’re on the subject of bridges, when was the last time you watched a video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse? Structural failures, machinery failures, tool failures — Toolmongers usually arrive on the site before anyone else, either containing or cleaning up the mess. And sometimes a Toolmonger pulls a Tim “The Toolman” Taylor stunt.
Let us know in comments about the failures and mistakes you’ve seen.
July 4th — the firebug’s holiday — is coming, so I’m bringing up fire safety again. At the Toolmonger shop, we take safety very seriously, and although we’re not the final authority on fire safety, we run into some good information and try to get opinions from experts when we can. Whether you’re following our advice or someone else’s, make sure you’re as prepared for a fire as you can be — it could be your shop, or even a life on the line.
As things get smaller, computers, hearing aids, heart valves, and the like all need smaller parts to function — and when the screws for these products get too small to handle, you need a smaller tool! Asta Gegeckaite and a team of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have solved at least part of the assembly nightmare created by the miniaturization trend. They created a special gripper/automatic screwdriver to assemble these tiny parts.
Automated machines, or robots, are starting to work with us on the jobsite. First they take on the dangerous jobs, where death, injury, and insurance put the capital “E” in Expensive. After the pioneering is done in those jobs, the robots will move on to the repetitive jobs next. Over time, bricklayers will become bricklayer-robot technicians, and other talented artisans will adapt in the same way.
The designer of the Mortar Machine is working on the cutting edge of the technology that could make such a future possible. For now, the Mortar Machine is barely half a bricklayer — it won’t actually lay the bricks, only the mortar. And someone will still have to lay the tracks it runs on, load it, fix it, and cuss at it when it doesn’t work. But consider how CNC technology is getting better and cheaper — and what is that but a stationary robot?
Toolmongers understand the unpredictable reality of the worksite, but it’s impossible to ignore that tools are progressing in complexity, quickly. How do you feel about working alongside a robot? Is this technological development hot or not? Let us know in comments.
Toolmongers know that tools don’t always perform the way we want ‘em to. Similar to Ambrose Bierce’s Devil’s Dictionary, “What a Mechanic’s Tools Do” tells the truth about what really happens with some common tools. Here are a couple of examples:
ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning steel pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.
VISE-GRIPS: Used to round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.
These definitions got a few chuckles out of me, but I’d really like to hear Toolmongers’ takes on common tools. What definitions would you give? Tell us in comments.
Grab some candles that’ve seen the end of their use as a light source, and you can finish woodwork on a lathe beautifully and economically. Once the actual shaping is complete and you’ve sanded to your satisfaction, simply hold the candle stub to the wood and watch the shine grow. It may not be the highest quality finish, and it’s certainly not the most complicated, but the candle wax produces a warm glow that brings out the beauty of the wood — and it can be as cheap as free if someone in the house is forever burning candles.
Depending on where you live, porch-swing weather may be upon you or closing in. If you don’t already have a porch swing, or if the old one needs to be retired, take a gander at the plans on Black & Decker’s site. Though it’s nothing fancy, it’ll satisfy the basic requirements: space for a butt or two, and something to hang the swing by.
NASA staffs its organization with engineers who are completely humorless on the subject of electronics workmanship. They’re responsible for some of the most complicated machines humanity has ever produced, costing billions of dollars, brimming with high explosives, and carrying human lives. So I suspect their standards are more than sufficient for a DIY car audio installation. Fortunately, NASA offers its Workmanship Standards Pictorial Reference for free to anyone who wants to know.
Along with building and demolishing things with tools, one of our favorite things is power tool drag racing. The competitors build their cars out of power tools and other stuff — then they race ‘em down a plywood track. After looking at last year’s entries for the Silverline races, we’re seeing those old drills in the corner in a different light.
Check out the site for some sweet build tips and race pics. Be warned: it’s infectious. If you wind up tearing into the power saw you got for Christmas two years ago, don’t blame us.
If you’re looking to replace your water heater soon – or you just want to know how about how to make it last longer – you might want to take a second to visit WaterHeaterRescue.com. While most sites just walk you through choosing a water heater based on efficiency ratings and first-hour delivery numbers, this site tells you how to properly choose, outfit, install, and maintain a water heater if you want it to last.
A word of warning, though. The purveyors of the site also sell kits for retrofitting water heaters. But even with this caveat, I feel that most of their advice rings true.
Purported to be one of the biggest demolitions in history, this video portrays the demolition of Wihule Stadium in China earlier this year. It took all of 6.6 seconds to bring it down. Rock!
Note: The destruction starts around the 1:27 point.
Looking for a new charger for that obsolete Black & Decker multi-tool? Did you take your Dewalt vacuum apart and can’t get it back together now? Dewalt Service Net can help. If you own any Black & Decker, Dewalt, Porter Cable, or Delta Power tools you should bookmark this site. Services available include instruction manuals, product explosion drawings, parts lists and ordering, and service center locations.
If you need to find the service manual for your Holley 2140 Centri-Quad carburetor or the wiring diagram for a 1957 Buick, you need to visit the Old Car Manual Project. They’ve got a whole mess of service manuals, brochures, and owner’s manuals – everything from a 1915 Chalmers to a 1985 Caprice. And if you have a manual that they don’t have, you can scan it and contribute to the cause.
But here’s the ultimate tool-geek use for an ancient car manual: they make great desktop wallpaper.
