April 14, 2010
Tony Saucier of the DIY website Pounded Thumb has compiled 40 sites that he thinks are worth following on Twitter (and in general). The sites are ones that stand out among the crowd for any of a number of reasons. At Tony explains,
It could be sharing tips (@make_tips), sharing deals (@northerntool), or telling great stories (@ExtremelyAvg). In any event, all are worth checking out.
And in a strange twist of fate, we made the list. Thanks Tony.
Check out the other 39 for yourself over at Pounded Thumb. It's a good collection of sites, no doubt.
April 12, 2010
The Makita died this past weekend. Friday, it worked. Sunday, nada. It was a good drill but since we got it on the eve of the big lithium-ion explosion, it always seemed a little heavy and clunky to us. It was durable though...3-1/2 years in our hands is no treat for any tool (and in it's latter days, we were particularly rough with it). There's no doubt that while we had it, it earned its keep.
But now, we're not sure as to where to go from here. Where do you guys stand? What are some of your favorite drills? Drop a comment and let us know.
March 22, 2010
My latest article is up over at Popular Science. In the article, I tested the upstart Rockwell JawHorse head-to-head against the tried-and-true Black & Decker Workmate.
If you're interested, check it out here.
March 16, 2010
As the story goes, one day in 1810, Tabitha Babbitt, a Shaker woman, looked at a couple dudes working a pit saw (one account says it was her brothers) and thought to herself, 'there's got to be a better way to build this mousetrap.'
From the vantage point of our nice, heated, indoor-plumbing-equipped homes, a pit saw is a pretty crazy idea. Dig a pit, roll a log across it, position one man above and one man below, get a two-man saw, and have at it. The forward thinking Tabitha didn't like the process due to the wasted energy and effort with all the digging and the sawing (Not to mention the awkward moment when it was decided which guy was going have to work in the hole all day).
According to a nice little account over at the York Saw & Knife website,
Babbitt discovered how to solve the problem using her spinning wheel.
She mounted a tin disk with notches along its circumference. Being pushed into the spinning disk cut the wood with much less effort than a pit saw. Her idea was enlarged and adopted for use by the local saw mill. Use of the circular saw became a common practice here. Because of her Shaker religion, Babbitt did not apply for a patent for her invention.
We snagged the image from the York website as well.
There are actually a number of other origin stories for the circular saw, but we like this one the best because it all happened in the little town where Tool Snob HQ is currently located. We've even been by the graveyard where, we believe, Tabitha resides.
March 10, 2010
Here's a great video that we first saw over at Lumberjocks. It's of a guy who's living the dream. He gave up the corporate world and now he makes farm tables. Not bad, eh?
The video has a soothing quality to it, sort of like Bob Ross' Joy of Painting.
Thanks to the wonderful people at The Sheep's Company for initially sending us the video.
February 18, 2010
Amaze your friends! Stun your coworkers! Be the smartest, most interesting person on the job site!
February 16, 2010
CopTool was there so you didn't have to be. Tons of photos and all the details on what went down here.
February 3, 2010
December 21, 2009
December 15, 2009
This happened in China. Now, we know what you're thinking, "I thought that everything made in China was done so to incredibly high quality standards?!" Well, not this time. It appears that someone was digging next to the building for an underground garage and piling the excavated dirt on the other side of the building. Even the most rudimentary knowledge of physics would start setting off alarms on that one. Again, not this time. Can you imagine the noise when this thing hit the ground?
More details, pictures, and an insane sketch of how it happened at Dr. X's Free Associations and Engineering.com
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