Friday, September 04, 2015
5 Indispensable Shop Hacks
Make: DIY Projects, How-Tos, Electronics, Crafts and Ideas for Makers: We’ve gotten such a great response to the two recent tips posts I did, “6 ‘Now, Why Didn’t I Think of That?’ Shop Tips” and “5 Clever Tool Hacks,” that I decided to share some shop hacks from another YouTuber doing DIY project videos, Izzy Swan. In the video below, Izzy shares eight useful shop tips.
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I do not subscribe to a lot of people on YouTube, I but of the 5 channels I am subscribed to there are three I actually watch regularly and of those three there is Izzy Swan. Every time he comes out with a new video I am astonished by his incredible creativity, ingenuity and maker skill. I had seen his shop hack video before and learned a few things that I didn’t know, but these were also things I didn’t need to know because I have been lucky enough to work in shops where I have enough of the right tools to not need hacks. Now that might sound pretentios and I do not mean it to be, but don’t need to know how to use a mug as a sharpening stone because the shops I’ve been in have sharpening stones. Now that is not to say there is a tool that would negate all of these hacks but I find that hacks are just that, a hack around buying a tool. So, in that regard they are perfect for a personal shop and once I settle in someplace (i.e. get out of school) I will probably have to rely heavily on these hacks in the shop I hope to have.
I love shop tricks as much as the next person, but I’m not so sure about these. To start, using a nail as a drill bit seems impractical. Depending on the size of the nail, you may not be able to simply “snip” off the head of a nail. Furthermore, depending on the nail, it may not be straight enough to use for a pilot hole. Drill bits, on the other hand, are specifically designed to drill holes – mostly straight, or at least straighter than a nail. The same can be said for putting a notch in a piece of wood to drill a straight hole. If the notch isn’t 90 degrees, then your hole won’t be 90 degrees. Also, using the block of wood may cause the flutes on the drill bit to get caught on the block. The only “hack” that seems like it might actually do any good is using blocks of wood and shims if you don’t have a clamp of the right size. I have often found myself in this position and have not thought of using a method like this. In the end, I am of the mindset of having the right tool for the right job. It just makes everything easier – then you always have the right tool for the job.
These are great. As are the other two articles he links from here. And almost every article this guy writes. I almost didn’t finish my comments because I opened them all up in tabs.
I think my favorite is the salt on a glue joint. I can’t wait to try it out. Although I wonder how that affects the integrity of the joint. It’s actually the only one of these “hacks” that seems to be about a thing you can try, not a thing you do if you don’t have something else.
Working the shop to work for you could be a class in itself also.
I feel like these "hacks" are just pretty specific spins on key concepts, for example his homemade C-clamp is essentially just a wedge forced into a solid form to create pressure. With some basic understanding of the simple machines there are tons of carpentry based "hacks" that are easy to come up with. What I really liked about this video was how it reminded me of what Kevin Hines taught us in PTM about understanding base concepts (in this case simple machines) in order to be able to complete a function when you don't have access to the ideal tools (in this video C-clamps). While these "hacks" are pretty cool, I feel reluctant to call them "hacks" at all because I think quick tricks like these are so common and fundamental to carpentry, that naming them a "hack" feels too out of the norm. Personally I think having the know how to build what you need to without the ideal tools is a necessity in a good carpenter, and I always find great satisfaction when I get into a jam and use a "hack" of my own to solve the problem.
I think the coolest one of these shop hacks is the wedge block clamping method. It’s the old way of doing it, instead of using every clamp (and some ratchet straps) that you have in the shop, this is a nice way of fixturing up a project that can be as modular as you have spaces to nail down keeper blocks. The salt in the glue trick seems really cool. I would like to think that the salt will dissolve in the glue once it has served its purpose as a gripping agent, and then doesn’t compromise the strength of the glue joint. I would like to do a test with several materials: sprinkle salt into the glue joint on one side, and no salt on the other side, then compare the penetration of the glue joint with and without salt. I worry that if the salt dissolved it might affect the bonding properties. Maybe that’s the reason to use some grits from sand paper or common fine grain sand.
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