Tools

It’s that time of year again! All the best people were born in October! :) As my birthday approaches, I’ve put together a wishlist of items that I’ve been eyeing. If you’re looking for gift ideas (or if you just want to snag some cool tools for yourself!), here’s what I’m hoping for this year: Tools Affordable Tools WORKPRO 8-Inch Long Nose Slip Joint Pliers: Really excited to try these affordable pliers. I love my longer slip joint long nose pliers, and I think the 8-inch size will be perfect. Fiskars PowerArc Utility Snips, 8-Inch: These scissors look like they can handle anything, and I like that it keeps your hand out of the way in case you’re cutting something with a sharp edge. Morakniv Chisel Knife, 3-Inch: Great, affordable chisel knife. I’ve been wanting one of these for a while. Milescraft Exactor Multifunction Measuring and Marking Tool: I love how many different features this thing packs into a small package. Will definitely earn a spot in my grab-and-go tool bag. Also worth mentioning are these two Knipex clones from WORKPRO that I’ve been wanting to try out: ...

The Table Saw I know you’ve all been waiting for (lol) updates on my vintage 1947 Craftsman 113 table saw. I’m happy to report that, after disassembling and cleaning the saw, I was able to put it back together and get it running again! In the process, I installed: A new power toggle switch on the motor housing A safety ON/OFF switch for the front of the saw (where you stand) An 8-inch thin-kerf combination blade A 6-inch motor pulley to replace the original 3-inch pulley (this was recommended in the manual since the motor is a 1750 RPM motor, not a 3450 RPM motor) An adjustable linked v-belt Some larger caster wheels for the base of the saw The rip fence provided some extra challenges, mainly because I accidentally broke the cam/clamp handle that holds the fence in place. I originally repaired the handle with some J-B Weld “SteelStik” epoxy putty, which seemed strong and promising at first. ...

I finally got my first table saw! A 1947 Craftsman 113.22400 8-inch table saw, for $40 on Facebook Marketplace. To Do List I’m excited to start using it, but first I want to do the following: ✅ Disassemble Clean (in progress) Remove Rust (in progress) Lubricate (in progress) Replace faulty power toggle switch (in progress) Replace blade Reassemble Manuals Thanks to the folks over at Vintage Machinery, it was easy enough to find the following manual PDFs for the saw and for the 1/2 HP motor: ...

Since buying our first house about a year ago, I’ve gotten really into DIY home repair, home improvement, etc. As a software engineer, I find that working with physical tools on physical problems is a refreshing change of pace after staring at a screen all day! Plus, it’s an excuse to buy a bunch of tools! Speaking of tools, I’ve been thinking about diagnostic tools that would be helpful for a homeowner to own. Here’s a list of the ones I own, organized roughly in order of importance. ...

I don’t know what it is about mini toolkits, but I love them. Actually, scratch that. I know why. It’s the same reason I love buying tools and books, more generally: the illusion of control. I like how having tools (and a great personal library) makes me feel like I’m ready for whatever life throws at me (ha!). It’s why I liked carrying around a pocketknife as a kid, and it’s why I’m into EDC (everyday carry) and tools as an adult. ...

General / Thinking Untools: https://untools.co/ James Clear: https://jamesclear.com/ Farnam Street: https://fs.blog/ Your Logical Fallacy Is: https://yourlogicalfallacyis.com/ Your Bias Is: https://yourbias.is/ Fitness / Health Darebee: https://darebee.com/ Reading / Writing QuillBot: https://quillbot.com/ 12ft Ladder: https://12ft.io/ Open Library: https://openlibrary.org/ Design PDF24 Tools: https://tools.pdf24.org/en/ Unsplash: https://unsplash.com/ The Noun Project: https://thenounproject.com/ Software Development Stack Overflow: https://stackoverflow.com/ O’Reilly: https://learning.oreilly.com/ roadmap.sh: https://roadmap.sh/ cheat.sh: https://cheat.sh/ DevHints.io: https://devhints.io/ Learn X in Y minutes: https://learnxinyminutes.com/ Baeldung (for Java/Spring): https://www.baeldung.com/ What would you add to this list? Let me know!

I’ve been dragging my heels on learning Markdown for awhile now. If you don’t know, Markdown is: lightweight markup language with plain text formatting syntax designed so that it can be converted to HTML and many other formats using a tool by the same name. Markdown is often used to format readme files, for writing messages in online discussion forums, and to create rich text using a plain text editor. [Source: Wikipedia] ...