Paderno Spiral Vegetable Slicer

Vegetable slicer creates spiral cuts

The Paderno spiral vegetable slicer is made of plastic and it looks like it would snap into pieces as soon as the crank is turned, but don’t let its appearance fool you. This thing has a set of three sharp blade attachments that make short work of sweet potatoes (and, I assume white potatoes).

Using one of the three-blade attachments, you can shred, chip, or thinly slice vegetables. The hand-cranked operation is pleasingly, almost effortlessly, smooth.

When you are done peeling the potato, you’re left with a cute non-hallucinogenic mushroom.

I tossed a couple of potatoes into a skillet with salt and coconut oil.

Then I fried the potatoes, flipping them from time to time until a lot of the water burned out and I ended up with something that looked like bacon and tasted better than bacon. This stuff is crack to me. I could eat it all day, every day.

Super glue gel/2-way door rule/AllTrails

Recomendo: issue no. 263

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Super glue gel
Super glue is runny, which can cause it to drip when you apply it to a vertical surface or be absorbed when you apply it to a porous surface. Gorilla make Super Glue Gel, which solves both of these problems. I used it to glue together pieces of laser cut plywood to make these bowls. — MF

Reframe your decision-making process
I love this concept of the 2-way-door rule in Inc.com’s article “Why Emotionally Intelligent People Embrace the 2-Way-Door Rule to Make Better and Faster Decisions” (possibly behind a paywall). We avoid making decisions because we tend to think most are one-way door decisions, meaning irreversible because the door swings only one way, like quitting your job. In reality, most decisions are two-way door decisions where the door swings both ways, so if you step through and don’t like what you see, you can always turn around and go back through. Once you recognize this difference, you’ll find you actually seek out opportunities to make more decisions! — CD

Best hiking trail resource
My first stop for hiking trail information is AllTrails. This free website has the best trail maps, access location of trail heads, dog notes, elevation profiles, user reviews — almost anything you want. And they cover trails in most of the world. Their Pro version gives you mobile maps you can follow on trails outside of mobile service. — KK

Marvelous Korean melodrama
I just finished enjoying 21 hours of a Korean drama on Netflix called Start-Up. It’s a heart-tugging, tear-jerking, melodramatic soap opera about ransomware attacks and self-driving car code! Super well-done, with world-class craft. And it has an absolutely terrific K-Pop soundtrack. It’s sweet, sappy, but not too predictable, and a great view into today’s Korea. — KK

Our favorite note app
Recomendo reader Kartini Cooper asked to hear recommendations for a good note-taking app. I asked Kevin and Mark and their answer was the same as mine: Apple’s built-in Notes app. It’s the easiest and it syncs with all the other devices. I’ve gotten better at the up-keep — revisiting and culling my notes. My longest running notes that I pinned to the top are: To-do Today, Do Not Buy List, Questions I Have, Stress Note, and Things to tell my Therapist. I’ve also started organizing them into folders like: Recipes, Instructions, Crafts, Dreams, Writing Ideas, Rabbit Holes, and my favorite folder: Revelations — all my late-night genius ideas that are some times hilarious in the light of day. — CD

Geometric Arabic typographic design
Mohamed Samir is a senior product designer at Apple. In his spare time, he creates stunning geometric graphics using Arabic typography. Printmag assembled a selection of his posters, which are also on display on his Instagram account. — MF

Joe Grand, Hardware hacker

Cool Tools Show 289: Joe Grand

Our guest this week is Joe Grand. Also known as Kingpin, Joe is a computer engineer, hardware hacker, teacher, daddy, honorary doctor, TV host, member of legendary hacker group L0pht (pronounced “Loft”) Heavy Industries, and former technological juvenile delinquent. He has been creating, exploring, and manipulating electronic systems since the 1980s.You can find Joe on Twitter and YouTube @joegrand.

Subscribe to the Cool Tools Show on iTunes | RSS | Transcript | See all the Cool Tools Show posts on a single page

Show notes:

Oscilloscope
An oscilloscope lets you visually see signals and how they change over time. My go-to tool for daily engineering and reverse engineering. I use a now-discontinued Agilent (Keysight) MSO7054B that’s been hacked to enable all the extra features built into the firmware, but there are a lot of entry-level and mid-range affordable scopes (Rigol, Pico Technology) to handle most engineering needs!

ChipWhisperer
ChipWhisperer is a set of hardware hacking tools that make traditionally complex attacks (fault injection and power analysis) more accessible. Lets you do some really interesting techniques to force hardware to misbehave and recover secrets it might be leaking.

Spork
This spork is a combination spoon, fork, bottle opener, screw driver, hex wrench set, and more? I travel a lot and often find myself somewhere with food, but not a way to gracefully eat it. This is the most used tool in my bag, though TSA tends to get confused and pull it out each time I go to the airport.

Insight Timer
After years of trying to make it part of my daily routine, I finally started to practice meditation. The app makes it easy to try a variety of guided meditations, classes, and music to suit my mood and personal preference. Meditation has helped me stay in the present moment and be more accepting of myself and those around me.

Kaboost Booster Seat for Dining

Stays attached even when chair is moved

As our toddler transitioned from sitting in his high chair to using regular chairs, we were on the lookout for a booster seat for regular home use. Some seats were more appropriate for portable use, others felt precarious unless we strapped him in each time, many would have been a pain to clean.

I found the Kaboost and have been really happy with it. It elevates one of our dining table chairs to an ideal height for our 4-year-old to eat at the table. It helps him practice sitting in a normal chair and reduces knee-sitting. Best of all it increases the stability of the chair it’s affixed to — for us, this solution has given our son some more independence (a mixed blessing) without compromising his safety.

The thing is kinda ugly, but it is functional (the extendable arms clamp onto the four chair legs using internal pressure springs) and has two height options depending on which way you flip it. It’s worked on all the chairs we’ve put it on so far. It can also be folded up and potentially used for travel/restaurants, but in my opinion, it works better in practice as a “set it and forget it” tool.

Countersink Drill Bit/Rainbow Maker/Teeny Turner Screwdriver

Recomendo Shorts #2

Recomendos:
Countersink Drill Bit
Rainbow Maker
Teeny Turner Screwdriver

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Restoring and Re-Creating an “Intimate Contact” Vise

Gareth's Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales - Issue #94

[Welcome to a surprise (to you and me both) weekend edition, brought to you by a newsletter app hiccup that caused me to lose a bunch of content on Friday.]

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I hope you’re all having a good summer. If you’re working on any fun projects, I’d love to see them. I may share some with the class.

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How many people were actually participating in the Molding and Casting Skill Set series? I will be going back to that ASAP, but I wanted to get some idea of how many people were actually following along. Please let me know.

Restoring and Re-Creating an “Intimate Contact” Vise

It may sound like something from an entirely different realm of human interaction, but in this Hand Tool Rescue video, Eric restores a rare 1913 vise for “obtaining intimate contact with, engaging, clamping bodies of any shape” [Patent here]. Eric calls it a “fractal vise.” Whatever you call it, it’s really a cool gadget and his restoration is fascinating to watch.

And if you look at this device and pine over the fact that this tech never caught on, fear thee not. By way of Maker Update comes news of a 3D printable version of the vise, created by Chris Borge, inspired by Eric’s video.

Using Surface-Mount Components in Through-Hole Circuits
This Twitter edition of Collin’s Lab Notes demonstrates a brilliant idea for adapting surface-mount (SMT) components for use on a breadboard or other through-hole circuit using a couple of header pins to hold the soldered SMT component so that it can plug into a breadboard or other through-hole circuit.

Surface mount meets through hole courtesy of a few header pins #adafruit #collinslabnotes
Shop tack flux at Adafruit:https://t.co/QWeqhq6yDG pic.twitter.com/99dEPnyQNy

— adafruit industries (@adafruit) July 23, 2021

Removing a Splinter in a Pinch

Got a nasty splinter and are without tweezers?⁠ The Acme Tools Instagram page has this suggestion: “Simply use three washers, as shown, to remove the little annoyance.” Seems like thinner washers would work better, but you get the idea.

Design for Disassembly (DfD)

Mark Frauenfelder posted this Core77 piece on Boing Boing about the concept and practice of DfD:

Design for Disassembly (DfD) is the straightforward design method and philosophy that ensures that all elements of a product can be disassembled for repair and for “end of life.” This allows for and encourages repairs, with the result that a product’s life cycle is prolonged; and it allows for a product to be taken apart at the end of its life so that each component can be reclaimed as a technical nutrient (i.e. recycled) or biological nutrient (i.e. composted). Among other shifts in thinking and making, this means minimizing materials, using simple mechanical fasteners instead of adhesives, clearly labeling components with their material type, and ensuring components can be disassembled with everyday tools.

When I broke the glass vessel of my French press this weekend, I ordered a replacement vessel instead of purchasing an entirely new coffee maker. This was only possible because my French press was designed so that it could be easily disassembled. On the other hand, my electric kettle has started to leak. There are no small screws for me to open it – in fact, it’s mostly glued together. This means that when I finally cave and admit that this kettle is broken, I have no way to repair it and no way to recycle its parts. In contrast to the French press, the product was not designed for disassembly. My only option is to throw it out, and to buy a new one.

Read the full article here.

Adam Savage’s Guide to Drill Bits

Adam Savage’s tool tips videos are always a treat. You get an education on the design and function of the tool, Adam’s recommendations for his favorite products in the category, and you get great stories – ‘cause tools always come with stories. In this video, Adam looks at drill bits, describes the physical science of how different bit-types cut and remove material, and he makes the case for step and Forstner bit sets (among other recommendations).

Crowdsourced Tools
A new, periodic feature where I ask YOU for tool recommendations and some collective B.S. detection.

Spray chalk marking pen: I saw a video on Instagram of one of these spray chalk marking pens and thought it was an interesting idea. They’re for marking a drilling target through a deep hole. You place the barrel of the marker over the hole and press to fire. All good, but this tiny marker, a mere .6 ounces, is $18 on Amazon! Currently, I use a FastCap long-nose pattern marker for this sort of thing, but I’ve encountered several instances where it was too shallow for the holes I wanted to mark. Has anyone here tried one of these or a cheaper alternative? An airbrush blow pen?

Apartment tool kits: A gift that I’ve given several friends and relatives moving into a new home or apartment is one of those all-in-one tool kits with cheap versions of all of the essential starter tools one needs (hammer, pliers, tape measure, socket set, driver and bits, level, etc.). I’ve also put such kits together myself as gifts and but that’s a lot more expensive. Many of these kits are in the $50 price range, and I know from experience, the quality and design of the tools varies dramatically. Is there such an “apartment toolkit” you recommend?

Silicone Mixing Cups and Stirrers

Working on the Molding and Casting series reminded me how many plastic cups and wooden stirring sticks you use when working with casting rubber and resin. In this short Cool Tools video, Tyler Winegarner extols the virtues of reusable silicone cups and stirring sticks for resin work. When the waste material on the cup and stick is dry, you just peel it all off. This set of cups, sticks, and other accessories costs only $11 on Amazon.

Notable Quotables
“The top question I get asked after every video is ‘Where did you learn this stuff and how can I (or my kid) do this?’ Here’s what I say. Find a project that drives you. Seek lessons only for what is needed to finish that project. Repeat. The things I do are not taught, they are discovered.” -YouTuber Jeremy Fielding

Shop Talk
Even more moving advice from reader Mark White:

“My wife and I just moved after being in our previous home for 17 years. The best tip we got was to mark off the attached garage with masking/painters tape into areas and label with room names (living, den, etc.). As your movers/friends are bringing in the boxes, have them leave the boxes there. This method has multiple advantages such as not having to live among boxes, and if you are paying your movers/friends by the hour, this shaves off time because they don’t have to take the boxes all of the way into the house. This also allows you to unpack at your leisure and to go get what you need at any particular time and in ‘ I need this now’ order. Thanks again for a e very informative newsletter.”

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Doug Pocius, responding to jumper wire kits:

“The 26 gauge solid copper wire used in telco cables makes dandy prototype board jumper wires, and scraps are usually free! A long time ago, I came across a 1 foot piece of 3” diameter cable in the trash with maybe 200 pairs of this wire in many different solid/stripe color codes. Never had to buy jumper kits after that. ”

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I got a resounding yes from many readers on the superiority of Robertson/square head screws. Steve Roberts writes:
Yes on Robertson bits! I was first exposed to them when I bought a Canadian boat, and have preferred them ever since. Being able to stay locked into the head EASILY, with my Magapro multi-bit driver, is fabulous… even when I can’t see what I’m doing. I wish they would become the dominant standard.

(Gareth’s Tips, Tools, and Shop Tales is published by Cool Tools Lab. To receive the newsletter a week early, sign up here. — editors)

What’s in my cigar box? — Josh Glenn