Tools

John Park in the Maker Shed: LoL shield

The LoL Shield is a charlieplexed LED matrix for the Arduino. You can use it to display anything in a 9×14 grid. Scroll text, play games, display images, or anything else you want to do. Please note, this is a shield and requires an Arduino for control. Comes with library and example code to get you started programming Lots of LEDs right away!

Bicycle wrench that looks like a fish skeleton

I designed this multi-wrench years ago but just now finally managed to get a prototype water-jet-cut in stainless steel by my pal, Makers Market seller Dustin Wallace. The design features 21 distinct wrenches for metric and SAE nuts, 3 flat screwdrivers, a serrated cutting edge, a can opener, a wire breaker, a centerfinding tool, and a lanyard loop hole. It’s a long way from perfect–the can opener tooth, the serrated edge, and a couple of the tail-fins that are supposed to serve as flat-blade screwdrivers still need to have their edges ground, and the surface of the tool needs to be polished up quite a bit, but I was so stoked to get it in the mail I just had to share. The DXF file is available for download on Thingiverse.

Homemade split nut driver

Homemade split nut driver

In response to my Toolbox column on screwdrivers, maker “Funky Space Cowboy” sent this picture and explanation of his “split nut driver:” My favorite driver is one I made from scratch. It’s a sawmaker’s split nut driver, used in making traditional Western style hand saws. I’ve made several of these over the years but this […]

Toolbox: Show us your screwdrivers

Toolbox: Show us your screwdrivers

In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange, or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your […]