A Little Ludwig Goes A Long Way

Since I am semi-retired from Halloween prop-building (tho I still have 2 storage pods full of gear if anyone wants to buy some skeletons, tombstones, etc…) I have not been buying as many tools and workbench gadgets as I used to. If I was buying, I’d be trying these out:

• Planet Pocket Tool — small handmade tools with an arty bent. I never have time to follow the site and get in on the deals.
• Grabber. indispensable for fat-fingered guys like me.
• Fathead tweezers. ANother very nicely machined tool.
• Blackfire flashlight. Always need a clampy light.
• Cubify. I would LOVE to have a cost effective 3d printer.
• Inpection Camera. OK no real use for this but isn’t it cool? I am sure I could justify somehow.

• Photo Lens Burrito Wrap. Seems awesome.

• Wire Bender is a genius little thing. Cheap, rarely used, but the exact right tool for certain jobs.
• Air hose swivel is another simple little thing that is exactly the right solution.
• Rollo Knife. Rolling utility knife, purportedly a knuckle saver.
• Butt splicers. I am the suck at splicing wires so these might be useful.
• Skoobawraps. Trying to decide if these are awesome cool, or kind of stupid.
• Fab@Home 3d printers. Seems cool but honestly, the constraining factor on my manufacture of 3d items is not lack of a 3d printer, but is my complete inability to design/draw anything.

• Awesome Studio Mango rugs. Love the asymmetry.
• Hometown Jigsaw Puzzle. Would order one but 2-3 weeks for production…
• Compartes Chocolates. Not really a chocolate fan but these are just so great looking…
• Blue shift bumper sticker. Geek humour.
• Tyler Cowen’s book list. His recos have a high hit rate.
• Pocket Ref book. If Kurt recos, it will be good.
• 3d power plug. Doesn’t exist but if it did…
• Cole-Bar Hammer. OK I only drive about 30 nails a year but still this looks like a winner.
• LED Bed. Looks like effective birth control to me.
• Motif cube. Looks puzzle-ish but isn’t.
• Power Plug with USB. Way underpriced.

Not doing a big Halloween thing this year due to other commitments. Saving these tips for the future…

• Monsterlist. Starting point to find any kind of halloween project
• Kurt’s tool wishlist. I can only aspire to Kurt’s skill and tool collection
• Kurt on prop setup. The guy knows more than I ever will about this
• Scott on controllers. Need to read and parse this, Scott is ahead of me here.
• Kurt on foam construction. Foam is my best friend at halloween time
• Measure tape tape. Simple but brilliant
• French Curves. Who doesn’t need these.

• Possibly the most ill-considered travel item ever — those TSA agents love a good joke. Ha ha ha, strip your clothes off sir.
• Vex robotic kit. Never had robot love, but if i did…
• Sticky tripod. No idea why but seems like I should have in my camera kit.
• I don’t know why I don’t have an eye-fi yet.
• Cooling bandanna. At less than $2 I should certainly get
• Dramm fogg-it hose nozzle. Doesn’t the name sound like a spoonerized curse phrase?
• Dynomighty wallet. If they had a buckeye one i’d be there
• Digital rachet wrench. Seems like a horrible idea.
• Traverse switchplates. Nice, I hate generic plastic switchplates.

• Solar Camping Lantern — I remember the old coleman lanterns using white gas, the pumping, the mantles. What a pain in the a$%. This looks way simpler.
• King Cobra wristwatch — awesome looking. Tho I have completely given up on wristwatches.
• Carabiners make everything better. So true.
• Denture ice cubes. Seriously awesome.
• Resistor cheat sticker. I can never remember how to speak resistor.
• Antitheft lunch bags — brilliant.
• Woven wood chairs. Beautiful. Probably uncomfortable as hell.

Animated Knots by Grog. — animations of how to tie nearly every knot you ever need.  Oh and the forgotten Zeppellin knot — apparently critical in the production of Physical Graffiti.

Both via Make. The internet is freaking awesome.

* Graph Paper Napkins. To better help you design a breakthrough on the back of napkin.
* Defendius Lock System. Prevents you from going at night when you’ve had too much.
* Veneer Toolbox. I’m not handy, so maybe I can just make my tools look awesome.
* Rollaway bar. Actually I’d use it for gear stowage.
* Domino Coffee Table

• Imm Living. Love these totem coffee cups.
• And this woodgrain pillow tho the color choices don’t work for us anywhere
• Brilliant little painting tool
• Corner clamp — looks positively frightening when not in use, like some medieval dentistry tool

Dremels, Drill Bits, and Other Pumpkin-Carving Tools — excellent set of tools from Brett. Funkins are awesome as they keep forever.

The eyeballing game. Angle bisecting and right angling are apparently my special skills.  I pretty much suck at finding circle centers and making parallelograms tho.

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Are You Smarter Than A Bolt?. — awesome bolts that give you feedback when you are overtightening. I need hardware like this. I really need stud-finding, conduit-avoiding nails.

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Preview: Stanley 3-in-1 Tripod Flashlight. For the person who already has 37 flashlights and wants more.

• Fluidforms :: Individual Design. — awesome topographical bowls and other objects.
• Drippable adhesives as sculpting medium.  There are some cool Halloween designs hiding in this idea
• Fire fighting gun.  Makes you want to have a fire nearby.
• Bits needed for making wooden train tracks — i just like the idea of doing this
• Recycled tire mulch — this actually seems like a disaster, i have a hard time believing all our plants would love this.
• Good looking LED desk lights
• Beyond the lunchpail and thermos.  The Mr Bento one is cool

• Geekhouse Bikes Powder Coating Graphics — I never ride my bike, but wow could it look cool collecting dust
• Now that I’ve installed Edison, let me burn up all my savings with this dynamic LED keyboard
• Boynq Iris webcam-speaker-light-mic combo. I was just asking myself, where can I get a webcam-speaker-light-mic combo?
• Cyclone metal cleanup tool. As they say, if only this worked for sawdust
• Earthworm Hydro Drill. I actually could use this for routing cables for Halloween in the yard, tho it seems like it might be a disaster.

• Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Bending Over Is For Chumps — actually I totally need this! Ordering today.
• Waspknife. For the sharks in Lake Washington.
• Jawbone 2. Rich loves it but I refuse to go bluetooth until they look less dorky. I have my pride.
• LED Candelabra for Halloween. Stupid expensive.
• Hex-pro wrenches.
• Gum Magnets. Gross. But cool.
• Picksets. awesome.
• Extruded Aluminum Dominoes. Neato.

• Mitsubishi Ultra Thin Frame Premium Flat Panel TV with Integrated Sound Projector » Coolest Gadgets — cool. I have a discrete sound projector in one room and have been happy with. this is a great way to get surround sound with minimal fuss.
• At the other end of the price spectrum, the Li’l Guppie Multi-tool. I am not sure I actually get much value out of multi-tools but they look cool.
• Realtime power use monitor — this actually seems pretty useful.

Clever Uses: Magnets Kill the Cell Phone Speaker Buzz — an old but effective idea

Toolmonger » Blog Archive » Power-Drill Tent Stakes — OK I love to use power tools but I tend not to carry them while camping, not even if I ever car-camped. I guess this is for people setting up tents at shows, etc.