This week on Maker Update, a round-up of the best pandemic themed projects of 2020, and some of the maker trends that defined the year.

This week on Maker Update, rolling your own D-O droid, a heart sculpture that checks your pulse, a handheld sniffer, a magic chef, indoor swing, pferd files, and I’ll explain what this is.

This week on Maker Update, a full-scale millennium Falcon cockpit, Jen Schachter’s Cricut Cart, a Google-controlled origami light show, a game of life table, and animating flip-digits.

This week on Maker Update, the Adam Savage soldering iron station, Pigeon robotics, cat food control, glowing black plastic, giant LEDs, and the good kind of Fubar. 

This week on Maker Update: dumpster fires, Circuit Python V, flying toasters, cyber santa, personal soundtracks, gift guides, turtles, and soccer tic-tac-toe.

Tools: LED Light Weight Magnifier with 5 Lenses
http://amzn.to/2uDdG90

Transcript

For this week’s Cool Tools review, I’m going to show off these wearable magnifying glasses. These run around $14 on Amazon, and by using the link in the video description you help to support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.

I bought these a year ago looking for a way to get a better look at soldering up small stuff. They really are perfect for those times when you’re wiring or painting or glueing up something tiny and delicate. Plus there’s a little LED on the front that helps put a little extra light on things.

This time around, I’m going to show you a tool recommended by Adam Savage on episode 57 of the Cool Tools podcast. This is a spokeshave. You can get one on Amazon for around $35. 

The Kreg Rip-Cut Circular Saw Guide (Amazon link) is a $32 guide for a circular saw. It’s great if you have a small workshop, or no workshop.

If you have a table saw, there’s probably no reason to buy this. But if you have a small garage like mine and you don’t want to surrender the space and money to have a table saw, this and a circular saw are an effective way to accurately break down sheets of wood.

This is review is for the Dremel Versa Tip butane soldering torch (Amazon link). It’s sells for around $38 on Amazon Prime. This is a portable soldering iron/heat gun/hot cutter/wood burning tool, that runs on butane. You click to light it, use the lock to keep the flame on, and then you adjust it for the temperature you need.

If you do any soldering you probably have a pair of helping hands, or some bulky heavy thing like this that can hold your project or components steady while you wire them. They’re useful, but a little clunky to travel with, and often overkill if you’re just splicing a wire or two.

In terms of price and portability, poster tack (a.k.a. poster putty) is a great alternative.