Maker Project Lab
July 6, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kreg Rip-Cut Circular Saw Guide Review

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.

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July 5, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dremel Versa Tip Precision Butane Soldering Torch Review

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.

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June 12, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Poster Tack for Electronics

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.

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May 4, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

MagnoGrip Magnetic Wristband Review

Have you ever held screws or nails in your mouth as a way to keep them nearby while working on a project? This week for my tool review I’m going to show you a better solution. This is the MagnoGrip (Amazon), it’s a $14 magnetic wristband available on Amazon. I found it through the Cool Tools blog

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April 30, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Portable Soldering Irons Compared

We’re going to take a quick look at three very different options in portable soldering irons. The point here is really just to give you a demo of each on the same table and you can draw your own conclusions on what might work best for you. 

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April 23, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Bone Folder Review

In this Cool Tools video review I’m going to show you a bone folder (Amazon link), or as I like to call it THE BONE FOLDER! I learned about this from Kevin Kelly’s review on the Cool Tools blog. If you’re interested in picking up this exact one, using the Amazon link in the description helps to support my videos and the Cool Tools blog.

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April 12, 2018 AUTHOR: Donald Bell CATEGORIES: Tools Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hakko FX-901 Cordless Soldering Iron Review

This is the Hakko FX-901 portable soldering iron (available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2sh7g0t). It runs off 4 AA batteries that you can swap out really fast with this removable cartridge design. I use rechargeables in mine and I get over an hour of use out of it before I notice the temperature drops. Alkaline batteries will run hotter, but not last as long.

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