Tools Archive

Raising livestock presents a number of challenges. You have to worry about breeding, disease, and making sure all of your animals stay fed. And as we all know, this last part requires a whole lot of grazing. Unfortunately, animals don’t have a concept of “property lines” or “not wandering out in the road.” And for many animals, a simple fence presents not so much an …

When you think of technology, you don’t normally think about arts and crafts. Technology is for video gamers, cryptocurrency miners and fans of fancy audio equipment. Arts and crafts are the realm of old-school, hands-on creativity. But in fact, technology has been a part of arts and crafts from the beginning. For instance, synthetic pigments allow mass-produced colors for watercolors and oil paints. Instead of …

When it comes to cleaning up the worst messes, a shop vacuum is the best tool for the job. But a shop vac requires power, which means you at least have to be in the vicinity of a power outlet. Depending on where you’re working, this could be a problem. If you’re cleaning a car, a backyard shed, or an off-grid cabin, an ordinary plug-in …

In one sense, working on computers is easier than most laypeople think it is. Most components simply plug together, and soldering is never required — at least for desktops. The most complicated part of building a PC is actually making your parts list, and determining which components are compatible. Actually putting the whole thing together is the easy part. It’s a simple, step-by-step process that …

What do you do if you need to see inside a confined space, like a wall, pipe, or engine cylinder? The answer, in all of these cases, is to use an inspection camera. An inspection camera, sometimes called an “endoscope” or a “borescope,” consists of a camera mounted on a semi-rigid rod. The rod can be inserted, flexed, and moved around inside an enclosed space. …