Recent content by e36jon

I've had the 328VC for nine years and it continues to impress. This is my first hammer-drill so nothing for me to compare it to. That said it churns through concrete like butter. Bits matter a lot, at least for drilling, so if you have a bunch of holes to do I would suggest treating...

McMaster for the win? (D'oh! LeonardY beat me to it...)

I used to run a bicycle shop and the owner used that textured ABS material you can buy at the big box store. Not a fan, but it was at least impervious. That was undercut by the texture making it impossible to really clean. It also scratched easily. In that setting I would have loved...

Someone above already mentioned the Niles "impedance matching" speaker controllers. That's the ticket. I did four installs at work using these. Monoprice has their own in-house branded ones for low dollars. You may be able to get away with the even more affordable open-frame style with no...

I needed some microscope parts and Google led me to Thorlabs. My parts showed up and included a bunch of treats (candy/snacks). Yeah, it's a gimmick, and I know that I actually paid for it indirectly, but it still made me smile. I can't speak to their broader tool offering.

If you want something that works well for a DIY strain-relief Sugru might be the hot tip. (It's stupid expensive though.)

Just another up-vote for hot-melt. There are specialized glues for just about every application (seriously, it's crazy.). If you have an adjustable temp gun for 1/2" sticks you should have access to everything you could ever want. My only issue with the 3M guns is that it limits your...

I have the Mityvac oil extractor and it comes with the fitting / hose you need, so they do exist. Looking on Amazon I found this: That should do the trick for you...

As others have said, "Whatever I need in a hurry!". I'm a mechanical engineer and work as a product design consultant. That means I could be working on a medical device this week and robot-toy next week, so there's just no way to have everything I might need on-hand in advance. It's cheaper...

I used a bucket of 'topping compound' and managed to screw it up before I even got started. I had bought a lovely mixing attachment for my drill and used it to get the bucket-o-compound ready to go. When I started putting it on the wall I kept getting these streaks with debris in them. Wait...

Pankl is a top tier supplier to the motorsports world and they use a ton of 3D printing for machining jigs. Many of the motorsports places are similar since they will often only be making a few of any component, but to high levels of precision. Might inspire someone here to think differently...

I'm a fan of the pivoting (?) style. I bought one of the ball joint style and while it was certainly an improvement I found that I ran out of travel too quickly and was soon back to my same problem. For me it was as much about fatigue from fighting hose weight/tension as it was clearance and I...

It never occurred to me that my iphone could be the tool I needed until a friend clued me in. I have since purchased a lens set from Amazon for $14 (I think) that included a 20X clip-on macro lens and have been totally impressed. I tried another lens set ($10 maybe?) that also had a 20X macro...

Well, billconner just dropped some solid knowledge on you and there's nothing I would argue with. I would add that the hot tip for better noise reduction on 'regular' high end windows is getting the laminated safety glass for the outside pane on a double pane setup. Here's a window-centric...

I needed (need, still have some to do.) to run new gas lines in my garage and went ahead and bought a manual ratcheting handle + die set. I went with Ridgid because no one had anything bad to say vs the cheap stuff that dulls quickly. Anyway, it all works as advertised and has allowed me to...