Building A Custom Swiss Army Knife

The Swiss Army knife is the most well-known multitool, combining a bunch of functionality into a compact package. [Jeff Gough] decided to build a custom example featuring a selection of his favorit…

Embossing Leather With A Pipe Bender And 3D Printed Tooling

Embossed leather belts can be deliciously stylish. However, the tooling for making these fashionable items is not always easy to come by, and it rarely comes cheap. What do we do when a tool is exp…

Multimeter Gets Socket Upgrade To Use Nicer Probes

[Piffpaffpoltrie] had a problem. They found the InLine VA40R to be a perfectly usable multimeter, except for a couple of flaws. Most glaring among these were the tiny sockets for the test probes. T…

A Compass That Looks To The Stars

Although a lot of tools have been digitized and consolidated into our smartphones, from cameras, music players, calendars, alarm clocks, flashlights, and of course phones, perhaps none are as usefu…

Tech In Plain Sight: Table Saw Safety

If you ask around a wood shop, most people will agree that the table saw is the most dangerous tool around. There’s ample evidence that this is true. In 2015, over 30,000 ER visits happened b…

A Portable Chainsaw Sawmill

Unless you’re running a commercial logging operation, with specialized saws, log grapples, mills, transportation for the timber, and the skilled workers needed to run everything, it’s g…

Hacker Tools, Hacked Tools

We just love a good DIY tool project, and more so when it’s something that we can actually use cobbled together from stuff in our closet, or hacked out of cheap “toys”. This week we saw both a supe…

3D Printed Caliper Extensions Make Hole Measurement Easier

If there’s anything more frustrating than mounting holes that don’t line up with the thing you’re mounting, we don’t know what it could be. You measure as carefully as possi…

VNAs And Crystals

Oscillators may use crystals as precise tuned circuits. If you have a vector network analyzer (VNA) — or even some basic test equipment — you can use it to learn the parameters of a cry…

OSHW Battery Tester Aims To Help Tame Lithium Cells

It’s no exaggeration to say that the development of cheap rechargeable lithium-ion batteries has changed the world. Enabling everything from smartphones to electric cars, their ability to pac…

Torque Testing 3D Printed Screws

Unless you’ve got a shop with a well-stocked hardware bin, it’s a trip to the hardware store when you need a special screw. But [Sanford Prime] has a different approach: he prints his h…

Modular Breadboard Snaps You Into Benchtop Tidiness

Solderless breadboards are a fantastic tool for stirring the creative juices. In a few seconds, you can go from idea to prototype without ever touching the soldering iron. Unfortunately, the downsi…

Creating A Signature Wood Joint

We really love when makers make their construction techniques evident in an aesthetically-pleasing way, and [Laura Kampf] has created a clever joint that reveals how a piece is made. [Kampf] is a b…

Double Your Analog Oscilloscope Fun With This Retro Beam Splitter

These days, oscilloscope hacking is all about enabling features that the manufacturer baked into the hardware but locked out in the firmware. Those hacks are cool, of course, but back in the days o…

Drilling Rig Makes Accurate Holes In Seconds

Drilling holes can be quite time consuming work, particularly if you have to drill a lot of them. Think about all the hassle of grabbing a part, fixturing it in the drill press, lining it up, doubl…

Build Yourself A Useful Resistor Decade Box

If you’ve ever worked with guitar pedals or analog audio gear, you’ve probably realized the value of a resistor decade box. They substitute for a resistor in a circuit and let you quick…

Enhiker Helps You Decide If Its A Good Day To Hike

Many of us check the weather before heading out for the day — we want to know if we’re dressed (or equipped) properly to handle what Mother Nature has planned for us. This is even more …

FREE-WILi Turns DC32 Badge Into Hardware Dev Tool

With few exceptions, electronic event badges are often all but forgotten as soon as the attendee gets back home. They’re a fun novelty for the two or three days they’re expected to be w…

If Life Gives You Lemons, Build This Lemontron

What if your 3D printer could fit in a box of filament but still rival the build plate size of heavyweights? Enter the Lemontron, a free and open source portable printer making waves in the maker c…

Power Supply With Benchtop Features Fits In Your Pocket

[CentyLab]’s PocketPD isn’t just adorably tiny — it also boasts some pretty useful features. It offers a lightweight way to get a precisely adjustable output of 0 to 20 V at up to…