Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop: A Handy Reference for Makers

279 Pages·2018·9.62 MB·English

by  Gareth Branwyn

CONTENTS
Titlepage
Praise for Tips and Tales from the Workshop
Copyright
Dedication
About the Author
Foreword
Tips Credits
Acknowledgments
Introduction: How Tools and Shop Tips Often Come with
Stories
1: Organizing
2: Project Planning
3: Measuring
4: Marking
5: Cutting
6: Clamping
7: Joining
8: Gluing
9: Drilling
10: Fastening
11: General Electronics
12: Soldering
13: Molding and Casting
14: Sanding and Finishing
15: Painting
16: Sharpening
17: Desktop Fabrication (3D Printing, CNC, Laser-
Cutting)
18: Sewing
19: Troubleshooting, Maintenance, and Repair
20: Safety and First Aid
21: Miscellaneous
Continuing the Conversation
Index
Tips Tales
and from the
Workshop
A Handy Reference for Makers
Gareth Branwyn
Foreword by Donald Bell
Praise for
Tips and Tales from the Workshop
“Gareth Branwyn is the Tip Master. He scours the workshops of
the world for practical, time-saving, life-altering tips to help
you make stuff better, faster, and cheaper. This book rounds up
the best ones he knows.”
—KEVIN KELLY, creator of Cool Tools and Wired Senior Maverick
“Gareth has essentially created a magic book for makers.”
—Donald Bell, Maker Project Labs
“Tips and Tales from the Workshop is sure to inspire anyone to
get making with newfound ease and satisfaction. This book
embodies the spirit of great mentors, across every medium,
and imparts a wizard-like cleverness to its readers. I thought I
was clever, and this book has already prevented at least a
dozen new mistakes in my studio. It’s ‘ah-ha’ moment
overload!”
—BECKY STERN, DIY guru and Instructables content creator
“It must be hard to write a book like this with such uncommon
clarity and in so entertaining a fashion as Gareth Branwyn has
done here. Gareth clearly has a deep understanding of making
and those who make because he is a maker himself. Tips and
Tales from the Workshop is jam packed with invaluable
information; it is both a fun read and a reliable shop reference
for any do-it-yourselfer.”
—Andy Birkey, YouTube maker
“Tips and Tales from the Workshop is so darned good, I’m kind
of mad that Gareth Branwyn didn’t write it decades ago. How
could I have been ignorant all of these years of such
tremendously clever and useful tips? One of the best ways to
learn is by watching others ply their craft. With its wonderful
illustrations, stories, and connections to the past, this book is a
bit like being invited to peek over the collective shoulders of
generations worth of makers doing what they know and love.
This book will have a special place in my workshop, where I’m
certain I’ll be flipping through it for years to come.”
—JOHN PARK, maker at Adafruit Industries, and former host of
Make: TV
Copyright © 2018 Gareth Branwyn. All rights reserved.
Printed in Canada.

Published by
Maker Media, Inc.
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111

Maker Media books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional
use. Online editions are also available for most titles (safaribooksonline.com). For more
information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department: 800-998-9938 or
[email protected].

Editorial Director: Roger Stewart
Copy Editor: Elizabeth Campbell, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Proofreader: Elizabeth Welch, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Interior and Cover Designer: Maureen Forys, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Illustrations: Richard Sheppard, Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Indexer: Valerie Perry, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

May 2018: First Edition

Revision History for the First Edition

2018-05-15 First Release

See oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=9781680450798 for release details.

Make:, Maker Shed, and Maker Faire are registered trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. The
Maker Media logo is a trademark of Maker Media, Inc. Tips and Tales from the Workshop:
An Indispensable Reference with Ingenious Tips, Tricks, and Techniques and related
trade dress are trademarks of Maker Media, Inc. Many of the designations used by
manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks.
Where those designations appear in this book, and Maker Media, Inc. was aware of a
trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial caps. While the
publisher and the author have used good faith efforts to ensure that the information
and instructions contained in this work are accurate, the publisher and the author
disclaim all responsibility for errors or omissions, including without limitation
responsibility for damages resulting from the use of or reliance on this work. Use of the
information and instructions contained in this work is at your own risk. If any code
samples or other technology this work contains or describes is subject to open source
licenses or the intellectual property rights of others, it is your responsibility to ensure
that your use thereof complies with such licenses and/or rights.

978-1-68045-079-8

Safari® Books Online
Safari Books Online is an on-demand digital library that delivers expert content in both
book and video form from the world’s leading authors in technology and business.
Technology professionals, software developers, web designers, and business and
creative professionals use Safari Books Online as their primary resource for research,
problem solving, learning, and certification training. Safari Books Online offers a range
of plans and pricing for enterprise, government, education, and individuals. Members
have access to thousands of books, training videos, and prepublication manuscripts in
one fully searchable database from publishers like O’Reilly Media, Prentice Hall
Professional, Addison-Wesley Professional, Microsoft Press, Sams, Que, Peachpit
Press, Focal Press, Cisco Press, John Wiley & Sons, Syngress, Morgan Kaufmann, IBM
Redbooks, Packt, Adobe Press, FT Press, Apress, Manning, New Riders, McGraw-Hill,
Jones & Bartlett, Course Technology, and hundreds more. For more information about
Safari Books Online, please visit us online.

How to Contact Us
Please address comments and questions to the publisher:

Maker Media, Inc.
1700 Montgomery Street, Suite 240
San Francisco, CA 94111

You can send comments and questions to us by email at [email protected].

Maker Media unites, inspires, informs, and entertains a growing community of
resourceful people who undertake amazing projects in their backyards, basements, and
garages. Maker Media celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any Technology to
your will. The Maker Media audience continues to be a growing culture and community
that believes in bettering ourselves, our environment, our educational system—our entire
world. This is much more than an audience, it’s a worldwide movement that Maker Media
is leading. We call it the Maker Movement.

To learn more about Make: visit us at make.co. You can learn more about the company at
the following websites:

Maker Media: makermedia.com
Maker Faire: makerfaire.com
Maker Shed: makershed.com
Maker Share: makershare.com
To my father, George Maloof, and to his father, Sam: two
talented, funny, and kind men who taught me the value of hard
work, tinkering, and the joy of making. They also taught me to
always maintain a sense of humor no matter what.
About the Author
G areth Branwyn is a well-known
writer and editor, and a pioneer of
both online culture and the maker
movement. He is the former editorial
director of Make: magazine, was a
contributing editor to Wired for twelve
years, and a senior editor of Boing Boing
(in print). He has also contributed to
Esquire, Details, I.D., the Baltimore Sun,
and numerous other magazines and
dailies. In 1993, Gareth collaborated with
Billy Idol on the spoken word lyrics to the opening track on
Idol’s album, Cyberpunk. Gareth is the author and editor of
over a dozen books, including the Mosaic Quick Tour for
Windows: Accessing & Navigating the Internet’s World Wide
Web, which was the first book about the World Wide Web, and
The Happy Mutant Handbook (with the editors of Boing Boing).
His last book, Borg Like Me & Other Tales of Art, Eros, and
Embedded Systems, was a best-of collection and “lazy man’s
memoir” spanning his over 30-year writing career. Gareth is
currently a regular contributor to Make:, Boing Boing, and
other online and offline publications.