In the Make: Online Toolbox, we focus mainly on tools that fly under the radar of more conventional tool coverage: in-depth tool-making projects, strange, or specialty tools unique to a trade or craft that can be useful elsewhere, tools and techniques you may not know about, but once you do, and incorporate them into your workflow, you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. And, in the spirit of the times, we pay close attention to tools that you can get on the cheap, make yourself, or refurbish.
This week, for Earth Day, we thought it'd be fun to focus some of our content on repair. It's actually staggering to think of what impact we could have on the entire cradle-to-grave lifespan of manufactured goods if we serviced them rather than tossed the majority of them when they begin to falter. Repair can be seen as significant act of conservation (of both material resources and your hard earned cash), as well as a fun way to learn about and maintain the technology in your life. To that end, in this Toolbox, I asked some of my maker friends what sorts of repair and maintenance tools and supplies they keep in their toolkits.
I also have a media repair kit I keep handy. I bought a decent, cheap plastic toolbox at Home Depot. In it, I have all manner of A/V plugs and cables, RJ-11 and RJ-45 plugs and cables, wire strippers and crimping tools, USB cables, all sorts of adapters, cross-overs, and the like. Every time I go to Home Depot, Radio Shack, and similar stores, I toss in a couple of bucks worth of these supplies (and try to find obscure connectors and adapters I might need one day). This way, I rarely encounter an A/V or computer connection issue that I'm not able to address.
Douglas Repetto, Dorkbot founder:
From McMaster-Carr, a high-visibility hex key set with both metric and inch sizes in one package! Saves the day!Read more | Permalink | Comments | Read more articles in Toolbox | Digg this!
Sent from James' iPhone
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