ShopNGarage

In the movies, people hide behind vehicles during shootouts. I’ve always wondered if they provided much protection. I took a picture of this pickup at the wreck yard. The passenger side was riddled with bullet holes.

I only saw one exit hole on the driver’s side.

I take all the photos for this site with an iPhone 4. I would also like to start including video, and the iPhone is capable of shooting those in HD.

I will need a tripod adapter for the iPhone.

Starting with a plastic Bessey clamp, I removed the pivot screw and took the clamp apart. Next I glued rubber pads to the faces of the jaws. I heated the spring with a torch to release some of the tension. I wanted a firm, but not a crushing grip on the phone. I reassembled the clamp with a 1/4″ x 2″ bolt. I applied thread locker to the end of the bolt and installed a 1/4″-20 coupler. The tripod screw will fit into this coupler.

This gets the job done, but I am already thinking of a better design that will be of welded steel.

I love gingerbread.

The first step involved metal fabrication. I sacrificed a useless valentine heart shaped cookie cutter. I re-formed the heart into a combination wrench shape.

In a sauce pan, bring 1 cup shortening and 1 cup molasses to a boil.

In a mixer bowl , dissolve 2 teaspoons of baking soda in 1/2 cup hot water. I used my wife’s KitchenAid mixer with a paddle attachment (made in the USA). Mix 1 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 egg and add it to the soda and water mixture.

Add 3 cups flour to the mixer. Next add 1/4 teaspoon cloves, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt.

Remove the boiling mixture of shortening and molasses from the stove top and pour it into the mixer. Finally, add 3 more cups of flour. Set the dough aside and allow it to cool to room temperature.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll the dough out 1/4″ thick on a lightly floured surface. Cut out the cookies and place them on a greased cookie sheet. A spatula can help to move the cookies without breaking them. Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. After removing from the oven, place the cookies on a cooling rack.

A government dozen delicious gingerbread cookies, ready to eat with a hot chocolate or a glass of cold milk.

This was part of a lot of machinists tools I purchased on eBay. I believe it is a homemade bench block, possibly from a school shop class. Commercially made bench blocks are available. There are a variety of uses for this tool. Some feature V grooves for use on round parts.

It can be used as a guide with a hand drill to ensure a hole is drilled perpendicular to a part.

The block works well for starting a tap straight into a hole.

It can hold a roll pin so that it is easier to start into a part.

A simple bench block like this is easily made with a drill press and a scrap block of steel. A wooden one could be made for one-time use.

My wife got me a set of Craftsman roll pin punches for Christmas. They are made in the USA and are very good quality.

A roll pin punch, shown on the right, has a small stud on the end. This keeps the punch centered on the roll pin. A regular pin punch, shown on the left, can damage the end of the roll pin. It can also slip off the pin and damage the part.