Tool Tuesday - The Flexible Pick Up Tool

I can't say that this is a tool I use every day, but it's a super handy tool when needed. Squeezing the sprung plunger/handle arrangement and a small set of four spring steel jaws expand out of the other end. This allows you to grab, retrieve or otherwise manipulate small objects. Looking online most are advertising this with an image of it stuck down a sink plug hole, I can't say I've ever done that! However, I can say it has retrieved a lot of dropped parts/nuts/bolts from engine bays or quite often objects that have rolled down the back of a work surface. If you have any sort of hobby which involves fitting systems into tight tubes, as I do with rocketry, this is an excellent and useful tool. In rocketry you quite often have to thread a cord through a eye bolt placed inside the bottom of a 50cm long tube and this tool can really earn it's keep.  

They are a very affordable tool also, in fact mine still has the hardware shop price sticker on it of 99p, that's some years ago though, but a casual search online shows them as available for not masses more. Finally, they also are a fun tool that begs to be used by almost everyone who handles one, my children certainly have both played with it previously setting marble transferring challenges etc! They are quite sharp though, and certainly need to be handled with a little care and don't dream of grabbing someone else with them as they are surprisingly grippy/pinchy!

 

Opening a Tindie Store

 

After years of being a Tindie customer and a recent period writing content for the Tindie product blog I decided it was high time I set up a Tindie store. I've opened the store with a couple of rocket related products but I plan to keep adding random bits and bobs to it as I develop small items. 

First of the two products on there are my rocketry screw switches,  I started making and using these a few years ago but now having a few flights under their belt I am confident in the design. They have copper on both sides to which are soldered wires and the wires only become a circuit when you tighten the switch bolt. They are small and robust and on the product page you can see some photo's of them in different configurations/use. I'm selling them in 2 packs so you can set up 2 separate redundant systems in your rocket. 

The second product people may recognise! It's my Centre of Gravity and Centre of Pressure stickers that I used to sell via the Flame Trench shop. Sold in packs of 10 (5 of each design) they are super handy to mark your rocket airframe and make it easy for you to show the CG CP positions to an RSO!

Tool Tuesday - The Swann Morton Unitool

I need to reinvigorate my blogging rate and I've decided to start this weekly blog I'm calling #ToolTuesday. It's heavily inspired by my great friend @biglesp who for a long time has run the excellent #TuesdayTooling series over at his blog. Les focuses on software and microcontrollers on his Tuesday Tooling posts exploring tools and toolchains to get you up and running doing cool things across a variety of platforms. I've chatted with Les over the years that I should do a similar series but which looks at hardware tools useful in all kinds of making and tinkering and so here it is!

This first post is an odd starting point as I bought a stack of these Swann Morton Unitool multiblade craft knives recently as they are being withdrawn as a product. It's a shame as they are an excellent little tool. The three blades are larger than many of my smaller craft knives/scalpels and are excellent for all kinds of jobs. The very flat edged "D" blade is superb for cutting flat sheet items like balsa or cardboard and I use the angled "A" blade as a de-burring tool a lot as it can centre into small holes really well. The middle blade "B" is slightly odd in my opinion but as such falls into the "blade that gets used for heavy beater work" so I've abused that blade for all forms of carving and even wire stripping etc. 

The blades pivot and are retained with two thumb screws and they stay in place very well, which also leads to another reason I love the design, you can lock the blades away and close the device and the holes in the blades combined with the thumbscrews make it really secure. I've never had a blade come loose or open in my pocket. 

Finally, I love the look, when I was young and building plastic model kits the orange plastic handled single blade craft knives from Swann Morton where the only widely available choice and the Unitools styling reminds me of many happy hours tinkering! Hope you've enjoyed this first post, see you next week!