Did you know you can make your own sketch and shop journals with just the materials you have on your shelf? Now you can scrap those yellow pads for something a lot more classy. … Continue reading on ManMadeDIY.com
The winter to spring is a time of contrasts: the days can be bright and sunny, but the air and wind still cool and bitter. Or the air warms up, but the fog and drizzle moves in, so that it feels like early summer but the trees are all still barren branches.
So, it's the still the season of layers, but lighter ones; flexible systems that breathe, look sharp, and still keep you warm and dry during days that span lions and lambs and showers and flowers and those sorts of things. Here are five staples to invest in now (or pull out from the back of your closet) that will still be useful as the season develops, and you can snatch again come fall. … Continue reading on ManMadeDIY.com
It's been a few months since you made your New Year's resolutions, and chances are you're starting to get tired of the fitness grind. It happens to all of us, so here are a few tips to push past the hump and stick with those fitness goals for the long term. … Continue reading on ManMadeDIY.com
If you have a few wardrobe items that haven't seen the light of day due to some wear and tear. Take a look at the Japanese method of mending textiles, especially denim, with unique, stylized stitchery.
… Continue reading on ManMadeDIY.com
My first "workbench" was a simple table-style surface. 2x4 legs, 1/2" plywood top, held together with black drywall screws. I built it in my first apartment when I was twenty-two, with my first (and only) power tools: a circular saw and a drill.
In the back left corner, I mounted a shiny, new, bright blue Irwin swiveling bench vise. It was awesome to have it there when I needed it - holding metal stock and angle iron for cutting, helping me bend rod and pipe, even keeping dowels and small wood parts in place while working on them. Unfortunately, these activities constituted a very small amount of the projects I was doing, and mostly, the vise just got in the way during the other 97% percent of tasks.
So, for the past few years, that vise has just been in a storage crate, and I get it out and try to hold it in place when I need it. Which, in case you can't guess, does not work. Ever. So, I wanted to come up with a solution that would allow me to install a machinist's style swiveling benchtop vise, without having to permanently install it, or drill holes in my benchtop and have to thread and tighten nuts and bolts every time I use it. … Continue reading on ManMadeDIY.com
