Tools: It Takes a Lifetime By Saul Griffith, OtherLab (otherlab.com)
[When we asked inventor Saul Griffith to update MAKE magazineʼs “Ultimate Tool Buying Guide” for setting up a do-anything makerʼs workshop, he thoughtfully added “lots of important words and dialogue and philosophy” about collecting and using tools, which after all are among the supreme pleasures of making things. Here are Saulʼs thoughts on “amassing your arsenal of productivity, aka your toolbox.” —Editors]
I wonder occasionally whether all you really need is one tool: a really good file. You could use it to transform any block of metal, wood, or plastic into whatever you want — just add infinite amounts of patience. The vision of having a monolithic block of aluminum in front of you, a file in one hand, working for decades on filing out one automobile, is romantic, but not terribly practical. I feel incredible respect, and a morsel of pity, for the stonemasons of the past. In the real world it takes a lifetime to collect the right set of tools. Our interests change, and so do our tool-cribs; when youʼre young you might want to build hot rods, in middle-age do precision metalwork, in your retirement build fine wooden boats. All require different tools. The list compiled here wonʼt satisfy everyone, and Iʼm sure anyone who compiled such a dream list would come up with a different set of answers according to their current, past, or future interests and passions. Consider this list the ultimate set of tools for a tinkerer who likes to be able to build almost anything in ʻprototypeʼ form — good enough for you, annoying for your partner, impractical for everyone else. If you want craftsmanship quality or production quantity, the youʼll look for highly specialized tools not listed here. This is a list for hackers. You need these things to make one of something. As soon as you want ten, youʼre in a different section of the catalog.
Prioritizing Purchases Iʼm going to suggest that for the general class of tools that cost less than $100 or so, you should probably prioritize their purchase on a per-project basis. If itʼll save you an hour or two, you should buy it, and then after that first use it feels like a free gift your former self gave your current self every time you use it. It will make you feel good. It will make you feel smart and useful. Because youʼll buy them as you need them (I really need a ½"-13 left-hand tap for this set of aluminum candle holders!) I wonʼt list the priority in which I think you should buy hand tools. For power tools and CNC tools, and software tools, which are much more expensive, Iʼll suggest an order in which you should get them, but this is a suggestion, and thereʼs every reason to believe that youʼre going to build something so unique, so out of the box, that you should obtain them in a different order. In reality, you probably shouldnʼt buy any tools that cost more than $1,000 or so unless youʼre going to be prototyping as part of your business, or using the tool for production. Get to know your local machine shops. Work with them, learn CAD and send them design files and have them make the parts for you. Theyʼll do it better (they make parts all the time) and it will cost you less. The only thing you really need to know is roughly how much it should cost for the parts, and perhaps which is the best way to do it. (Should I extrude this and do post- process drilling, or should I mill the entire piece out of billet aluminum?) Learning the possible ways to make things, and how those affect the process of designing what you want made, is 90% of the skill in becoming a master maker of things. I wish there was a textbook for how to do this, but there isnʼt. Thereʼs just experience, and lots and lots of conversations with people older than yourself who have already made the mistakes you were about to make. Perhaps the first tool I should list in the ultimate set of maker tools is a personality tool. A hubris that allows you to talk to people to learn their lesson without having to repeat their mistakes yourself, paired with a respect for elders and masters. You want to be good? You want to make great things? First learn that apprenticeship and an open mind to the real- world experience of others is the best toolkit a maker could ever want. Itʼs also important to understand which type of tool person or maker you are. I have a set of dear friends like Michael (more on him later) who only buy the best tools, as they can afford them, and who do craftsmanlike Zen wonders with them. They typically make beautiful things, unique aesthetically, and unique in quality, but they donʼt necessarily invent the next widget, they perfect the last widget. I also have friends who are the opposite. Iʼll even name the canonical examples, Tim Anderson (fellow MAKE columnist and pioneer in 3D printing) and Ted Selker (inventor of the little red mouse-like thing in the IBM keypad among other things). The other friends make shit fast and furiously, as though if they donʼt render the idea real today, it will go away. They buy cheap tools, abuse them, throw away the user manual, never lubricate anything, and constantly break their tools. Itʼs hard to know which philosophy of tools is better. Sometimes I think Iʼd like to be the master craftsman with perfect tools perfectly maintained, sometimes I just need to misuse a tool to get something done now. Figure out which of these archetypes you are and go with it. Neither is better than the other, they just do different things. One creates ideas and inventions, the other creates the archetype and the aesthetic standard. We need both. I just wish I knew which one I was ... Enough philosophy. What set of tools do you need if you want to be able to make anything tomorrow?
Hand Tools The majority of hand tools are not that expensive. That is, of course, if you donʼt have my personal fetish for Japanese or German metallurgy. I have more than a thousand hand tools if you add up all the taps, drills, screwdrivers, hammers, knives, wrenches, and so on. A small number of them I inherited from my grandfather — I still use his calipers most days — and also I have pieces from my father. The interesting generational change is that my grandfather made his own tools, seriously, hand-ground and hand-scribed measuring tools. My father bought most of his and made a few. I almost never make my own tools now, except for seriously specialized stuff — that said, making my own tools is more rewarding to me than making a thing or an object. Making your own tools is badass. It probably means youʼre building things that can be built no other way. My tool collection is quite ridiculous, and hard to justify. That said, I love my tools, and theyʼre a conduit for important social interactions for me. My friends know that I have one of everything, and I frequently get to hang out with them, or get a free beer or other barter, for the use of obscure tool #263. Tools are a medium for social interaction — thatʼs actually important. Friend me on Facebook? I couldnʼt give a shit. Be in my collective of people with useful or unique tools? Iʼll love you for life. Collecting tools is a way to make yourself indispensible to your community, not just in loaning tools, but in demonstrating how to use them. People long for that in the age of the iPhone app. Sure, iPhone apps are life tools, but there are none Iʼd trade for my English bicycle bottom bracket tapping and facing tool, let alone my 3-arm gear puller, torque wrenches, or hot knife. For a complete list of hand tools, see the MAKE 2011 Ultimate Workshop and Tool Guide (makershed.com).
Power Tools I have a friend, Michael. If you read books about ridiculously detailed, magnificent wooden furniture built by people who seem by their wisdom to be 1,000 years old and the Buddha incarnate, youʼre probably reading about his craft. There are still a few of these people in the world, and they all seem way more Zen than I can ever hope to be. Michael quipped recently that he loves tools that donʼt make noise. He meant tools that donʼt require power. I agree wholeheartedly. I love processes where the action of my muscles is translated into the modification of materials and form, processes where I can feel the object take shape because of the movement of my hands and arms and the strength of my torso. That said, I use power tools and I love them. Michael does too. Heʼs a master of the table saw and the belt sander. Iʼm a master with a cordless drill and a circular saw. We all have some inner ninja that was trained in the misuse of tools. Power tools are the fast track to productivity. The gun tap was invented to be used with electric drills to make tapping screw threads faster, to increase the production of military equipment for World War II. Power tools make you fast and productive. I have a few that I now think are indispensable. Power tools cost enough that you have to consider which ones you “need,” and probably which order to get them in. Get an air compressor early. Air tools are fabulous and have some very nice features.
Power Tools: The Basics 1. Cordless drill The higher the battery voltage, the better. 2. Air compressor 3. Hot glue gun 4. Hot knife 5. Drill press 6. Belt sander 7. Circular saw 8. Impact driver 9. Sewing machine 10. Band saw 11. High-speed rotary tool (Dremel) 12. Jigsaw 13. Soldering iron 14. Multimeter 15. Variac 16. Toaster oven 17. Stick welder 18. Reciprocating saw (Sawz-all) 19. Foam cutter 20. Pipe bender can sort of do what a more expensive tube bender can do 21. Cheap vise 22. Guillotine paper trimmer for paper and cardboard 23. Dolly and hand truck Move your crap around. 24. Folding ladder
Power Tools: More Advanced 1. Drop saw 2. Combo mill / lathe 3. Disc sander 4. Orbital sander 5. Grinding wheel 6. Buffing wheel 7. Router 8. Serger or overlocker 9. Stick welder 10. Oscilloscope 11. Variable power supply 12. Oven 13. Tube bender 14. Engraving tool 15. Vibrating sander 16. Johnson bar Move anything heavy anywhere. 17. Machinistʼs vise Youʼve graduated to needing precision. 18. Manual tap driver Start to make really straight and parallel tapped holes. 19. Nibbler Make sheet metal your friend. 20. Pallet truck Move your even heavier crap around. 21. Extension ladder 22. Laminator 23. Screw press
Power Tools: Pro Level 1. Cold saw indispensable for quickly cutting or roughing large pieces of metal 2. Bridgeport mill or its equivalent 3. Lathe metalworking or woodworking depending on your need 4. TIG welder 5. Impact driver 6. Furnace 7. Vacuum former 8. Injection molder 9. Broaches When you know what a keyway is, itʼs time to get one of these. 10. Sandblaster 11. Forklift Move your impossibly heavy crap around. For more, see the MAKE 2011 Ultimate Workshop and Tool Guide (makershed.com).
Computer-Controlled Tools Computer-controlled tools are a wonderful luxury. Strictly you donʼt need them to make anything, you can toil away on an old Bridgeport mill and achieve the same goal. CNC does it faster, more accurately, and the parts just have this look to them that is tasty. Iʼd buy them in this order: 1. Large-format laser printer. Itʼs not often thought of as such, but a laser printer is a high- precision CNC machine, for depositing ink on paper. This is the first and most important CNC machine to own. With a good laser printer you can print plans for anything. Cut the plans or templates out with a knife, and transfer your designs onto whatever material youʼre going to cut, whether it be foam, cardboard, wood, plastic, or metal. 2. Laser cutter Very fast, and the easiest to use of the big expensive computer-controlled tools. Canʼt really do much with metals, but you can use it to make accurate templates to guide you when youʼre cutting materials the laser cutter wonʼt. 3. CNC router Can really only do 2D or 2.5D things well, but is fast and can make big, satisfying things. 4. CNC mill (3- or 4-axis) This is for real. You really want a Haas or a Fanuc, but for the weekend builder there are cheaper smaller options. 5. Water jet cutter Like a hot knife for metal and just about anything else. This is expensive and exotic, but wow, you can make almost anything, quickly. 6. 3D printer I think theyʼre overrated. Everyone wants one, but they still donʼt have the material set that really makes functional parts (despite recent inroads into metal and rubber). Youʼre probably best off using a service for this one. 7. CNC lathe You really need to have specific needs for a CNC lathe. Not many people require the precision or repeatability, but if you do, they can make beautiful parts. 8. EDM (electrodischarge machining) machine These things can make the most incredibly toleranced parts youʼve ever seen.
Safety, Measurement, and Visualization Tools See the MAKE 2011 Ultimate Workshop and Tool Guide (makershed.com).
Fetish Tools These are the really weird tools that you mightnʼt think are obviously useful, but really, really can be. Here are a few: Anvil Hole punch Sheet bender/brake Notcher Arbor press Tapping tool For more fetish tools, see the MAKE 2011 Ultimate Workshop and Tool Guide (makershed.com).
Tools for Misusing Meat cleaver I use one in my workshop all the time. Keep it razor sharp. A good big knife is fantastic. Electric kitchen knife This can be fantastic for cutting foam. Hole punch Make washers out of pennies. Put holes in everything. 1978 Toyota pickup truck or equivalent Could be a van, could be flatbed. Whatʼs important is that itʼs old and the paint job has no value to you, and it runs well, and doesnʼt need much work, and can carry a ton or more. Misuse this tool in moving your creations around, picking up materials, getting that weird-ass thing off Craigslist, etc. I donʼt like to encourage driving, or car ownership, so the best case is sharing one of these with two or three friends. Confuse your partners and spouses by never admitting who actually owns it; just keep moving it. Old screwdrivers Keep them for grinding into new tools or using as levers or pry bars.
Fixturing (By Which I Mean Organizing) When you start to amass a large tool kit, you start to run out of space, no matter how big you thought your shed was. A well-organized workshop is everything to doing quality work. Fixturing is the term machinists use for holding your pieces in the right places to make the job easier. A friend recently observed me cleaning and organizing my tools and I grumbled how it was the least fun part of making, to which he replied, ”Think of it as fixturing.” Iʼve been cured. Organizing is now a pleasure because I know it will make things easier and higher-quality in the future. Fixturing is building yourself the right workbenches. Organizing your tools in boxes or tool chests or even old library card catalogs (which Iʼm fortunate enough to be able to do with my small tools). Spend more time and money than you think you need to on fixturing. It will make you happier and more productive in the long run, and youʼll will lose and break fewer things, such that it will be the economically correct choice in the long run.