Make: Tips and Tales from the Workshop

Introduction: How Tools and Shop Tips Often Come with Stories

Tools have always held a special fascination for me. Some of my earliest childhood memories of making are of working beside my grandfather in his basement workshop in Framingham, Massachusetts. He had literally cut into the bedrock beneath his home to create part of it, making it feel like Merlin’s lair or the Batcave. It really felt like magic was present, lingering in the air among the smells of dirt, 4-in-1 oil, turpentine, and the 8 O’Clock Coffee cans and baby food jars filled with tools and hardware. There was definitely magic to be found in Grampa’s still, which he’d built in the basement for making arak, an anise-based Lebanese hooch. (But that’s another story).

One of my ...