Did You Ask How You Can Organize and Store Your Drill Bits?

How about make a Drill Bit Organizer with a CNC Machine?

Then watch this video to see the final product - it is awesome!
(He also explains the whole process of designing and making it.)

I WANT ONE!

Found the videos over at Core77 - an Industrial Design Magazine + Resource

How to Loosen Nuts from Bolts

Typically we don't like to talk about nuts coming loose from bolts but sometimes it is necessary when you need to remove something, and often quite difficult. So we found a pretty decent tutorial on the Do It Yourself Network that gives you 5 ways to loosen them yourself.

Of course sometimes it is easy to separate a nut from a bolt, like in this video:

And other times, you may need a tip from the tutorial: 
How to loosen nuts from bolts

Tool Bit Pen

We're so thankful for smart people making clever things. Check this tool out!

Music Month is Here!

It's January and our blog focuses on music and sound this month, in honor of the NAMM SHOW.

If you don't know what the NAMM SHOW is check out our post from a 2012. But basically NAMM is an acronym for National Association of Music Merchants; it is a huge convention in Southern California where everyone who sells a musical instrument, or music related products, gets together.

So we're starting the month off with this clever musical instrument that

someone made out of fastener related items.

.  

My instinct is to call it a xylophone but the word comes from the Greek words ξύλον - xylon - meaning "wood" and φωνή - phonē - meaning "sound, voice".  So xylophone translates to "wooden sound" but this one isn't made of wood! So we can't call it that. But what should we call it? 

Let's figure it out.

I looked up the word WRENCH in Greek and it is κλειδί, pronounced kleidí, so I'm thinking this should be a kleidíphone.

There you have it - it's a homemade kleidíphone!

Did you notice what they used for mallets in the video - screwdrivers!

Pretty clever...I'm going to go watch the video again.  

Nuts OR Bolts?

Have you all seen this Ford Car commercial? It's so funny and it deeply makes me appreciate both nuts AND BOLTS!

Especially at this time of the year, when we start feeling thankful, this commercial brings out my gratitude.
It's so awesome! 

And now I want a Ford.

Show off your GUTS and BOLTS!

There is a great new film festival of shorts coming to Long Beach, Calif. - it's called the: 

GUTS AND BOLTS SHORT FILM FESTIVAL

It's all about zombies & robots!!!

If you click over to their site - WHERE THEY ARE NOW ACCEPTING ADMISSIONS - you will learn that on SEPTEMBER 20th there will be a screening of the best 15 short films entered that feature either zombies or robots  - or (my favorite) both! 

YOU SHOULD DO IT! MAKE ONE!
I would do it but I don't know anything about movies...maybe I'll try, BUT I'm not making any promises...this sounds hard.  BUT, I will definitely attend!

The deadline to enter is August 9th so get busy!

Tubing at the Queen Mary

After Thanksgiving my sisters, nieces & I went to the Queen Mary's CHILL - a super cool event they put on during the holiday season which includes Ice Skating and an Ice Kingdom. And by cool I mean it was both awesome & freezing! They turn their dome into an igloo and the igloo contains gigantic ice sculptures and ice slides - it was 12 degrees in there!  And outside the igloo they have tubing; you sit on a large inner tube while it slides down an icy slope.

And while my nieces were waiting in line to tube, I noticed all the fasteners that were holding the magnificent manmade slope together.

And underneath the rails.  

I wish I could have looked underneath the icy slope - I bet they're there too.

There they were - lots of little fasteners supporting my holiday fun.

And lastly, here's a video of the tubing fun to be had at the Queen Mary's CHILL

Caine's Arcade

This is one of the best videos I've seen go viral in a while.  The video is the story of a little boy named Caine who starts his own business - an arcade.  This little guy embodies all the things that we consider important values to a successful business and a happy & healthy life - passion, hardwork, dedication and imagination.  These are things we strive for and he presents them so purely that we were touched deeply. What he does with an 'S' hook brought me to tears! (Kudos to Nirvan Mullick too for making this and sharing it with us.)  ENJOY!

More Andrew Myers

Our friend Andrew Myers & his friend have made a video sharing his process and thoughts, and we want to share it with you. We're huge fans of his and we think you'll see why.

The King & Queen of Fasteners

We made this video so you could see how great our chess set is!

Wait, what?