Life without tools is barbaric. But even simple tools can be expensive in rural parts of developing countries. Import duties bump the costs up higher than they are in the States or elsewhere, and sometimes only low-quality brands are available anyway.
So, to hold off future barbarians, we'd like to show how to build a simple tool set on a very low budget.
Larry Bentley, the man who figured out how to make these tools, said a wise thing: "Without tools, kids don't take stuff apart, and without taking stuff apart, you don't learn how things work."
These tools, Bentley says, could be in the hands of the next William Kamkambwa,who made a working wind power generator from backyard scraps in a village in Malawi.
Here's Larry's quick guide to DIY tools.
The tools in this guide:
So, to hold off future barbarians, we'd like to show how to build a simple tool set on a very low budget.
Larry Bentley, the man who figured out how to make these tools, said a wise thing: "Without tools, kids don't take stuff apart, and without taking stuff apart, you don't learn how things work."
These tools, Bentley says, could be in the hands of the next William Kamkambwa,who made a working wind power generator from backyard scraps in a village in Malawi.
Here's Larry's quick guide to DIY tools.
The tools in this guide:
- Saw
- Pliers
- Wooden vice
- Wood drill bit / star drill bit
- Chisel
- Strap hinge vice
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Signing UpStep 1: How to bend rebar
The first step in making the saw and drill is to bend rebar. Try sliding a pipe around one end to use a hickey bar and a pipe "T" with a pipe attached to the bottom of the "T" around the other end. That way, you can make tighter bends, and you can even make the brace and bit without a vise.
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This is one of those false arguments. There is only one way that a flimsy toothed blade like a hacksaw blade can function, and that's being pulled. It's the very reason that you use the blade 'pulling' with no saw frame. The only difference is whether it's pulled by the front or back of the saw. Now, would you rather pull on a blade from a sturdy attachment point close to the handle (control), or an attachment point out on the end of an at least somewhat bendy tube or rod? Pulling toward oneself is the stronger, more precise option. Especially when the saw frame is less than ideal (As soon as the frame bows even slightly one is threading an arced blade through the cut).
It's also less likely that one will bear down ones weight through the saw when cutting by pulling, and each tooth of the blade can slice (as it was designed to), instead of digging into the target material and 'catching'.
Iron - almost no carbon
"mild" steel - very little carbon, difficult to harden
"medium" steel - more carbon, still difficult to harden
"high carbon" steel - lots of carbon (I think up to 1%) hardens easily (springs, files saws are usually good sources for this)
cast iron - so much carbon it's brittle
all of these forge differently, and harden differently. the lower the carbon content, the harder they are to harden and so need a faster quench - oil is slowest, then (I think)water, brine and "super quench" which is water, salt and detergent (Google it for correct proportions)
If you know what the steel is, you know more about how it might behave - O2needs an oil quench, for example
rebar is usually a mishmash of steel, usually mild to medium, but some is medium to high carbon
yes, I'm a bit of a steel geek :)
(also, a hammer can be made with a thick rod of steel and a "hot chisel" or punch
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spark_testing
But now you're going to have to expand your tool set to include a high speed grinder.
You could score the faces of the pliers with the the hacksaw to improve their grip.
Iron - almost no carbon
"mild" steel - very little carbon, difficult to harden
"medium" steel - more carbon, still difficult to harden
"high carbon" steel - lots of carbon (I think up to 1%) hardens easily (springs, files saws are usually good sources for this)
cast iron - so much carbon it's brittle
all of these forge differently, and harden differently. the lower the carbon content, the harder they are to harden and so need a faster quench - oil is slowest, then (I think)water, brine and "super quench" which is water, salt and detergent (Google it for correct proportions)
If you know what the steel is, you know more about how it might behave - O2needs an oil quench, for example
rebar is usually a mishmash of steel, usually mild to medium, but some is medium to high carbon
yes, I'm a bit of a steel geek :)
(also, a hammer can be made with a thick rod of steel and a "hot chisel" or punch
In 1968 I was at military service and they ask me If I could do some rustic drills to make holes on hard wood. I accepted, and made three of them. The chucks were simply an additional rod, parallel to main axis, fastened using a tube, hammered. The drill bits were purchased, square stem.