[HN Gopher] The Periodic Table of Tools
___________________________________________________________________
The Periodic Table of Tools
Author : andyjohnson0
Score : 381 points
Date : 2023-11-26 12:14 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (periodictableoftools.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (periodictableoftools.com)
| sindoc wrote:
| Thank you for sharing. Seems like well organized dataset. I like
| datasets that connect the real world to the digital world
| phkahler wrote:
| Did I miss profile gauge?
| mc32 wrote:
| Depends. They had dial instruments and micrometers, but not
| like spark "feeler" plug gauges. Also no voltmeters (they had
| powered equipment though)
|
| Come to think of it, I didn't notice some of tools you'd need
| to work on an engine.
| theodoregray wrote:
| Unfortunately fixed gauges (feeler gauges, spark gap tools,
| profile gauges, wire gauge tools, bolt sizers, etc) didn't make
| it into any of the top-level categories, so they are lumped in
| with the mess of "Other Tools":
| https://www.periodictableoftools.com/Categories/Other.html
|
| Some day I might create some new rows, because there are a lot
| of important categories that are completely absent.
| mauvehaus wrote:
| This displays what I would consider to be a fairly limited
| knowledge of tools.
|
| Saws, for instance, take a variety of forms, and lumping all of
| the large ones into "big saws" rather ignores the fact that their
| use is fundamentally dependent on what kind of saw they are. Not
| their size. And perplexingly, miniature table saws are lumped in
| with other big saws.
|
| I'd also submit that a bung hole auger (lumped in with antique
| augers) is a reaming tool, not a drilling tool. Though one of the
| ones shown is a combination tool. There's an auger at the front
| to drill the hole, followed by the reamer to ream the taper. The
| important bit is still the reamer though, meaning the tool could
| properly be called a bung hole reamer.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Too pedantic. I don't think the categories are meant to imply
| that the tools are similar to each other.
| f1shy wrote:
| Agree about pedantic. But "periodic table" for me implies
| some similarity.
| spurgu wrote:
| Yeah I was also expecting a more well-thought-out structure
| given the periodic table layout.
| theodoregray wrote:
| Please see my long rant on this subject. There is quite a
| lot of periodic table structure....
| theodoregray wrote:
| OK, you've made the first criticism I actually agree with! Bung
| hole augers do belong with reamers, not with augers. In my
| defense, they _are_ called bung hole augers, and all the ones I
| have are antique, so they naturally gravitated to the antique
| augers category, but I should have known better, and for that I
| am sorry. Some of them don 't even have augers at the front!
|
| The criticism of saws I reject: I split them by material in
| columns (wood- v.s metal-cutting), and by size vertically
| (getting heavier/more powerful as you go down a column). Bow
| saws are under hacksaws kind of out of desperation, but there
| are at least as many metal-cutting bow saws as wood-cutting. In
| fact given the popularity of hacksaws, perhaps in modern times
| that is the more common application of this style of stretched
| blade.
| kbutler wrote:
| Was I alone in expecting software engineering tools?
| ofrzeta wrote:
| I indeed thought about software tools although not software
| engineering in particular. More like classic Unix tools.
| remram wrote:
| It would probably be very interesting, since everything old is
| new. A column with RRD/Graphite/Grafana,
| inetd/systems/Kubernetes, fat/ext2/btrfs,
| Lustre/GlusterFS/Ceph, grep/ack/ripgrep
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| If columns were arranged as "can be used as a quick and dirty
| substitute for" going up and "subsumes but is often overkill
| for" going down I guess we'd wind up with a Periodic Tree of
| Tools (with emacs and web browsers somewhere near the trunk)?
| theodoregray wrote:
| I wanted to include them. Believe me, I wanted to! My publisher
| felt strongly that I should not stretch the definition of tools
| into metaphor. Beds are tools: they help you sleep better.
| There's just too many narrow-definition tools I needed to fit
| in. Otherwise I would have been more than happy to including a
| dig about how Jupyter Notebooks are a poor imitation of my
| Mathematica notebook design.
| mpolichette wrote:
| I like the cataloging, but I dont see the periodic part of this.
| tyingq wrote:
| _" The arrangement follows loosely the characteristic of the
| regular periodic table: tools with similar functions in each
| column, getting heavier as you move down the rows."_[1]
|
| I can see perhaps not agreeing with their decisions, so maybe
| the groupings don't look correct to you, but they seem to have
| made some effort to be "periodic".
|
| [1] https://home.theodoregray.com/printed-products
| NeoTar wrote:
| It feels like they were perhaps hindered by wanting to
| conform to the chemical periodic table format.
| gcanyon wrote:
| I'm not criticizing you for this, obviously, but "heavier" is
| a silly attribute to increase as you go down the table. It
| makes sense for the actual periodic table, but here something
| like "complexity" "modernity" or "scale" would have made much
| more sense (to me, obviously).
| jprete wrote:
| But atoms literally get heavier as you go down the table.
| If the actual elements were ordered in complexity of
| compounds, hydrogen would be at the bottom of the table,
| and periodic table posters would have to come with a
| special "carbon" sticker to attach to the floor.
| gcanyon wrote:
| Yes, I'm agreeing that mass (or more accurately, proton
| count) makes sense for the elements. I'm saying it _doesn
| 't_ make sense for tools.
| IshKebab wrote:
| This is really cool. He sure owns a lot of tools! You could make
| a pretty neat display of them in a museum. Way more interesting
| than endless paintings and porcelain.
| massysett wrote:
| There is such a thing where I live. A guy collected random
| tools, including tools from a dentist. It's a lot of household
| things and farm implements from the 19th and 20th centuries.
| His collection is now a museum. I can't find a good website
| unfortunately.
| theodoregray wrote:
| I do actually have a small museum in my studio... but it's
| rather small and informal. You can see some of it in this
| interview: https://kk.org/cooltools/theodore-gray-co-founder-
| of-wolfram...
| CapitalistCartr wrote:
| Woohoo! There's tools here I don't have.
| smeej wrote:
| This has a great auxiliary use for those of us who don't know
| about all the tools, and/or don't know the names of the tools.
| It's going to make me sound a lot less stupid at the hardware
| store!
| gumby wrote:
| One of the great things about having a German speaking kid is
| the number of books that show all the entries in a given
| category (e.g. a huge book with hundreds of earth moving
| apparatus and the specific name of each)
|
| In America I could only get close with farm animals and guns.
| PTOB wrote:
| Could you recommend some titles? I not only enjoy German
| thoroughness, but I am also tickled by the
| schlamminvordstogezah style of German tool naming.
| gumby wrote:
| Sorry, kid has long grown up and moved out. I guess I'll
| get a second wave when grandkids start appearing. But any
| bookshop kids' section will have heaps of them. IIRC
| Gerstenberg Verlag was a good source, but that was a while
| ago.
|
| Also the Was ist Was series had the best explanations of
| how real stuff (locomotives, printing press, sexual
| reproduction, etc) works. If you can't find the books I'm
| sure some of the videos are on YouTube.
| Prcmaker wrote:
| Can't agree more. When we get tool or parts catalogues through
| work on the break room table, I recommend to all our graduates
| they spend time going through it, and to look up things they
| don't understand. Knowing the tool for the job already exists
| can save so much time and money, and while that genre of tool
| may change significantly, it applies to all fields of
| engineering.
| oooyay wrote:
| I'm chuckling a bit because I get this feeling of consternation
| every time I run into something that doesn't go very smoothly.
| For instance, learning I was using the wrong kind of hammer for
| roofing saved my wrist from breaking. I've been collecting
| woodworking and carpentry tools and teaching myself as I go. If
| you really want to develop some intuition for what to use and
| when then learn about the basics of carpentry and wood working:
| routing, planing, joining/jointing, sawing, drilling, gluing,
| sanding, and finishing. The difference between machine and hand
| tools often comes down to surface area and/or density (that may
| not be holistically correct, but it satisfies my bar for a rule
| of thumb).
| smeej wrote:
| I often find myself thinking, "I wish someone made a tool
| that would do X," and when X is a common enough task, someone
| probably does! I'm looking forward to using this resource to
| help me check if something already exists that would make my
| life easier!
| bhandziuk wrote:
| > I'm chuckling
|
| Ironically the picture of the chuck is a collet
| thr0waway001 wrote:
| Whenever I misname a tool I can tell my dad wishes I had never
| been born. lol
| gcanyon wrote:
| I find myself unreasonably frustrated by this arrangement.
| "Screwdriver Bits" are not the base level of the screwdriver
| column -- "Screwdrivers" are. And the second column from left is
| just a mess: stampers are similar to rivets are similar to nail
| guns... how?
|
| I'm sure this is a personal preference thing but (to me) the
| columns should be thematically similar, off the top of my head (I
| am not skilled at manufacturing nor construction):
| 1. Things that pound things into other things (hammers)
| 2. Things that twist things into other things (screwdrivers)
| 3. Things that join things (staples, rivets, etc. -- yes, I get
| that this covers both nails and screws) 4. Things that
| shape things 5. Things that split things 6.
| Things that cut things 7. Things that break things down
| 8. Things that mix things 9. Things that contain things
| 10. Things that move single things 11. Things that move
| aggregate things 12. Things that etch things 13.
| Things that measure the size of things 14. Things that
| measure the mass of things 15. Things that measure force
| 16. Things that measure other attributes?
|
| I'm sure there are more.
| pvg wrote:
| _I 'm sure there are more._
|
| things that have just broken a flower vase, things that tremble
| as if they were mad, suckling pigs
| gcanyon wrote:
| I'm not sure how this is a valid criticism? I gave actual
| categories of things-tools-do. You just made up nonsense
| tasks?
| yorwba wrote:
| It's a reference to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celestial
| _Emporium_of_Benevole...
| gcanyon wrote:
| Thanks, TIL!
| theodoregray wrote:
| (a) screwdriver bits come above screwdrivers for one simple
| reason: the mouth bit holder is hilarious and I wanted to put
| it at the top of the column. (b) column 2 is things you can hit
| with a hammer: that's why it has stamps, rivets, and nails. It
| follows hammers because alkali earth metals are somewhat
| chemically related to alkali metals (e.g. reactive with water
| to evolve hydrogen, which makes both columns fun to play with).
| Nail pullers are at the bottom of hammers instead of the bottom
| of column 2 because the counts worked better that way.
| gcanyon wrote:
| I'll start by saying it's a great concept, and beautifully
| executed in general. And I'm sorry to be one of several
| piling on about perceived (I did say I was "unreasonably"
| frustrated with the arrangement) shortcomings of the
| arrangement.
|
| All to say, thanks for making something interesting enough to
| disagree with/about, and thanks for the clarifications.
| cush wrote:
| Could they have chosen a worse image to depict Screwdriver Bits?
|
| https://periodictableoftools.com/Images/002/002.640.jpg
| dinkleberg wrote:
| Haha I had the opposite reaction. This page was worth checking
| out for that alone.
| theodoregray wrote:
| I put screwdrivers bits at the top of the drivers column
| _specifically_ because I think that photo is hilarious and I
| want to make it as prominent as possible. This is why 3D
| printers were invented.
| analog31 wrote:
| >>>> This thing is called a chain whip. No, it's not what you
| think. It's a wrench, but with no way to close the chain into a
| ring. So how can you use it to grip anything?
|
| It's for grabbing a sprocket on a bike wheel.
| chongli wrote:
| I really like the idea but it needs to be a giant poster. On my
| 13" laptop screen it's so tiny and so compact that it presents an
| all-out high-frequency visual information assault on my senses.
| It's very unsettling and uncomfortable to use, for that reason. I
| really just want everything to be spread out a bit more.
| furyofantares wrote:
| It is http://home.theodoregray.com/printed-products
| Tomte wrote:
| Just today I put
| https://mitpressbookstore.mit.edu/book/9780762498307 on my Amazon
| wish list.
| digdugdirk wrote:
| For those people who find this frustratingly incorrect/incomplete
| - this is an art project, not a an attempt at creating a taxonomy
| of tools.
|
| For those people who have little experience with the trades -
| this is an art project, and building up your understanding of
| tools from this resource probably isn't a great idea.
|
| For those people who can't get the screwdriver bits image out of
| their mind - I'm with you.
| demondemidi wrote:
| We know. I think the main objection is that it is just more
| noise and clickbait that really teaches nothing[0], or this
| case, buybait.
|
| [0] I think it actually unteaches things as it obfuscates the
| point of the shape of the periodic table.
| synthos wrote:
| Definitely buybait and a shame that a blatant advertisement
| has made to YC news front page. What's next? Novelty
| toothpaste for nerds?
| demondemidi wrote:
| > Novelty toothpaste for nerds?
|
| One that changes color the longer you brush so that you
| know you've brushed sufficiently (and not just blood-red to
| indicate your gums are now bleeding).
|
| One that changes color based on where the calculus on your
| teeth accumulated, so you can target you brushing.
|
| One that does the brushing for you, just keep it in your
| mouth for 3 minutes and rinse.
|
| Oh lord...
| schoen wrote:
| > One that changes color based on where the calculus on
| your teeth accumulated, so you can target you brushing.
|
| This exists, although for some reason I'm not aware that
| it's available as part of a toothpaste. (Maybe the
| toothpaste foam would create false positive indications
| by making it seem to accumulate in places that don't
| actually have plaque.)
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disclosing_tablets
| demondemidi wrote:
| Blast! I was hoping readers would be too young to
| remember and I would get the credit. \O_O/ ... I used to
| get these from the dentist as kid in the 70's.
| theodoregray wrote:
| For what it's worth, I had absolutely nothing to do with
| the post: I didn't make it or encourage anyone to make it.
| I just noticed a sharp uptick in sales earlier today. Which
| I love since I spent a lot of time and money designing the
| poster and getting it printed. Here's the real buy bait:
| Please buy my book and poster! You can find the book
| "Tools" on Amazon, and the poster at theodoregray.com
| digdugdirk wrote:
| Also for what it's worth, it's a very cool art project!
| And I'm always happy to have more computer nerds get an
| introduction to the tools required to make stuff in the
| physical world.
| iamwil wrote:
| This is one of my few pet peeves on the internet. The periodic
| table of X often isn't periodic, and shouldn't look anything like
| the periodic table of elements.
| civilitty wrote:
| The author added granite surface plates at atomic #69 (way out
| in the lanthanides) because:
|
| _> Granite flats can be used as mounting surfaces for machines
| that need to stay very accurately aligned. Dozens of these huge
| precision granite blocks were sold as scrap to a local stone
| dealer, and I happened to pull up in their lot just after they
| had unloaded them. Blocks were piled up everywhere, blocking
| the driveway and generally making a nuisance of themselves, so
| the owner offered to sell me a bunch cheap just to get them out
| of his hair. I was told that the two mounting surfaces on each
| block are flat and parallel within millionths of an inch. This
| could be true, and if it is you're looking at some of the most
| expensive lawn furniture in the world. I rented a rough-terrain
| forklift to arranged them in my front yard. There they remain
| to this day, 25 years later. 25 million years from now they
| will probably still be there, buried under the debris of a
| thousand civilizations come and gone._ [1]
|
| Not to be a debbie downer but there's zero order to this
| "periodic" table. If there were, the granite plates would be
| somewhere in the first couple of rows as the foundation to the
| industrial revolution. We wouldn't have had precision
| manufacturing or 95% of the modern tools on that table without
| them. Building them was the first time humans figured out how
| to make perfect flat surfaces without which our world wouldn't
| be possible.
|
| [1] https://periodictableoftools.com/Items/T0702.html
| theodoregray wrote:
| See my long comment in this thread: I categorically reject
| the notion that there isn't any order to my arrangement of
| tools. It's actually quite detailed in how it follows the
| chemical structure, because your pet peeve is also my pet
| peeve. I wrote a whole book about the actual periodic table
| ("The Elements" by me), so it's a subject dear to my heart.
| Please look more closely.
|
| (Also, I would name gauge blocks over granite flats as
| fundamental to precision, but in any case, all measuring
| tools are in the same row because they are related, just as
| are the lanthanides and actinides.) They are at the bottom
| because that's where they fit most naturally. My logic they
| should be the noble gasses, because they don't change
| anything. But there were too many I wanted to include. It was
| anodizing having to move them to a larger space.
| ericra wrote:
| The majority of comments here are pedantic nitpicking about
| proper tool categorization, improper use of the term "periodic",
| etc. Why?
|
| This is someone's art project, it's pretty cool. Enjoy the thing
| if you like it! It's not meant to be an encyclopedia.
| pvg wrote:
| A good way to improve the thread is to write about something
| you like or found interesting the submission. Writing meta
| about how terrible the thread is just makes it worse.
| CoastalCoder wrote:
| Since this is just begging to be hung in a workshop / man-cave,
| I'd like to mention a related poster: [0]
|
| Extra legit because Nick Offerman's non-acting job is running a
| woodworking shop.
|
| [0] https://www.nbcstore.com/products/parks-and-recreation-
| swans...
| theodoregray wrote:
| So you can in fact hang it in your shop, I'd like to mention
| this link for buying my periodic table of tools poster:
| https://home.theodoregray.com/printed-products
| causality0 wrote:
| This more of a random sampling than anything attempting to
| include the most important tools. For example, the hammers
| section has a foam Minecraft pickaxe but doesn't have a slide
| hammer.
| theodoregray wrote:
| There's a slide hammer in the book and on the website, just not
| in the poster. I wanted to include a bit of humor, sorry.
| dvh wrote:
| No Burke bar among pry bars? Sacrilege!
| analog31 wrote:
| Try a Johnson bar, same thing, but with wheels.
| Animats wrote:
| So many old friends. I miss TechShop.
| AareyBaba wrote:
| There's MakerNexus as an alternative now.
| batguano wrote:
| Amused to see the 10mm socket in an "in case of emergency break
| glass" box. So true about 10mm, though I'd lean towards the 10mm
| box wrench. I've disassembled many a motorcycle with not much
| more than that.
| Prcmaker wrote:
| The emergency 10mm box used to available to purchase from a
| couple chain stores in Australia. I bought a good few as gifts.
| LeonB wrote:
| Yeh, I love that the table has that playful sense of fun.
| theodoregray wrote:
| Amazingly this is an actual product you can buy.
| kortex wrote:
| As a former chemist and all-around maker, I love this and this
| bugs me all at once. I love the concept, but as others have
| pointed out, this is less a "periodic table" and more "grab bag
| of related things". You see these all over the place: foods,
| drinks, cars, etc. All table, no periodicity. Why are wrenches
| and drills strewn across three groups? Put the wrenches in one
| group, drills in the other. Impact drivers somewhere in between.
|
| There's some _vague_ grouping, but it 's pretty hodge podge.
|
| The way _I_ would do it, is use electronegativity (tendency to
| give or remove electrons) as a proxy for additive /subtractive.
| Atomic weight is a proxy for actual weight/scale. Group I would
| be like clay forming (the OG additive process), concrete, FDM,
| SLS, injection molding, casting. Group II is a bit less additive,
| more bonding: hot glue, soldering, brazing, welding. Halogens hog
| out material: thermic lance, plasma cutter, laser, waterjet.
| Chalcogens: hand router, (power) router, lathe, mill.
|
| Metrology doesn't add or subtract, so obviously that's your Noble
| group.
|
| Transition metals are all the fasteners. Lanthanides/Actinides
| are all the weirdos. I'd also add a group for just the simple
| machines. I think it's more important to have groups,
| periodicity, and trends, than sticking to the exact shape/size of
| the periodic table of elements.
|
| This is Theodore Gray too! Author of a bunch of books and posters
| on chemistry.
|
| Well, you know what they say, if you want something done right...
| hoosieree wrote:
| Inclined planes form a column. Unguided inclined planes:
| knives, axes. Guided: planes, scissors. Inclined planes wrapped
| around cylinders: drills, screws.
|
| Blunt objects form a column: Hammers, presses, brakes.
|
| I agree with your categorizations involving tools that rely on
| heat, but I guess the problem with any such taxonomy is the
| next person comes along and goes "well _I_ would do this
| differently, and that... "
| kortex wrote:
| Obviously everyone has their own classification. But TFA
| doesn't even distinct cutters from air pressure tools. I'd at
| least make a group for Fluid Workers: air compressor, water
| pump, hydraulic ram, hydraulic press.
| theodoregray wrote:
| Oh, yes, you found another place where I had to make an
| arbitrary placement. Air pressure tools just did not fit
| anywhere else, so I slapped them there in transition
| metals, which is unforgivable. See my longer comment for
| more whining about how it's not nearly as arbitrary as you
| make it out to be.
| croisillon wrote:
| we definitely need a periodic table of periodic tables
| AareyBaba wrote:
| but would it contain itself ?
| kortex wrote:
| Obviously. It'd be one of the tables known to Harvard. Just
| leave enough room for the ones to be discovered.
| glompers wrote:
| Every discovered table would contain items known to the
| state of California to be oncogenic.
| nealabq wrote:
| This'd make a nice lyric. If only "Harvard" rhymed with
| "discovered".
| SAI_Peregrinus wrote:
| With the right accent, they rhyme.
| scubbo wrote:
| > one of the tables known to Harvard
|
| This has the cadence of a reference, but Google didn't
| help me. Am I missing something?
| hangsi wrote:
| It's from The Elements, by Tom Lehrer (the final lyric of
| the song).
|
| https://youtu.be/qyNkrlwKs7c
| scubbo wrote:
| Thank you!
| nealabq wrote:
| you're suggesting a periodic table of all periodic tables
| that do not contain themselves. sounds doable.
| LeonB wrote:
| If it is a periodic table of all periodic tables then yes
| it would contain itself. Obviously.
|
| If it was a periodic table of all periodic tables except
| those that contain itself then it would only contain itself
| if it does not contain itself, I mean it would not contain
| itself if it does contain itself, I mean, goddam it
| Bertrand Russell, how did you find me here? I signed up to
| Hacker News hoping to escape you once and for all!
|
| -Gottlob Frege
| theodoregray wrote:
| https://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/35_pt/pt_database.php
| croisillon wrote:
| oh! <3
| RagnarD wrote:
| Yes. Good thoughts but bottom line, it's trying to shoehorn
| something completely different into a form that makes it appear
| sophisticated. I think it just undercuts science. The periodic
| table is formed by important features of reality recognized in
| the elements, ultimately originating in quantum mechanics.
| Pretending that the structure applies to any capricious thing
| conveys an idea that the structure and reality is itself
| arbitrary.
| theodoregray wrote:
| You complain that wrenches and drills are spread over several
| columns? Look at a periodic table please! The diagonal line
| splitting wrenches from drills is precisely the diagonal line
| splitting ordinary metals from non-metals. That's one of the
| bits I'm most proud of!
|
| You have no idea how long I agonized over how to make this
| arrangement not be arbitrary, while at the same time dealing
| with some of the realities of how many tools of different kinds
| there are in different broad groupings.
|
| For example, as you say, wouldn't it make more sense for
| measuring tools to be the noble gases, since they don't change
| anything, unlike basically all other tools? That's one of the
| first things I decided to do, because it's so obvious. But
| there are simply too many measuring tools I wanted to include:
| they had to go in the lanthanides and/or actinides, because
| those are bigger categories. Having a scale for additive vs.
| subtractive along an axis sounds great, but there are _so_ many
| more subtractive tools than additive it would never work. Plus
| concrete tools, for example, didn't even make the cut. They are
| literally not in there because, well, I just had too many other
| things to fit in that spark more joy for me (which is the
| ultimately the criterion for what I put in).
|
| In general, what I tried to preserve was (a) similar basic
| function within columns, (b) tools get bigger/heavier as you go
| down a column, (c) transition metals are all related despite
| being spread over 10 columns, (d) lanthanides/actinides being
| similar within rows instead of within columns (because it's
| like they are actually all supposed to go in the third column,
| but that would just make the thing too wide), and (e) _there's
| a diagonal line between metals and non-metals_.
|
| Beyond that I found a couple of small ways I could put in some
| analogies with actual chemical properties. For example, the
| halogens, which are hot, fiery elements, is where I put tools
| that use heat (soldering, welding, casting, 3D printing). But
| then I ran out of heat-related tools that made the cut to be
| categories, so I used the rest of that column for some
| categories that didn't fit anywhere else: optical tools and toy
| tools. So sue me. Alkali earth metals (column 2) are not
| entirely dissimilar to alkali metals (column 1), so I put
| hammers in column 1 and things you might typically hit with a
| hammer in column 2. Imperfect, but there you go, and the counts
| worked out.
|
| The only individual element I could pay homage to was copper,
| element 29: that's where I put all the brass and bronze non-
| sparking tools (which means they are otherwise in the wrong
| place, because all the other transition metals are cutting
| tools, but in space 29 I've got brass hammers and bronze
| wrenches. By all means rag on me for that choice too.
|
| I wanted to split single-edge cutting tools (knives, chisels,
| etc) and double-edge/edge-and-anvil cutting tools (nippers,
| shears, etc) into the early and late transition metals, but the
| counts just didn't work out, so I tearfully gave up on that.
|
| I'm happy someone at least noticed enough to complain, and
| actually it's nice that I'm getting pushback on something as
| erudite as the suitability of my element/tool analogies, as
| apposed to, for example, my risible opinions on titanium
| hammers (which are reflected only in the book, not the poster).
|
| As you say, I'm Theodore Gray and I should know better, right?
| Which is exactly why I just wrote an essay on why I'm right and
| this is _not_ just an arbitrary jumble of tools! I spent months
| on this arrangement! OK, weeks, but it was a lot of time. I
| even wrote a Mathematica program that helped me pick 1- and
| 2-letter "element symbols" without ending up with any
| duplicates, even though that resulted in some weird and
| difficult-to-explain symbols (much as with actual atomic
| symbols).
|
| In conclusion, please keep the hate flowing and buy my poster
| and book.
|
| Thank you for coming to my TED talk, Theodore
| kuchenbecker wrote:
| This is a classic "we should refactor" without understanding
| the original architecture/decision making.
|
| No doubt some of the issues you describe become apparent when
| you actually attempt the task, yet it's easy to propose a
| reasonable alternative.
|
| Anyway, I love that we both have a rebuttal to the original
| as well as a firm defense from the OP.
| paulstovell wrote:
| My hobby is tool collecting and occasionally, my wife makes
| me do work around the house to justify the tool collecting.
| So, I really enjoyed your creation here! I was going through
| it today and ticking off all the categories I own tools for
| (I got 96) and discovered a bunch of opportunities to expand
| the collection. Thank you!
|
| > Plus concrete tools, for example, didn't even make the cut
|
| I must say I was surprised that hammers, fancy hammers, and
| mallets all got their own categories, while my noisy
| Husqvarna concrete demolition saw was bundled in the same
| category as regular circular saws. Now it makes sense!
| theodoregray wrote:
| The beautiful thing about art vs. science is that you get
| to be arbitrary if you like... The main reason there is a
| separate category for fancy hammers is that I needed a page
| in the book to rant about how stupid it is to put a
| titanium head on a hammer. (Every square in the poster
| represents a 2-page spread in my Tools book.)
|
| Concrete tools are missing because I just don't do a lot of
| concrete work. Had I finished the book about a year later I
| might have put some in, because earlier this year I built a
| new studio that involved pouring a 3600sq ft slab with the
| help of my concrete foreman friend and his buddies. So
| messy! I don't like to write about categories of tools I
| have little or no experience with, so other things crowded
| out concrete and masonry tools, other than carbide drills
| and diamond saws (which are fascinating because of the
| steel/stone hardness ratio that determines which model
| blade you want, as described in the book).
| danjc wrote:
| I've never heard anyone speak on this topic with such clarity.
| I'm sure you're well respected in the periodic table tooling
| configuration community.
| theodoregray wrote:
| Judging from this thread it sounds like most people think I'm
| an idiot, and/or didn't even try to organize the tools....
| Perhaps my organizational principles are just too subtle.
|
| What really surprised me, and speaks to the lack of a
| periodic table tooling configuration community, is that the
| domain periodictableoftools.com was unclaimed even late last
| year, well over 20 years into the era when someone surely
| would have thought of wanting it.
| BizarroLand wrote:
| I would say that numeric should be weighted from "tools you
| practically can't do anything without", like screwdrivers or
| hammers, to "tools that are so specialized or expensive that
| almost no one has one or would ever need it, like electron
| microscopes or luthier specific tools like horse glue.
|
| Then vertically they should be sorted by type or tool focus,
| hand tool, electric tool, gear tool, glues and wedgers, focus
| on wood working, focus on automobile, focus on construction,
| and so on.
|
| Right now the current one is too higgledy-piggledy to make any
| sense of. It needs organization.
| quickthrower2 wrote:
| The micrometers (you need one for every 25mm, e.g. 0-25mm,
| 25-50mm, 50-75mm, etc. is very interesting!).
| vikmals wrote:
| I feel like this could be better visualized in a tech tree.
| NoMoreNicksLeft wrote:
| I guess I was expecting things like the wheel, lever, and pulley.
| jjeaff wrote:
| I like the "Grabbers" section. I'm always on the lookout for
| different types of grabbers or long cutters. I find that no
| matter how esoteric, the tool will end up being invaluable on
| some little project in the future. Lately, I have been collecting
| a lot of medical style grabbers like hemostats and laparoscopic
| operating tools. Just the other day, despite all my various
| little grabbers, I realized I needed something that can grab a
| stiff, round object as I was fishing wire through the attic for
| some new lighting. It probably would have saved me 30 minutes or
| more. So I'm on the lookout for a good option for that.
| theodoregray wrote:
| Allow me to introduce you to uterine tenaculum forceps:
| https://periodictableoftools.com/Items/T0472.html
| jjeaff wrote:
| Ha, yes, I noticed those. I would prefer something a little
| more like a laparoscopic tool, but I might look around for
| one of those.
| ChuckMcM wrote:
| I love these books, my favorite is the Engines[1] one but this
| one is a close second.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Engines-Inner-Workings-Machines-
| World...
| vmfunction wrote:
| very cool. It would be nice to have this for bike tools.
| javier_e06 wrote:
| Ah the Vise Grip Plier. It should not exist.
|
| It destroys everything on its path.
|
| The presentation card of the no-good craftsman wannabe.
|
| Banned in my garage.
|
| The Arsenic of tools.
| theodoregray wrote:
| No, no, it's one of the most essential of all tools! If I had
| to recreate civilization, I would start with antibiotics and
| vise-grip pliers. I mean, what are you going to use if you
| can't find your wrench, pliers, screwdriver, hammer, or tooth
| extraction tool?
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