Sometimes a hack doesn’t need to be rocket science to be useful. Take for instance [MofigoDIY] using an old spark plug to build a glass cutter.
Sure, going to grab a glass cutter at the hardware store might be easy, but there’s something satisfying about going the DIY route. [MofigoDIY]’s version of this classic hack is a bit more refined than the quick and dirty route of smashing the spark plug alumina and hot gluing it into a tube.
After using a rotary tool to cut off the threads and expose the narrow part of the ceramic, [MofigoDIY] grinds it down to a fine point. This lets the spark plug itself become the handle, so you don’t need any additional parts to make the cutter. Toward the end of the video, a heated wire is used to break a glass jar apart after it was scored which might be of interest even if you already have a glass cutter. Once you’re finished making your glass cutter, make sure you dispose of any chips left over, since ceramic spark plug fragments are considered burglary tools in some areas.
Would you rather just build the glass up additively? How about using a laser cutter to sinter glass or 3D printing fused silica using a polymerized composite precursor?
Well, everybody knows that spark plug ceramic will break car window, while road pebble won’t.
Another popular tool is a spring-loaded center punch.
Nowhere near as quiet or cheap as spark plug sourced “Ninja Rock.”
Me, I’m going to try a diamond wheel.
OR… you can spend $4 and purchase a glass cutter.
That mindset applies to 99% of the projects on this site. Everybody is aware that stores exist, but there’s many reasons why people would rather, or have to, make do with what they have. The only explanation that’s needed is, “because I wanted to see if I could”, but seeing as this is the World Wide Web there’s people living in war zones that don’t have a Home Depot nearby as it was bombed out last month but plenty of scrap. I am lucky enough to be born into a country where I can have anything delivered to my door within hours but still enjoy making my own tools or restoring antique ones over buying a $4 piece of garbage that will be full halfway through the first score.
Correct.
99% of projects on this site impute a value of $0/hour to the project hacker’s time.
Which is fair. People kill time in their own way.
The time when I am not working at my normal job is worth exaclty $0 – nobody is paying me for that time or ever will pay me for that time. I expect the same is true of most people.
I think you might have to choose between either valuing your time at some larger amount, or having to say that time is not for sale.
If your time is worth $0.00, then I can offer you $0.0000001 to stand on your head all night and that would outbid you. But if you say it’s not for sale, I could offer you $1000000 to hold my pen for a moment and you’d have to say no.
Maybe it’s a bit of word games, but still. In reality the price of my time is not independent of lots of factors like what the task is, how stable the pay is, how much I’ve already worked lately, my plans, etc, and I’m sure you’re the same.
Haha so WELL said
Consumer Reports is a different website, my guy. This is HackADay.
Then where is the hack?
Modifying something to be used in a new and surprising way is a hack in my book.
A proper hack, bravo
Beware aluminosis.
How much is too much? You decide