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.
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.
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.
This table seems heavily biased towards the home woodworker/DIYer with some random antique hand tools thrown into the mix.
I also can't really make heads or tails of the organization. How can "saw teeth," "air pressure tools," and "crescent wrench" each occupy a square? Saw teeth are a part of a blade, air pressure tools is category of power source for any tool, and crescent wrench is a brand of adjustable spanner/wrench. This system makes no sense.
I also cannot find shitloads of common tools even if we are sticking with home scale woodworking. Off the top of my head, where is the router table? The shaper? The jointer? The impact driver? The drum sander? The wide belt sander? The spindle sander?
> 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).
You have a single square for Bandsaws regardless of size or materials. Beneath band saw is a square called "other tools" which is on the same row as "big saws" but has an image of WD-40 and Duct Tape.
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
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)?
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.
"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".
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).
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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).
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!
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?
(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.
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.
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.
>>>> 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?
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.
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.
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.
> 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.)
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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[ 0.22 ms ] story [ 206 ms ] threadCome to think of it, I didn’t notice some of tools you’d need to work on an engine.
Some day I might create some new rows, because there are a lot of important categories that are completely absent.
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.
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.
I also can't really make heads or tails of the organization. How can "saw teeth," "air pressure tools," and "crescent wrench" each occupy a square? Saw teeth are a part of a blade, air pressure tools is category of power source for any tool, and crescent wrench is a brand of adjustable spanner/wrench. This system makes no sense.
I also cannot find shitloads of common tools even if we are sticking with home scale woodworking. Off the top of my head, where is the router table? The shaper? The jointer? The impact driver? The drum sander? The wide belt sander? The spindle sander?
You have a single square for Bandsaws regardless of size or materials. Beneath band saw is a square called "other tools" which is on the same row as "big saws" but has an image of WD-40 and Duct Tape.
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
In America I could only get close with farm animals and guns.
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.
Ironically the picture of the chuck is a collet
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):
I'm sure there are more.things that have just broken a flower vase, things that tremble as if they were mad, suckling pigs
All to say, thanks for making something interesting enough to disagree with/about, and thanks for the clarifications.
https://periodictableoftools.com/Images/002/002.640.jpg
It's for grabbing a sprocket on a bike wheel.
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.
[0] I think it actually unteaches things as it obfuscates the point of the shape of the periodic table.
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...
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
> 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
(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.
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.
Extra legit because Nick Offerman's non-acting job is running a woodworking shop.
[0] https://www.nbcstore.com/products/parks-and-recreation-swans...