Author: George Bodenschatz

Mid-Semester Modifications

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A little over four years ago, I built myself a gaming PC for my birthday. My years-long dream of tinkering a computer of my own specifications into existence came true, and save for a frustrating issue with a stick of RAM, which occurred days out of warranty, the computer has served me well for its entire existence.

That being said, as any computer user can relate, a four year old computer does not always perform nearly as well as it did when it was new. 

My goal was to tinker with my computer by expanding the storage and overclocking my graphics card. I have never overclocked a component, so it was a new and interesting challenge. Expanding the storage is something I have much more experience with, and was a simple process of plugging in a few wires and mounting the parts. 

The best part of this endeavor: the process was entirely free. The HDD and SSD I installed were salvaged from an old desktop and laptop respectively—parts I had lying around. The overclocking was done with free software and only augmented components already installed in the computer.

 

Installing the drives

To install the two drives, a 250 GB SSD and a 1 TB HDD, I used the SATA power cable coming from my power supply, and attached two additional SATA data cables to my motherboard. The 1TB HDD, a 3.5 inch drive, fit into the second of two drive bays in the bottom of the computer, and the SSD fit on a side mounted slot in the back of the case.

 

Overclocking

Overclocking is the process of increasing the clock speed of a computer component beyond the originally designated speed. Measured as a frequency, usually in gHz, the “clock speed” represents the number of times in a second a computer can complete a task (called instructions per clock). While it may seem concerning to run a chip at higher than its rated clock speed, if you have sufficient cooling, it is completely safe to do so. 

I used a program called MSI Afterburner to overclock my GPU. While it normally has an intelligent automatic overclocking mode, I had an error message come up every time I tried the automatic mode, so I had to overclock manually. Manual overclocking is nothing short of trial and error. 

First, I set a custom fan curve, so that the fans of my GPU begin to ramp up more quickly at lower temperatures and keep the overall temperatures down. Then, I increased the maximum voltage. (I increased it to the maximum value, but the GPU will not permit higher voltage than it is rated by the manufacturer, but the voltage out of the box is lower than the peak voltage.) Then, I set a baseline overclock of +100 MHz to the core clock (the processing unit speed) and of +500 MHz to the memory clock (the RAM used by the GPU).

Quantitatively, in a synthetic benchmark, which is not always representative of real use, I had a performance increase of 8.6% without spending a dime. While that is impressive, what is more important to me is the qualitative experience of several games which I very much enjoy (like Forza Horizon 4) becoming considerably smoother. 

And with that, I could spend the rest of my break enjoying my computer even more than before.

Fountain Pen Companies That Get Tinkering Right

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I discussed last week how fountain pens are great writing implements to tinker with. Much of that is by their nature– from ink to nibs to body styles, fountain pens simply have more options out of the gate than ballpoint pens do. Some of the possibilities, however, come from fountain pen makers’ willingness to offer repairability, customizability, and tinkerability. In this post, I will highlight three companies that get tinkering right. 

 

TWSBI

TWSBI makes fountain pens with somewhat complicated filling systems. Their least expensive model, the TWSBI Eco is a “piston filler,” which is a pen with a piston mounted into the body. Piston fillers fill their entire barrels with ink as the piston moves down and up with a knob at the back of the pen. TWSBI produces several other models of piston-filling pens, and a vacuum filling pen, which fills with ink as a plunger purges the barrel of the pen of air when depressed, and the vacuum sucks ink into the barrel.

Complicated filling systems such as those TWSBI includes on its pens were typically reserved for high end, luxury pens before TWSBI introduced them in relatively cheap pens. The unfortunate truth is with a complicated filling system can come less reliability and increased need for maintenance. In particular, the piston on a piston filler or plunger of a vacuum filler can get stuck, needing a lubricant to run smoothly again. 

With every piston and vacuum filling penTWSBI includes the tool you need to disassemble it completely and the silicone grease used as a lubricant. Even better, if you break any part of the pen (with the exception of the nib), TWSBI will replace it, and the user only has to pay the cost of shipping. Repair and replacement are not only possible (which itself is rare for fountain pen companies), but also affordable. 

 

SchonDSGN

Ian Schon is a machinist who designed a fountain pen called the Pocket 6, which fits a large #6 sized nib into a small pen body. Aside from being a novel pen for its small size, it takes a standard nib unit, which means nibs are easily swapped between different grip sections. 

Where SchonDSGN excels from a tinkering front is the continuous development and improvement of the design, which is made available to modify or upgrade existing pens. I originally bought the pen with a Bock nib, a brand which is generally considered to be less reliable and a worse writing experience than the other major nib manufacturer, Jowo. Unfortunately, Jowo and Bock nib units are not interchangeable. Later, SchonDSGN released a new pen grip with threads for better Jowo nib, and made this part available to modify existing pens. After the initial release of the Jowo-compatible grip, a grip section with a completely different shape and material was released. It was also compatible with every model of Pocket 6, and it is the grip section that I used on my own pen.


Unlike most pens, where most possibilities for change and customizations stop after the pen is purchased, Schon DSGN pens keep evolving, and even an old pen can be modified to be something new. 

 

Nibmeisters

In my first blog post, I hinted at nib grinding, which is the act of taking a round nib and, well, grinding parts of the metal away to give the nib a specific shape, which affects the look (and feel) of the writing. Though I personally grind my own nibs, many fountain pen users who are less inclined to do their own tinkering can still use and experience custom nib grinds. Nibmeisters customize, tune, and repair (tinker with!) the nibs of pens people send to them, unlocking a new frontier of writing style and experience formerly inaccessible to people not comfortable with tinkering for themselves. 

 

Fountain Pens: A Pen System for Tinkering

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Fountain pens are a nearly 200 year old invention long overshadowed by the convenience and (to some) improved usability of cheap and ubiquitous ballpoint pens. 

However, fountain pens are also remarkable writing tools which expand a world of possibility in writing that many have no idea exist. Hear me out.

Using a normal ballpoint pen is simple. You take it out of your pocket, maybe take a cap off, maybe click it, and you are ready to write. There is no set up necessary, few options, and few ways that you can go wrong short of running out of ink. For most people, this is perfect. It does all that they might need in a simple, foolproof package with no need to change a single thing about it. I admit, there are very few people in the world who look at that experience and think, “Wouldn’t this be better if it were more complicated?”

For those who choose to venture on a path of complication, fountain pens offer endless possibilities to tinker with the way you write. I believe one of the greatest things about fountain pens is that they are complex. The fountain pen experience has three important components: the nib, which is a piece of metal that comes in contact with the paper and spreads ink, the ink, and the pen itself. With this complexity comes the opportunity to tailor your experience to meet your needs and provide delight. Instead of a completely integrated ballpoint pen with limited colors, styles, and line width choices, a fountain pen gives you interchangeable options for line widths with different nibs, ink colors with various inks, and a dazzling array pen sizes and styles.

 

Nibs

Whereas standard ballpoint pens come in 0.5mm, 0.7mm, 1.0mm line widths, fountain pen nibs come standard in extra fine, fine, medium fine, medium, broad, 1.1mm sizes, offering a much greater range of possibility for writing. Regardless of the size at which you want to write, fountain pens have an option. And if you are not pleased with the nib you have, they are easily swapped (and can even be customized by daring tinkerers willing to grind away at the metal!)

 

Inks

Ballpoints are commonly available in black, blue, and red. From neons and pastels to bold colors and every shade of black you can think of, it is no exaggeration to say there are hundreds of fountain pen inks. Some have interesting properties like sheening, where the ink reflects a different color when put in the light, and shading, where the ink has different levels of saturation in different parts of the letter, and shimmering, with particles of mica powder which stay on the page as glitter. Some even do all three at the same time. Any ink can be put into any fountain pen, and when you are tired of it, you can use a different ink!

 

Sizes and styles

Because fountain pens are already a step past a normal ballpoint pen, why not choose one that fits a look you enjoy? Fountain pens aren’t boxed into simple, cheap to mass produce pen bodies, and you can find a pen in your style if you look for it. 

You can choose a pen with great ink capacity or interesting acrylic. You can choose a pen with an interesting internal ink filling system. You can choose a large pen or a pocket pen. And you can mix and match those features to find what you will love in a pen.

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Superfluous tinkering can be wonderful. Just do something because it is fun and without pressure because it is unnecessary. Some of the best tinkering happens with devices that are boring, but useful. A little bit of tinkering can bring joy to mundane, everyday tasks.

The Trouble in Troubleshooting

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Last week I outlined my troubleshooting process, and I briefly mentioned that I had to use it with a WiFi incident at my home. There is never a good time for your internet to go down, but this was a spectacularly bad time. My dad was teaching a class over Zoom, and the next morning, my sister had a video interview. Unfortunately, as is sometimes the case with troubleshooting, the process was stressful and complicated. Ultimately, the “solution” did not explicably come from any of my personal actions. 

Now, WiFi is the classic example of troubleshooting that even moderately technically knowledgeable members of the younger generation have experienced. “Turn it off and turn it back on again,” the simultaneously delightfully easy and frustratingly broad solution is, well, often effective. When it isn’t, your options are much less promising.

When turning it off and turning it back on did not work for me, I had to go through the troubleshooting process. Here’s what that looked like:

 

  1. Identify the problem

While our home network appeared as an option in the WiFi settings of our devices, there was no internet connection.

 

2. Gather information about the problem.

The router and mesh wifi system still works. Devices can still connect to the router, they just don’t have any connection outside of the home network. 

An Xfinity worker was working outside my home and just left after tinkering with something in the outdoor utility box in my front yard.

 

3. Narrow down the possible causes based on your information.

The router is most likely not the problem because it appears in WiFi settings.

Because the modem does not show any connection to the internet and there is no internet connection over the network, it may be a problem. 

The cable connection from the utility box into our house might be a problem.

The specific line going from our external connection to the particular jack inside of the house could be a problem. 

 

4. Plan out the troubleshooting steps you want to take. Only take one step at a time

Turn off the modem and turn it back on (mostly for good measure, as this has already been done)

Test the modem at a different coaxial jack in a different part of the house. 

Test the modem at the source coaxial jack coming from the outside of the house.

Test a different cable from the jack to the modem.

 

5. Carry out the plans in Step 4. 

No success with anything.

 

6. Always take note of what happened when you made a change. 

 

7. Consider your results. Was the problem solved? Was it improved?

No and no.

 

 

While running through these steps, my dad called Xfinity, who did all they could to help over the phone. Between my troubleshooting and the help offered over the phone, we could not pinpoint the problem. 

A temporary workaround was found, however: we could use “Xfinity wifi” for the time being, but the slow, completely open network was not ideal for Zoom classes and video interviews. 

The problem came to a surprising end when resetting the modem one more time, hours later to prepare for an xfinity crew in the morning, yielded a connection to the internet. Nothing else was changed, but the problem was fixed. While it was a relief, it was also somewhat disconcerting for the problem to have disappeared with no apparent change.

At the end of the day, the problem was solved, and more than a week later, the wifi still works. The troubleshooting process is not always straightforward, and it is often successful in surprising ways (if it is successful at all…) But, just like tinkering, reaching a solution one way or another is satisfying.

The (Painful) Art of Troubleshooting

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I was recently reminded of tinkering’s more stressful cousin–troubleshooting–during an unexpected and extremely inconvenient wifi outage at my home. While I generally consider tinkering to be a relaxing and enjoyable pursuit, troubleshooting usually is quite the opposite. Troubleshooting is a higher-pressure, higher-stakes form of tinkering, inspired not by joy, but by necessity. With the right approach, however, troubleshooting does not have to be a painful experience.

In a CISCO networking course I took in my freshman year of high school, I learned the troubleshooting process that I still follow, even if subconsciously, to this day. CISCO’s 8 Step Process goes like this:

  1. Define the problem

In less jargon-y terms, this means “figure out what is going on and think about why that might be happening.” For all the following steps, it is important to be focused on what the actual problem is.

2. Gather information about the problem.

It is always important to take note of the current state of whatever you’re troubleshooting at the time you start to troubleshoot it. This step refines your definition of the problem and forces you to take note of what the symptoms of that problem are. The type of information you need to gather will vary wildly from problem to problem, 

3. Narrow down the possible causes based on your information.

With a better understanding of the problem itself, you will have a better view of what might be causing the problem. More importantly, you will know what is not causing your problem, and you can save time by removing that from consideration. 

4. Plan out the troubleshooting steps you want to take. Only take one step at a time.

Having a plan for how to go about trying to fix something is important. It will keep you on task and help you keep track of what has, and has not, made a difference as you work on troubleshooting. 

5. Carry out the plans from Step 4. 

Though CISCO recommends that you tackle the probable causes in order of most likely to least likely, I personally make a more subjective choice based both on the likelihood of solving the problem and the ease of attempting the fix. If the most likely cause is significantly more difficult or time consuming (or even destructive!), I will try an easier fix first. An easier fix will be easier to attempt and also easier to reverse with a smaller likelihood of making the problem worse. 

6. Always take note of what happened when you made a change. 

Regardless of whether the experimental fix does or does not make a difference, it is important to have an understanding of where the problem stands after making a change vs. before. 

7. Consider your results. Was the problem solved? Was it improved?

A problem will not always have a binary answer of “fixed” and “unfixed.” In some scenarios, there is room for improvement without fully solving the problem. This can take the shape of an intermittent issue happening less often, a slow connection being faster, but not ideally so, or only one of several problems being fixed.

8. If the problem has not been solved, return to step 4 until a solution has been found or all possibilities have been exhausted. 

As I noted in Step 7, a problem may or may not always be completely solved, but it may be fixed to the point of satisfaction, or even just usability. You need to determine whether you should leave good enough (or at least “better”) alone or continue trying to make something better. If the next step you might take is destructive and risks making the problem worse, you might consider letting the troubleshooting process come to a close. If the problem is not solved or if it can reasonably be improved further, then repeat the process.

 

Though the troubleshooting process seems much more rigid than tinkering normally would be, using a methodical approach in a stressful troubleshooting situation can help you achieve better results and maintain some of the tinkering joy, even as you work to solve a serious problem.

 

Next-gen Game Consoles: Upgrading and Tinkering

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Sony’s Playstation 5 and the Microsoft Xbox Series X are due to be released in mid November 2020, and both companies have shown off many details of their computers in advance of the launch. The great news is: both consoles include company-sanctioned tinkering options! 

Sony’s PS5 Teardown:

With only the tools sitting next to him–three screwdrivers and a prying tool–this Sony employee completely disassembled the PS5. 

The disc drive, cooling fan, and storage are all easily accessible by taking off the side panel, and access to the remainder of components is gained by removing several shielding plates. While components like the CPU and RAM are not separately upgradeable, Sony does show how to access and remove the motherboard itself.

Though the disclaimer at the start of the video–”Don’t try this at home”– warns against trying what the Sony employee does in this video, the opportunity to tinker with the PS5 is available, and Sony itself has shown it can be done.

 

A PC you attach to your TV

The PS5 has more in common with a PC than not. While the Xbox Series X does not share as many physical similarities on the outside, inside, similarities abound.. 

Last week, I went through the anatomy of a computer. Both the PS5 and Series X consoles have each of the components I outlined in that post. They have GPUs, RAM, and storage attached to a motherboard. In fact, the processors for the PS5 and Xbox Series X are simply a newer version of the CPU that I have in my own custom-built PC. 

Now these game consoles have an additional similarity to PCs: upgradeability. While a fully custom-built PC still allows you to upgrade and replace every component, and the new consoles do not, the consoles allow very easy upgrades that consumers can do by themselves. The upgrades to these consoles center around storage. The previous generation consoles (the Xbox One and the PS4) allowed for storage expansion as well, but primarily as an external solution, connecting a hard drive with a USB port on the back of the devices.  

The Xbox series X allows for storage upgrades without disassembling the device at all; the slot for the SSD storage can be seen, from the outside, in the picture above. This is a push towards accessible tinkering. This shows one of the benefits of being able to design your own system, rather than piecing one together with off-the-shelf parts: better access to internal upgrades. As shown in the teardown video, the SSD on the PS5 can be upgraded relatively simply by sliding off plates that grant internal access to the storage. 

Now, neither of these are perfect solutions. Because the Xbox Series X uses a specially designed SSD, you can only use an SSD purchased from Microsoft to upgrade. And though the PS5 uses a standard sized SSD, you can only use SSDs “approved” by Sony, which also limits your options. Despite these limitations, I believe that the intentional inclusion of tinkerability in the next-generation consoles is a heartening development for gamers and tinkerers.

Show and Tell: The Anatomy of a Computer

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Whether you want to do some actual tinkering (building or repairing) or simply want to effectively compare device models, it is important to have at least a basic understanding of the parts of a computer and how they mesh together. While devices take different shapes and sizes, just about every piece of technology, including your laptop, phone, and even your TV will contain these components I describe below. This post will not be a deep dive into how each of these components work, but I hope to impart a baseline understanding of what they look like, how they function, and how they fit together.

It is important to note that the form factor (basic size and shape) of each computer has a significant impact on what each of the components look like. A desktop computer motherboard will look different from that of a laptop and that of a phone. 

 

“The Backbone”

First, the motherboard. The motherboard acts as a home for the various components of the computer. All of the components in the rest of the post connect in one way or another to the motherboard, but similar to a backbone or spine, it is neither useful nor functional without anything attached to it!

Motherboards come, literally, in all shapes and sizes; they are often custom made for individual laptop, phone, and tablet models, and desktop computers alone have upwards of a dozen different motherboard sizes. 

 

“The Brain” 

What I am calling the “brain” of the computer consists of several different and highly interconnected parts. Each of these parts are responsible for the main computation of the computer or the short-term or long-term storage of data.

CPU- the thinker

The CPU (central processing unit) is sometimes referred to as the “brain” of a computer by itself. The CPU is optimized to perform a wide variety of diverse tasks, from computations on Excel spreadsheets to performing artificial intelligence  logic in a video game.  

RAM – the short-term memory

RAM, short for Random Access Memory, sometimes referred to as simply “memory” is very fast, but volatile storage. “Volatile” means when the computer is powered off, all data stored only in RAM will be lost. RAM has a very fast connection to the CPU and is useful in storing data actively being used by programs. 

Storage –  the long-term memory

A long-term storage device can come either in the form of a spinning hard disk drive (HDD) or a fully digital solid state drive (SSD). Unlike RAM, this type of storage is nonvolatile and retains data even without power.

HDDs are typically less expensive, particularly at higher capacities, but are slower and prone to data loss from magnets and shock damage from drops. SSDs are usually more expensive, but much faster, more reliable, and smaller than HDDs.

GPU – the visual cortex

The graphics card, also called the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), is optimized to perform similar, repetitive computations, making it able to efficiently and quickly produce frames in a video game and complete repetitive tasks such as video rendering.

GPUs can be very powerful, ready to play games or quickly render graphically intensive videos, but this also makes them get very physically hot. They may require several large fans to keep them safely cool, such as the one in the bottom of the picture above. Within smaller desktops and laptops, the GPU will be much smaller (for small desktops it may look like the GPU at the top of the image above), due to the decreased capacity to cool the parts within a smaller chassis. 

 

“The Face”

For the typical desktop computer, the display is a separate monitor, a completely external component, which can be easily swapped out and upgraded. For a laptop or phone, however, the display is deeply connected to its functionality. 

 

Knowing the anatomy of a computer is requisite to being able to tinker with it. A pre-built desktop computer is often more modular than you might think, with the capacity to add storage, upgrade RAM and GPU, and even, if you’re feeling adventurous, replace the CPU as well. It is also possible to purchase parts of a computer separately to build a computer for yourself as a more gratifying and cost-effective option to an off-the-shelf computer. It is harder to upgrade devices like laptops and phones where many of these components are soldered into larger, non-user-upgradeable pieces, but there are still opportunities to perform repairs and upgrades on components like batteries and broken screens.

 

There’s No Place Like Home (Screens)

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So far, I have only discussed tinkering related to physical things in the real world–tangible tinkering. While humans have engaged in tangible tinkering since they first used tools, the advent of computers opened a whole new world of digital tinkering.

Much of that digital tinkering, however, has (especially in recent decades) been limited and squashed by platform vendors. This makes sense. As computing platforms reached mainstream adoption, their designs changed to be more accessible and usable by anyone. With larger platforms, security from malware also became a legitimate concern. So, computers were locked down. Hack-y tinkering jobs to make a computer feel like one’s own moved from more difficult to impossible.

My goal today is not to argue the merits of locking down a computer system or leaving it open to tinkering and customization, nor do I want to argue about the relative openness of platforms or who added a feature first. Rather, I want to highlight one recent example of a shift away from locked down, conservative platform designs and how you can take advantage of this shift to do some tinkering to make your home screen your own. The only tool you need for this tinkering project is your own iPhone. 

In its latest operating system update, iOS 14, Apple greatly expanded the ability for users to customize their home screens. Now you can make your home screen look and function exactly the way you want it to. This hinges on two new-to-iOS 14 features and one feature with new use.

First, a few definitions:

App Library – The App Library is a place to store apps outside of the confines of the home screen. No longer do all apps require a “physical” place on the home screen; they can all stay in sorted folders in the App Library. The App Library is accessed by swiping left one more time after your last home screen.

Widgets – Though they have existed for years on Android, iOS has finally added widgets with iOS 14. Widgets can be seen as condensed versions of apps that always appear on the home screen–even if the app itself is not open! They come in sizes of 2×2 apps, 2×4 apps, and 4×4 apps. Any app can create widgets, and many of them offer different possibilities to customize those widgets.

Shortcuts App – Introduced in iOS 12, the shortcuts app allows you to automate many system functions on an iOS device.

Some tips to make your home screen your own:
  1. Clean the unnecessary apps from your home screen. Any app you do not need immediate access to might not deserve a place on the home screen. Remember, the app library is still easily accessible, and widgets take the place of anywhere from 4 to 16 apps. The right number of apps to have on the home screen will change from person to person, but if you can limit your home screen to one or two not-completely-filled home screens you will be well set up to add widgets and customize. 
  2. Create shortcuts and add them to your home screen  If you want to further customize the look of your home screen, you can create individual shortcuts each designed to open one of the apps on your home screen. You can then add the Shortcut to your home screen and change the shortcut icon to any photo, effectively creating a custom app icon. I created a few Shortcuts in a Windows 95 theme. 
  3. Add widgets. See what widgets you already have from your apps*, look into widget creation apps in the App Store, and decide which widgets deserve a place on your freshly cleaned home screen. Widgetsmith(link) is an immensely popular app that allows you to create and customize time, weather, astronomy, health, and reminder widgets with different colors, fonts, and styles. An app like Widgetsmith is helpful for an aesthetically themed home screen, while other app based widgets may present useful information.

*Press and hold on any part of the home screen to enter “jiggle mode.” On one of the top corners of your screen will be a “+” sign in a box. Click on it to reveal the widget menu.   

Final thoughts:

Is any of this…practical? Not necessarily. There is certainly the possibility to adorn your home screen with useful information previously hidden inside apps, but none of this needs to be practical. It can just create the phone aesthetic you want, and it can even just be fun. But more importantly, your iPhone does not belong to Apple. Your Android phone does not belong to Google or Samsung or Huawei. Your phone belongs to you, and you should be able to make it your own.

 

For more information: 

Marques Brownlee has a  helpful video on homescreen customization.

For a more in-depth look at Shortcuts, this video is a great start.

Show and Tell: Tools of the Trade

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Do tinkerers need tools? Of course they do! Although hands are the most fundamental “tools,” having the right tool for the job makes tinkering easier and more effective. In this post, I will give you a peek inside two of my toolkits. 

A note: While tools are necessary and helpful, they don’t have to be fancy or expensive, especially to start with. Your toolkit should reflect what you want to tinker with; there’s no reason to own tools you won’t use.

Diving into Electronics

For electronic devices of all sizes, my toolkit has just about everything I have needed. All-in-one kits similar to this are available from many different companies, but if you want to create your own toolkit piecemeal, here are important components: 

Essentials:

A set of screw bits or screwdrivers – Unfortunately, screws inside electronics are anything but standardized. For some devices, say, the iPhone, you will need several unique, tiny screwdriver bits. Other devices will require a completely different set of screwdriver bits. You can find a variety of kits designed to include most, if not all, bits you will need to open electronic devices. 

Both plastic and metal prying tools – Electronic devices are glued together, so prying tools are a necessity. Having both metal and plastic tools is particularly important when working with Lithium-ion batteries (which is almost every battery powered device from the past two decades) as accidentally puncturing a battery with a metal tool will cause an explosive reaction. 

Electrostatic discharge (ESD) protection – One of the ways you can inadvertently damage an electronic device is releasing built up static electricity on one of the components. The most common form of ESD protection is a grounding wristband which you connect to a piece of metal that acts as a path to ground for the electricity buildup. You may also find ESD safe gloves, which are insulators and prevent ESD from reaching the device (at least through your hands)!

Nice to haves:

Heating Device – Adhesive can be very stubborn, but it loses its hold when heat is applied. A hairdryer or microwavable device like the “iOpener” is a good and safe way to heat a device just enough to soften the adhesive and not so much as to cause any damage.

Playing cards and rubbing alcohol – Another trick to beat the unwavering grasp of adhesives is to take the corner of a playing card, dip it in rubbing alcohol, and wedge the card in between the two adhered objects. Rubbing alcohol is also good for cleaning corroded electrical contacts (and sanitizing your hands)!

ESD-free tweezers – Tweezers are a godsend for retrieving tiny screws and parts that drop into only slightly larger crevices in the device. Normal tweezers, however, do not fit the bill, as they risk building up static electricity and damaging an internal component. 

 

Fountain Pen Nib Tuning and Grinding

Sometimes a truly specialized toolkit is necessary to meet an eclectic need. Look no further than the nib tuning toolkit I assembled over the course of a couple years. 

12000 Grit sandpaper – Also known as “micro mesh,” this exceedingly fine sandpaper is used to smooth the tipping of nibs, giving the writing experience an overall smoother “feel.”

Dremel tool – A dremel tool is a small handheld electric rotary tool with a variety of attachments to cut, grind, and polish. Now, you may be asking, “Why would you want to take a dremel tool anywhere near an expensive pen?” That is a good question. The answer is similar to the question of why you would want a fountain pen in the first place: the way it writes. A dremel tool (in tandem with micro mesh) can be used to shape the tipping of the fountain pen nib, altering the width of the line the pen makes at various angles. 

A notebook or paper – When tinkering with the writing experience of a fountain pen, what better way to check your progress than to actually write with it? A quick writing test in this notebook tests smoothness and line variation. I’ve devoted the remaining pages of an old notebook to this job. 

A 10x Loupe – An important part of the nib grinding process is visually checking the shape of the nib. A loupe is a helpful magnifying glass-like device

 

Knowledge

The last “tool” is intangible. While not a tool in the typical sense, knowledge gives all the other tools their purpose. For most people, knowledge comes from research or hands-on learning with someone more skilled. It also comes from making mistakes. Strive to make your tinkering as well informed as you can, and when a mistake inevitably happens, prize your hard-earned lesson.

What is “tinkering,” anyway?

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I define tinkering as the process of creating positive change in things you already own. Rather than constructing something entirely new, tinkering is altering the condition of an item that already exists. This might range from repairing a broken phone screen to finding an application that makes computer workflow smoother, or setting up a physical workspace to meet one’s needs, or using a Dremel tool to reshape a nib on a fountain pen.  

Without an end goal, “tinkering” is nothing more than “fiddling.” The end goal of a tinkering project can take many forms, and tinkering often begins at a stumbling block or frustration in one’s daily life and aims to remove or remedy that frustration. 

Through this blog, I hope to share my experiences with tinkering projects, describe the troubleshooting process, offer advice and resources for tinkering, explore more eccentric applications of tinkering, and make a case for the right to repair. 

For my opening blog post, I would like to share my Three Tenets of Tinkering to establish the goals and showcase the broad applications of tinkering.

 

Tinkering Tenet 1: Disrepair is not the end.

The most obvious frustration solvable with tinkering is a broken object. In our throw-away society, most people don’t even consider fixing broken items, opting instead for immediate disposal and replacement. This mentality is harmful for our environment and deprives people of the delight of resurrecting a once-broken device. Tinkering is about seeing potential and striving to restore functionality. 

Inevitably, some attempts at tinkering will not end successfully. Sometimes you will be better off than you were before, but not fully improved. Sometimes you will be worse off. What remains constant is the opportunity to try again. Even a state of greater disrepair is a starting point for more tinkering.

 

Tinkering Tenet 2: “If you can’t fix it, you don’t own it.” (iFixit)

Many people are content to never see the inside of their devices. However, when you understand how your device works and how to fix it when it breaks, you gain full control and flexibility (you own your device.) Unfortunately, understanding how your device works and how to fix it has become steadily more difficult as manufacturers have deliberately made devices less repairable. 

As computers shifted from large individually constructed desktop towers to laptops, phones, and tablets, the ability to customize and repair those devices dropped dramatically. Unlike desktops with easily replaceable parts accessible with a screwdriver, phones or tablets (and even some laptops) are glued, with discrete components soldered together, and parts are almost completely unstandardized between brands and even models within a brand.

Movement toward less repairable devices does not necessarily make repair impossible, but increasingly often a repair will be impossible by independent tinkerers. I believe tinkering necessarily involves advocating for the Right to Repair to maintain the opportunity to have an understanding and ownership of one’s device that can only come from repairing it.

 

Tinkering Tenet 3: Tinkering is a push toward ideal.

Nothing is so perfect, nor so small, as to not benefit from tinkering. Now, the ideal is not necessarily achievable, but movement toward ideal most certainly is. “Ideal” has deeply personal connotations; thus, tinkering is also personal. For example, my mother, perfectly satisfied to write with a cheap ballpoint, cannot understand my obsession with restoring and customizing fountain pens. 

Frustration is the easiest starting point when considering a project to undertake, but tinkering can take something from satisfactory to wonderful. In other words, tinkering does not stop at mitigating frustrations. Tinkering can add whimsy and spark joy.