I have altered this blog. Pray I do not alter it any further.

I have three things for you right now:

Thing One:
I've modified my personal/profile info for this blog somewhat, due to paranoia my renewed interest in privacy concerns. This shouldn't change anything for most of you since, as far as I can tell, there are only half a dozen people reading it, and you all know who I am.

Thing Two:
I have found another important reference book for makers. In my opinion, this title ranks with Machinery's Handbook (which, if you haven't already got a copy, means that either you do not work with metal at all, or you DO work with metal, but your entire tool collection consists of a bag of hammers).

This "new" classic title is the Tool & Manufacturing Engineers Handbook, published by the Society of Manufacturing Engineers. Mine is the 3rd edition, ©1979, and as far as I can tell, none of the basics for which it is a reference have changed since it was written. I picked it up dirt cheap, used, all three thousand trade format pages of it, through Alibris, a clearinghouse for small booksellers which I highly recommend.

Thing Three:
Here is a reference page about nuts and bolts, containing handy demystification of basic concepts needed to use them skilfully and properly:

http://www.gizmology.net/nutsbolts.htm

So useful I archived it, as I generally do with useful web pages or sites, as they have a nasty habit of disappearing abruptly, leaving you without the info unless you saved it yourself. Disk space is cheap, your time is not.