[HN Gopher] Periodic Table of Tools
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Periodic Table of Tools
Author : andyjohnson0
Score : 215 points
Date : 2023-11-26 12:14 UTC (10 hours 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.
| 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.
| 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)?
| 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.
| 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).
| 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!
| 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.
| 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.
| 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
| 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...
| 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.
| dvh wrote:
| No Burke bar among pry bars? Sacrilege!
| 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.
| 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.
| 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".
| nealabq wrote:
| you're suggesting a periodic table of all periodic tables
| that do not contain themselves. sounds doable.
| 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.
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