The Garage Journal – Page 6 – Garage Design & Tools For The Working Man!

60 Minutes & A Laser!

Three weeks ago, I couldn’t have told you the difference between a CO2 laser and a fiber laser if my life depended on it. Lasers, in general, struck me as the kind of tool better suited to a converted craft room than a proper workshop. Cute machines that lightly scratch initials into coasters and cut questionable materials with precision. Then XTool sent me the P2S—a 55W CO2 laser with a 600x305mm bed. It showed up on my doorstep, and within an hour of the UPS truck disappearing down the street, I had it unboxed, set up, and humming. A few …

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Projects

The Atomic S/MC

A few years back, I built a bench that ended up becoming a bit of a thing. It was called the Atomic BF/MFT—basically my own oversized take on the Festool MFT. I wanted something that could handle full sheet goods, offer endless clamping options, and stand up to just about anything I threw at it. It worked. People took notice. I ended up building a few for friends, and over time, hundreds of others followed suit with their own versions. Of all the things I’ve built, it’s probably been the most productive and efficient tool in my shop. But woodworking …

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Reviews & Features

The Anycubic Kobra S1 Combo

A few months back, I did a head-to-head between the Bambu X1 Carbon and the Prusa MK4. When the dust settled, I admitted I liked the ease of use with the X1C, but philosophically? I’m more in line with Prusa—their stance on privacy, open-source ethos, and their overall take on the 3D printing world just feels more grounded. I’ve been in the 3D printing game since the dark ages. My first setup was a bargain-bin Ender, and back then, a 15-hour print was standard—and if it actually finished without imploding, that was a miracle. Printing wasn’t about creating things; it …

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Reviews & Features

The MeePlus A5 Shop Notebook

I’ve been using an XL Moleskine as a shop notebook for damn near a decade—one a year, like clockwork. There’s a stack of them now, seven deep, lined up like the archives of a mad scientist. And yeah, there’s a kind of romance to it. Weathered faux-leather, dog-eared pages, the smell of ink and failure. I can flip back through them like old war logs—scars from projects long buried and half-won. But romanticism has a price… and it’s inflexibility. You want to glue a blueprint in there? Better grab the glue stick like a schoolboy. False starts? Irrelevant notes? Tough …

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Featured Spaces

How The World’s Finest Pencils Are Made

To be perfectly clear, I have no burning desire to own a $500 mechanical pencil. That’s the kind of excess that sends a man spiraling into existential crisis—standing in the checkout line, wondering where it all went wrong. But what does set my nerve endings on fire is the stubborn, almost fanatical commitment to tradition—products built the same way, generation after generation, not just to maintain quality, but to preserve the craft itself. That’s the good fight. That’s the kind of madness I can get behind. Which is why this video is pure gold. Yard-O-Led isn’t just making writing instruments—they’re keeping a …

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