With a sharp chisel, a skilled carpenter can create a hinge mortise in less time than it takes to set up a router and jig to do it. That said, there are still those who prefer to perform the task with a router, and this presents a problem if installing hinges with corners. Since router bits are round, they can only create...

Stephen Fazio was an engineering student at the Georgia Institute of Technology when he came up with an idea for a toy. He collaborated with buddy Austin Hillam, then an engineering student at Brigham Young University, to create the ZipString. It uses a tiny motor to rapidly drive the string in an airborne loop,...