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The World’s Tiniest Woodworking Tools Are Actually Functional

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Barely larger than its creator’s thumbnail, the world’s tiniest cordless drill actually works, producing holes that might have been created by some kind of wood-boring insect rather than a tool. Lance Abernathy of New Zealand managed to 3D print an astonishingly small drill powered by a hearing aid battery, taking about three hours to solder and assemble all the parts. He used a regular-sized cordless drill as reference, taking its measurements and then translating them into millimeters. The result, shown in the video below, is even smaller than the tiny working drill published by Flickr user s8 in 2009 (pictured above.)

But that’s not even where tiny woodworking tools stop. Sometime in the 1990s, a craftsman named Wm. R. Robertson spent over 1,000 hours hand-carving and assembling all of the tiny tools you see in the toolbox below, including the chest itself, which measures two inches and features dovetailed drawers and a working lock.

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Instagram user Marco Terenzi also creates mini woodworking tools, showing off his work on Instagram. Though not quite as small in scale, his saws, presses, joints, drawers, calipers and other miniatures are all functional.

Check out more photos of tiny tools over at Vice.

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