You thought you were done outfitting your shop — Stanley’s taken a rather mundane staple of the shop, a stacking parts bin, and found a way to make you want to throw out your old bins and buy new ones.  They equipped an 11.5″ deep by 6-3/8″ wide by 5-1/8″ high bin with a sliding cover, not unlike a rolltop desk, and gave it a handle for easy transport.

The sliding cover on the Stock and Carry clicks shut to keep the contents inside and dust and dirt out.  You can sit them on a workbench, hang them from racks, or put them Stanley’s Lock and Stock Organizer.

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Red from Shawshank Redemption tells us that “Geology is the study of pressure and time.” It seems that geology and bedroom closets have much in common. Over time, a small amount of crap we don’t need multiplies to epic proportions inside this all-too-finite area. When the closet nears bursting and the impending clutter bomb threatens to pop the door from the hinges, the twin axioms of organization must be wielded like the hammer of Thor — pare down the excess and add storage.

Several trash bags full of junk in the trash and a trip to the local donation center saw half the offending objects removed from my bedroom area. The rest now neatly piled in front of the bed would need a new home. A look at the top of the closet was all I needed to realize that there was a ton of unused space in that area. I needed a set of built-ins.

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Think of Strong Hand Tools’ Expand-O pliers like a pair of Vice-Grips (or Vice-Grip knock-offs) in reverse — squeezing the handles spreads and locks the jaws rather than clamping them down. The “jaws” can exert 500 lbs. of spreading pressure and, just like your Vice-Grips, a lever quickly releases them when you’re finished spreading.

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There are a lot of tricks and tools for spacing deck boards evenly, but how many of them give you perfectly aligned screw heads too? Jason Lindquist designed FastCap’s DeckMaster to help the amateur and pro alike build professional-looking decks.

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Take a moment and think about what a rotary hammer does. Yeah, it makes holes in materials like concrete by spinning fast — that’s the rotary part. It also slams the tip of the drill bit into the surface up to 4,300 times per minute. But not all of that energy finds its way to the surface; some of it gets transferred back to the operator — oh, my aching joints!

The point behind Dewalt’s new SHOCKS system is to reduce the amount of vibration transferred to the operator. To accomplish this, they mount the rear handle of the tool on shocks. They claim this reduces strain and fatigue, and increases control of the tool.

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This photo by reader Litcritter is the kind of image that either inspires action and excitement or a terrible sinking feeling in the pit of your gut. Around here this kind of sight can be seen starting back up again in the end of the summer with the weather backing off its triple-digit assault.

Though most folks will tell you reseating your home on its foundation or throwing in a few anchors is scary — and honestly it is — renovation and home projects in general fill weekend air almost daily in the months ahead.

Our hat is off to Litcritter and his home on a hill, and we hope the process goes as smoothly and inexpensively as is possible when a digger shows up for duty on your lawn.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Since we’ve seen Bosch ramp up dust collection on their rotary hammers, you’d expect other manufacturers to be following suit. Recently, Dewalt introduced their D25301D-XJ Dust Extraction Telescope for their corded and cordless SDS rotary hammers.

Adding only 1.4 lbs. to your rotary hammer, the Dust Extractor can be used to drill dust-free holes up to 16 mm (5/8″) in diameter and 150 mm (~6″) deep. It’s easy to assemble and remove without tools and comes with with a 150 cm (5′) long, 35 mm (1-3/8″) diameter rubber hose and a side handle.

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Yes, I’m writing about a kitchen appliance — this is still Toolmonger, no need to check your browser. Go back and look at the above picture. Take a minute and figure out how the beaters actually spin and then come back and tell me that isn’t cool. I’ll wait. Read the rest of this entry »

I have been working/traveling for the last month almost non-stop. Last weekend I finally crashed at home with a pile of reviews to write and paperwork stacked beyond the capacity of the backpack that usually contains them. However, before anything could be done in the way of clearing the mess, surgery had to take place. My laptop was on its last leg — again.

As my last birthday officially landed me in my mid-thirties I realized that I had become “that guy.” The one bent over a table trying to save a laptop, worth about C-note in today’s market, with the same tools my father used to salvage a coo-coo clock 30 years ago.

When I asked him back then why he bothered with a piece of junk such as that, he just grumbled something about being “perfectly fine” which was followed by a “…nothing is wrong with it; you’ll see.” Almost 30 years later I find myself in the same boat.

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We’ve seen mods where people have modified their keys to fit into a Leatherman-like multi-tool, but yesterday Lifehacker featured the KeyTool Keyring Multi-tool from ThinkGeek, which wraps around an unaltered key.

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Imagine my surprise when I was a Harbor Freight last Friday and saw a Central Machinery drill press table for $30. I just worked a handful of nights and spent that much alone for the T-slot router bit to build my own table for the last part of the DP 350 review.

Toolmonger covered the inexpensive MLCS table before, which cost $60, but you had to deal with the wait and the shipping charges. In comparison, Rockler’s cheapest table runs $100 and their deluxe model runs $120. This table from Harbor Freight beats the cheapest one mentioned by $30.

But what does $30 buy you? First, the 1″ thick particle board table measures 23-7/8″ by 11-5/8″ and can accept a sacrificial throat insert to back up your holes. The 1″ thick fence rides on an aluminum T-track and is adjusted by loosening two top mounted knobs. A T-slot in the fence accepts other accessories, like the included stop block. The T-track on the table can also be used to mount hold-downs and other accessories. Along both of the aluminum T-Tracks is a ruled stick-on tape for setting the fence.

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This is part three of a series where I take a look at the Delta DP 350 drill press. If you missed the first two parts, check out the links at the bottom of the article.

In part II, I left off mentioning that Rockler had just put this drill press on sale and I wondered if Rockler would refund me the difference. It never hurts to ask, so I asked my local store if they’d give me store credit for the difference. Without hesitation, they said sure. They would have refunded the difference to my credit card if I hadn’t had another $50 of stuff to buy anyway. It wasn’t even a problem that my receipt got wet and the bar code was unreadable. And no, they have no idea who I am; I have no doubt they would have done this for any customer. All in all, a stand up corporation.

First Real Test

My first real project with the drill press was boring holes for a pair of dry erase marker holders. I needed a series of 1/2″ diameter holes 1-3/4″ deep in some red oak. To set the depth stop, I drilled the first hole approximately 1-1/2″ deep and then incrementally drilled a bit more and checked the depth with a caliper until the hole was 1-3/4″ deep. Then I set the depth stop from that first hole.

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Shop-Vac’s turbo nozzle may not be a new tool, but it’s new to me. Let me back up. I own a dog, a German Shepherd to be precise. She loves to ride in my truck and I’m constantly reminded of this fact by the hair she leaves all over the seats. Whenever I get sick of the hair, I drag out the turbo brush from my Dyson and stick it on my garage Shop-Vac. It works okay, but doesn’t fit well and it’s only held on by suction when the vacuum runs.

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Ever need to drill through the middle of round stock? Sure, you can use a center finder to find the center at the edge of the stock, but how do you accurately find the center in the middle of the stock? One cool solution would be to use a round bar center finder, like the one from Grizzly pictured above.

To use the tool, you need to chuck the center finder’s 3/8″ shank into a drill press. Then when both of the legs of the Y are resting on the bar stock and the two notches line up, the drill press chuck is directly over the center of the stock.

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Manufacturers are pouring on the effort when it comes to line-count-expanding cordless accessories — everything from job site radios to vacuums, specialty flashlights, and even digital cameras. But do you really expect this kind of functionality in your 10.8/12V or 18V cordless tools?

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Forget carrying signs and buying Priuses. Here’s the kind of environmental activism we can get behind: The Stroud Valleys Project in Gloucestershire, UK, was formed in 1988 “to help protect the industrial heritage of Stroud and its five valleys.” But besides gathering to create ponds and scrapes and planting new trees, the SVP recently began collecting and restoring manual gardening tools. They offer the cleaned-up second-hand tools for sale at their eco shop, and they also offer them at reduced cost (or free) to limited-income families interested in creating their own garden.

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Many people have a hitch receiver on their vehicle, but how many actually use them on a regular basis?  Sometimes you see a fourth brake light shoved into one, or they sport a fake propeller or Autobot badge to demonstrate the vehicle owner’s whimsical personality. With the HitchSafe you can put the hitch receiver to better use as a place to securely store valuables or spare keys.

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