(Sunday, July 23, 2006) Truthfully, there’s just not much on tonight.  Wouldn’t tonight be a great night to get a start on that project you’ve been meaning to work on?

Tonight (all times are central):

• Ultimate… Crashes (National Geographic Channel, 4 p.m.) 
• Classic Tractor Specials (RFDTV, 8 p.m.)
• Classic Tractor Fever (RFDTV, 9 p.m.) 
• In a Fix: Surfers Hang Shelves (Discovery Home, 9 p.m.)
• Harley-Davidson: Birth of the V-Rod (Science Channel, 9 p.m.)
• Ultimate Cars: Episode 1 (Science Channel, 10 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild (Speed, 11 p.m.)
• Trading Spaces: San Francisco: Farm Hill Drive (TLC, midnight)

Our insomniac’s recommendation: Chop Cut Rebuild at 4 a.m. on Speed or Pimp My Ride anytime between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. on MTV.

Laurey, a company that manufactures all sorts of cabinet and drawer hardware, also produces a series of very useful guides to make it easy to locate and drill holes for hardware mounting.  We used their PerfectMount for Cabinets product this last weekend to install some kitchen cabinet pulls, and were impressed.

Not much description is required here: The PerfectMount guides are simply jigs that fit flush against the corners of your cabinet doors and offer perfectly-aligned holes to indicate where you should drill to attach hardware.  In the past we’ve made our own jigs for this purpose, but at a $5 street price, why bother?

Laurey offers a variety of PerfectMount guides, including versions designed for cabinets, drawers, and hidden hinges.  Laurey’s website is “under reconstruction” as of now, but they do offer a downloadable PDF of their full hardware catalog on the notice page.  Luckily, the PerfectMount guides are available all over.

Street Pricing [Froogle]

Reciprocating saws are incredibly handy.  Once you’ve used and owned one, you’ll never be without.  We’ve used ours to cut difficult-to-reach wood and metal and for demolition.  We’ve also carried cordless versions to the junkyard; There’s no easier way to free a part or get exactly what you want from that rustbucket.  But someties it can be tricky getting the saw in where you really want it.  Enter Porter-Cable’s TigerClaw Variable Angle reciprocating saw.

It’s pretty much like any other corded reciprocating saw you’ve used with the significant advantage of a gear housing on the front that can rotate through 360 degrees and angled up to 180 degrees.  What this means to you is that you can “bend” the front of the saw around to make it just about any shape you want to fit it in where you need it. 

Besides its Gumby-like abilities, the TigerClaw is a capable saw with an 11.5 AMP motor and a 1-1/4″ cutting stroke.  It’s got a soft grip handle, and a keyless blade clamp.

Street pricing starts just shy of $200, and you can find these saws all over in stores and on the ‘net.

The TigerClaw Variable Angle Tiger Saw [Porter-Cable]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

We’ve received a number of requests by email that we create a Toolmonger forum to allow readers to more directly interact with us and with each other.  It sounds like a fun idea to us, but a forum’s only as interesting as those who regularly visit and post.

We’d likely contribute to the forum by offering some more interim information about the projects we’re working on and tools we’re currently testing — as opposed to waiting entirely until the post is ready.  But what would you as our readership like to talk about in a forum?

If you have a minute, we’d appreciate it if you’d drop us a line — either with a comment or via our contact page — and let us know what you think: Would you visit a Toolmonger forum to discuss tool and project related subjects?

Of course, we’re also entering the last week of the Game Chair Giveaway, and we’re looking forward to sending the game chair on to the lucky winner.  Your valid comment here — or elsewhere on the site — automatically enters you to win.

As we’ve mentioned before, we have a truly incredible prize lined up for August, but you’re just going to have to wait for the 1st to roll around to see what it is.  You’re going to love it, though.

If you’ve ever tried to cram your drill into a tight or odd-shaped space, you’re a candidate for Milescraft’s Drill Orbiter — an extreme extension of the 90-degree drill attachment concept.

The Orbiter consists of a spherically-shaped rotating head assembly with a drill input shaft, chuck, and handle.  What makes the Orbiter special is that the head assembly is split into two hemispheres, each of which can rotate separately to create an incredible range of extension angles.  The handle also makes it easy to control the drill once you’ve created an angle shape that’ll let you fit it in the spot where you need it.

The Orbiter features a 3/8″ hex shaft for drill drive, which means you can use it with 3/8″ and 1/2″ chuck drills.  It includes a 3/8″ keyless chuck, and the handle has a soft rubber grip.

Street pricing starts around $30, and you can find the Orbiter online and in most big-box home improvement stores.

The Drill Orbiter [Milescraft]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

(Saturday, July 22, 2006) If you haven’t already seen the new MythBusters episode “Steam Cannon,” you’ll have two chances tonight — and you should take one of them.  Watching them shoot a cannonball almost a mile with just steam is worth your time.

Tonight (all times are central):

• MythBusters: Salsa Escape (Discovery, 6 p.m.)
• Flip That House: Attack of the Flippers (Discovery Home, 6 p.m.)
• Pinks: Gainesville (Speed, 6 p.m.)
• Pinks: Arizona (Speed, 6:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Steam Cannon (Discovery, 7 p.m.)
• Extreme Machines: Emergency Vehicles (Science Channel, 7 p.m.)
• Warbots (Military Channel, 7 p.m.)
• Extreme Engineering: Subways in America (Science Channel, 8 p.m.) 
• Trading Spaces: San Francisco: Farm Hill Drive (TLC, 9 p.m.)
• Building the Ultimate: The Big Dig (Science Channel, 9 p.m.)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 9 p.m.)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 9:30 p.m.)
• Trading Spaces: Hudson River Valley: Merritt Avenue (TLC, 10 p.m.)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 10 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Steam Cannon (Discovery, 11 p.m.)
• Extreme Engineering: Subways in America (Science Channel, 11 p.m.)
• Monster Garage: Trophy Truck/Baja Part 2 (Discovery HD, midnight)

Our insomniac’s recommendation: The Practical Woodworker on RFDTV at 2 a.m.

If you’ve been busy in the shop this week and haven’t had time to keep up with Toolmonger, we recommend checking out the following posts when you have a chance:

Project Garage: Yukon Engine Swap (Part 1)
In this first post we check out all the options for adding some much-needed power to an otherwise-tight 1995 Yukon GT with some interesting results.  Our new engine arrives, and we walk you though how to obtain factory manuals from GM.

Hands-On: The Black & Decker Li3000 SmartDriver
We give our first-hand impression of this slick tool for use around the home and shop.  The verdict in short: nice.

Hands-On: The Bosch Litheon Pocket Driver
Here’s our follow-up to our hands-on coverage of the I-Driver.  The PS20 Pocket Driver offers the same kind of grunt in a pistol-grip form factor.  You’ll want to give this a read; If you’re carrying around a big 3/8″ or 1/2″ monster, you might not have to any more.

RotoZip’s New RZ02: Down ‘n Simple Drywall
RotoZip harken’s back to its roots with a less-expensive and simpler version of their trademark spiral saw in a kit designed for drywall use.

Book Review: Welding Essentials — Questions and Answers
This is an extremely handy book that can serve as education and reference and should find its way onto the shelves of welders everywhere.

If you don’t have a variety of clamps around your shop, you’re missing out.  Sure, they’re useful for holding wood together while glue dries, but that’s just the start.  They’re useful in just about any situation where you could use an extra hand.  We’ve even used them to hold a book open on the workbench.  Really.

Irwin’s Handi-Clamps are one of our favorites for these “special” tasks because they’re so easy to use — simply ratchet them down and pull the trigger to release ‘em when you’re done.  We can’t give you numbers, but we can tell you that their clamping force is pretty substantial.  Best yet, you don’t really have to break your hand to get them to clamp down firmly.

The Handi-Clamps come in 1-1/2″, 2″, and 4″ sizes with corresponding throat depths of 1-1/2″, 2″, and 3″.  We have about half a dozen in the clamp drawer here.

Street pricing starts around $4 each, and you can sometimes find them in sets for an even better value.  (Believe us when we say you’ll want a few of ‘em.)

Quick-Grip Handi-Clamp [Irwin]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

We were shopping for left-curve aviation snip today and came across this great set from Stanley.  We’d set out looking only for a left-curve, but at $30, why not have them all?

The set includes left-curve, right-curve, and straight snips which meet ANSI standards.  What caught our eye were the nice, soft rubber grips.  They’re made up of two different materials, one harder to help you control the tool, and a secondary, softer back grip to keep you from getting blisters using them.

For those who’ve never used snips, they’re manufactured in left and right versions because it’s extremely difficult to cut a curve with straight snips without badly bending and distorting the material through the curve,  The slight curve built into the left and right curve snips keeps the tool from distorting the metal (as much).  Of course, you’ll find that you distory the material less and less with practice.

Stanley recommends them for cutting aluminum, vinyl siding, screening, cardboard, leather, and copper, and that pretty much sums up how we’ve used them.

We found this set at Lowe’s for $30, though they’re available elsewhere as well.

3-Piece Aviation Snip Set [Stanley Tools]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

Eastwood Co’s emailing subscribers today with an interesting daily special: a 3-piece adjustable profile gauge set.  If you haven’t seen profile gauges before, you’ll want to check it out — they’re pretty slick.

Essentially, they consist of a formable material that can be captured between a two-sided, firm frame.  To emulate curves on a surface, simply form the material to match, then lock it down with the frame.  Now you can carry the form-fitted gauge around to check other shapes against the one you captured.  In the photo in the email you see a gauge in common use — matching the curve of a Jaguar headlight cowling, probably to compare it to the other side to make sure they’re the same.

Anyway, the gauges are on sall for $49.99 (from $56.99) and come in a kit of three including 5″, 10″ and 15″ gauges.  They’re also for sale individually (though not discounted) should you require only one.

Adjustable Profile Guides [Eastwood Co.]

(Friday, July 21, 2006) Discovery Home is loaded up tonight with home improvement fare, and you can catch some classic Monster Garage and American Chopper on Discovery HD — assuming you’re HD-equipped. 

Speed’s all NASCAR, all the time tonight.  We didn’t list it here, but if that’s your thing, flip on over anytime.

Tonight:

• How It’s Made: Episode 30: Metal Fances, Asphalt Shingles, Expanded Polystyrene, Hard Candles (Discovery, 6 p.m. CDT)
• How It’s Made: Episode 37: Radiators, Hatchery Chicks, Phyllo Dough, Cross-Country Skis (Discovery, 6:30 p.m. CDT)
• Building the Ultimate: After the Wall: Rebuilding of Berlin (Science Channel, 7 p.m. CDT)
• Trading Spaces: Colorado: Cherry Street (Discovery Home, 7 p.m. CDT) 
• Extreme Engineering: Sakhalin Oil & Ice (Discovery, 8 p.m. CDT)
• Monster Garage: Trophy Truck/Baja Part 1 (Discovery HD, 8 p.m. CDT)
• Toolbelt Diva: New Door (Discovery Home, 8 p.m. CDT)
• Toolbelt Diva: The Entertaining Kitchen (Discovery Home, 8:30 p.m. CDT)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 8:30 p.m. CDT)
• Monster Garage: Trophy Truck/Baja Part 2 (Discovery HD, 9 p.m. CDT) 
• Building America’s Home: The Foundation of America’s Home (Discovery Home, 9 p.m. CDT)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 9 p.m. CDT)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 9:30 p.m. CDT)
• Trading Spaces 6: Go for Broke (Discovery Home, 10 p.m. CDT)
• American Chopper: FANtasy Bike - Joseph McClendon (Discovery HD, 10 p.m. CDT)
• Toolbelt Diva: New Door (Discovery Home, 11 p.m. CDT)
• Monster Garage: Trophy Truck/Baja Part 1 (Discovery HD, 11 p.m. CDT)
• Toolbelt Diva: The Entertaining Kitchen (Discovery Home, 11:30 p.m. CDT)
• Flip That House: From Trash to Class (Discovery Home, midnight CDT)

Our insomniac’s recommendation: MTV’s running a Pimp My Ride marathon all through the overnight from midnight to 6 a.m. CDT.

Earlier this week we mentioned that we brought a few new projects into the garage, and this is one of them: a beautiful 1995 Yukon GT — the two door version — that spent its easy 24,000 mile life in Arizona.

As clean and nice as the Yukon might be, though, it’s horribly underpowered.  With the stock 5.7L (350 CID) engine producing only just shy of 200 HP, this SUV makes a lot of racket but doesn’t really do much to move itself.  The question we’ve been pondering is how to give this creampuff a much-needed injection of power without sacrificing driveability or reliability.

In our minds, one of the big factors in driveability is fuel injection.  We don’t want to give up the Yukon’s instant start capability, and we don’t want to be crawling back under the hood every time the weather changes, either.  So high on our list is keeping the injection.  Calls to numerous crate motor manufacturers made it clear that dropping in an injected crate motor would be very, very difficult.  Most of the pre-configured injection systems available are designed more for installation in older, carb’d engines as opposed to integrating with other modern systems like an electronically-controlled transmission and computer controlled gauge package.  In short, we were told that to install an injected crate motor we could expect to scrap the transmission and build our own gauge package for the dash.  And we could forget the climate control.  Ouch!

Enter GM Performance and their very thorough catalog.  It was a bit difficult to track down these guys.  Calls to GM directly were answered by people who’d either never heard of the performance division or forwarded us to someone else they thought might know something.  Eventually one of them did, and we were informed that GM Performance parts are only sold through dealers which support the program.  Currently there are five of them in the US.  Luckily, one of them is located relatively near our offices and shop here in Texas, so we made a beeline there.

(more…)

Having recently reviewed both the Skil iXO and the Black & Decker SmartDriver, we couldn’t help but noticed the Kobalt version on the shelves at Lowes today.

It appears similar to the others externally in terms of form factor, and it features a top-mounted switch like the Black & Decker.  Interestingly, Kobalt does print a torque specification on the packaging: 43 in-lbs.

Where the Kobalt really differs from the others is in terms of packaged accessories.  While both the iXO and the SmartDriver come with a charging stand, the Kobalt uses a simpler wall-wart with a cord that plugs into the tool.  It also ships with just two bits — a standard and Phillips.

This is reflected in the price, which at $29.97 is about $10-$15 less than the Skil and Black & Decker tools.  We haven’t yet held or used one, but we’ll let you know more when we get the chance.  Of course, Lowe’s sells all three, so if you’re in the market you can do your own on-site comparison.

The Kobalt 3.6V Li-Ion Battery Cell Screwdriver [Lowe's]

Utility blades come in a number of different styles and serve a variety of needs from opening boxes to cutting up drywall.  These knives need to be rugged, safe and easy to operate.

Stanley’s Quickslide clearly meets those requirements, but seems to fit into an interesting niche for those performing full-depth cutting where accurate control is needed.  Its unique combination of pocket-knife shape and beefy retract mechanism allow it to perform very well in this role, and distinguish it from other knives.  Read on for details.

Unpacking

The first time the blade thumped into our hands from the package we noticed that it feels very solid and substantial.  It fits as if molded for optimum cutting angle, as you can see in the photo on the right below.  The blade extends and retracts via a sliding mechanism, reducing the size of the Quickslide by about a third when retracted.

  

Thankfully, gone are the days of unscrewing your knife and pulling it apart to change the blade.  To change the blade on the Quickslide, you simply flip up a small lock on the top of the blade extension, pull out the old blade and insert the new one, then push the lock back into place.

An oversized belt clip adorns the back of the knife, but it’s also  completely removable with three small hex bolts if wearing the knife on a belt clips make you feel a bit too Batman-ish.  In the retracted form factor, the Qucikslide is surprisingly easy to carry in a pocket.

In Use

The weight from the die-cast zinc casing makes for a steady hand when using the Quickslide.  You can hear an audible “click” when the blade is opened and closed, which makes it easy to assure that it’s locked into position for use or safe carrying.  The snap-locking mechanism has a solid feel, is easy to operate, and doesn’t give way to bending when pressed hard.

All in all, we found the Qucikslide very solid and durable in use.  Its weight and shape makes for a good, clean, controllable cut.  When we tried carrying it around both in a pocket and clipped to a belt, the slide never came loose, which is reassuring; There’s very little less fun than slicing yourself with a half open razor blade.

Conclusions

The Quickslide is defiantly one of the safest feeling utility knives we have used, with the slide lock and front loading blade removal. The slide lock is an excellent safety feature.  However, additional locking positions in the slide mechanism — besides just fully deployed or fully retracted — would add a lot of utility to this knife.  If you’re used to using your utility knife to cut open boxes or make shallow cuts, the Quickslide won’t work for you. 

When we passed the Quickslide on to a couple of friends who use utility knives all day in their jobs, they told us that they wished the Quickslide had a spot for extra blades.  They often go through a few a day, but in their case they’re not carrying a toolbox or other storage device.  Of course, this would make the Quickslide larger, which would remove some of its uniqueness.

So, if you’re using your utility knife only in full-open mode and you don’t mind not having additional blades with you, this is a very, very fine knife that’ll give you additional control and portability over a standard utility knife.  It’d be great to keep in your toolbox for heavy use at home or on the jobsite, or to carry in a pocket for occasional use. 

And, for an average street price of $10 the Quickslide provides a well thought out option to standard ultility blades.

Quickslide Ultility Blade [Stanley Tools]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

(Thursday, July 20, 2006) Looks like Discovery’s taking a bit of a break after last night’s extravaganza.  Still, there’s some good viewing to be had tonight.  Of course, if you have other things to do — tonight’s probably the night to get out and do them.

Tonight:

• How It’s Made: Episode 31: Horse-Drawn Carriages, Artificial Eyes, Dog/Cat Food, Mirrors (Discovery, 6 p.m. CDT)
• How It’s Made: Episode 35: Inflatable Watercraft, Couscous, Modeling Dough, Wicker Products (Discovery, 6:30 p.m. CDT)
• Building the Ultimate: Built Long, Built Strong (Science Channel, 7 p.m. CDT)
• Classic Tractor Specials (RFDTV, 7 p.m. CDT)
• Flip That House: From Trash to Class (Discovery Home, 9 p.m. CDT)
• Pimp My Ride (MTV, 10 p.m. CDT)
• MythBusters: Scuba Diver and Car Capers (Discovery, midnight CDT)
• The Man Who Built His Own Submarine: Episode 1 (Science Channel, midnight CDT)
• Unique Whips: Lincolns, Strippers and Bentleys, Oh My! (Speed, midnight CDT)

Our insomniac’s recommendation: The MythBusters mini-marathon on Discovery starting at midnight with Scuba Diver and Car Capers then continuing with the new-as-of-yesterday Steam Cannon and a re-run of Son of a Gun.  Or, if you’re more in a car mood, try the Palm Beach Barrett-Jackson stop at 3 a.m. on Speed.

The unpleasant task of checking the air conditioning filter once again fell upon us recently. What makes it unpleasant is the overwhelming feeling that the filter has been left in forever and is hanging to life by the thinnest of threads. If you’re like us, remembering when you last changed the a/c filter is about like remembering what shirt you were wearing three weeks ago. If you rack your brain long enough, it might come to you, but the outlook is grim.

With that in mind and with the good of our ever-faithful A/C unit at heart, a friend of ours suggested that we – wait for it — write the date on the filter at the time of service. 

It hit us like a hammer that we should have been doing this for years now.  So, the next time you’re loading that filter into an air return, grab a Sharpie and scribble down the date on the filter itself.  A month or so down the road you might not remember, but the filter will.

We’ve been doing quite a bit of welding lately, and we’ve got a number of “how-to” features coming up on the subject.  In the meantime, though, we’d like to share with you one book that we’ve found to be of significant help in the learning (and reference) process: Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers by William Galvery and Frank Marlow.

They tackle the simple and advanced concepts involved in welding via a very friendly “Q&A” style format, indexed in the front by welding type and process for easy reference.  These questions really are “frequently asked” — they tend to be closely related to the questions you find floating around in your head while considering the welding process.

What makes this book particularly useful is its significant depth.  It answers a lot of questions about the welding process, but it also answers other procedural questions not generally addressed by non-textbook publications.  For example:

Q: Are all oxygen cylinders painted green?

A: Absolutely not.  Frequently, oxygen cylindres are painted green or have a green band, but the only sure way to determine the contents of a compressed gas cylinder is to read the adhesive label on it.  This lable is required by law and should not be removed.  Do not go by its color as there is no color code.  Unlike civilian industry, the US armed forces do  color code their cylinders.

Besides the most common welding techniques such as oxyacetylene welding and cutting, SMAW (stick), GMAW (MIG), and GTAW (TIG), ‘Essentials surveys other less common techniques such as electron beam welding, electroslag welding, friction welding, and laser beam cutting and welding. 

‘Essentials also covers some welding planning techniques such as those required to control distortion — there’s a whole chapter dedicated to distortion — and those required to read welding diagrams.

All in all, ‘Essentials offers a broad overview of welding and is a great book to have on your shelf if you’re a casual or pro welder.  It’s like having a very experienced pro sitting there on the shelf waiting to answer your questions at any time of day or night. 

The version we reviewed is labeled “Expanded First Edition!  Now includes an entire new chapter on ‘Fabrication and Repair Tips.’”  Indeed it does.  Industrial Press also offers a whole Q&A-style book on the subject titled “Welding Fabrication and Repair.”  Look for a review here in the near future.

Street pricing starts around $30.

Galvery, William, and Frank Marlow. Welding Essentials: Questions and Answers. New York, NY: Industrial Press, Inc., 2001.  ISBN: 0-8311-3151-9

Street Pricing [Froogle]