Holding it down — that’s half the battle when it comes to woodworking. (”Knowing” is the other half, right?) Just keep it still. Think of the KREG Universal Bench Klamp as a pair of adjustable locking pliers mounted to the workbench. This idea is that the system allows you to apply an incredible amount of pressure to the joint line.
(Tuesday, September 26th, 2006) What happened to Tuesday? It was so full of promise, and now we’re stuck with just a handful of shows. ZZ Top is cool though; Don’t miss their appearance on Rides.
All times are central.
Our insomniac’s suggestions: Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 1 a.m.).
You’ve got to give Ryobi some credit for extending their One+ line well beyond the standard drill, recip, circ, and flashlight. We’ve already written about their fan — a great idea — and now they’ve released a radio, too — both powered by the standard 18V Ryobi One+ batteries.
We keep a small-box media blast unit in the shop to clean up small parts and such, and we’ve found it extremely useful — so useful, in fact, that we’ve considered picking up a larger open-air unit to use outside. It’s a pretty big investment, though, and the large ones take quite a bit of time to set up (and clean up).
Something like this might be a good interim fix: It’s a small hand-held unit that gravity feeds from a top reservoir and plugs right into your standard air compressor line.
It’s almost October, which means Halloween’s approaching quickly. When you were a kid, Halloween was all about the costumes. As an adult, it’s all about the parties. And of all the holidays — save, maybe, Christmas — Halloween seems to demand the most elaborate decorations and parties.
But no matter how elaborate the decorations, they mean exactly squat if you don’t have an exquisitely-carved pumpkin. Well, Dremel’s here to help. This year they’re again offering their cordless pumpkin carving kit — an inexpensive, battery-powered, two-speed rotary tool complete with bit, instructions, and even templates.
(Monday, September 25th, 2006) DIY’s running some “classic” episodes of This Old House, which is usually a pretty good watch, and it’s TGIM on Discovery with special episodes of American Chopper and American Hot Rod.
(We can’t pass up a little poke, though: Maybe the Hot Rod episode should really be named “Boyd Coddington’s Top 10 Employees He Let Go That Went On To Be Masters In Their Field.” Just sayin’.)
DSC’s also dishing up a couple of Biker Build-Off episodes tonight. Rock on!
All times are central.
Our insomniac’s suggestions: Trains and Locomotives on RFDTV at 1 a.m. or Pimp My Ride on MTV at the same time.
We were a bit skeptical about a plastic handled square in the shop. First, there’s all the heavy metal laying around that we bang about on every surface. Then we normally only have one hand free to grab a square with and mark with the other – while wearing gloves most of the time. So, when the Kapro 309 Ledgend promised to be the toughest ever — and to give you an extra hand — we took a look.
Though it looks like any other square when viewed with a quick glance, the 309 does have a few cool features that might make your life in the shop a bit easier. The first and most notable is the “support ledge” located on the handle portion. It’s simply a blade-like protrusion, but it looks like it might actually grip on and allow the user to (even with a gloved hand) grab and position it for an accurate reading without the use of the other hand.
Ever damaged a project or wasted time by drilling too shallow or too deep? We have. It can be somewhat of a challenge to gauge how far you are in while drilling, especially if you’re not using a drill press. On these special bits the colored bands make it possible to judge the depth of a hole.
Each of the sequential bands are spaced out every half inch or 10mm (for Metric) for fast gauging on the depth of your progress. While not a micrometer or laser powered depth finder, the bands look to be a good alternative to masking tape or marking your drill bit with a Sharpie or Eraser board marker.
(Sunday, September 24th, 2006) Looks like a strong night for Mythbusters reruns, but after last Sunday you won’t catch us complaining. The buster special is pretty funny, so if you find yourself channel flipping at around 11pm you might want to check it out.
All times are central
Our insomniac’s suggestions: Chop Cut Rebuild (Speed, 1:00 a.m.)Weekend Handyman (DIY, 1:00 a.m.), Weekend Remodeling (DIY, 1:30 a.m.)
It was a pretty straightforward sounding project: paint two rooms in my parent’s house. A fairly simple and unassuming goal, right? My father (who is a Toolmonger like me) recently purchased a Wagner Paint Crew to accomplish said task.
The features sounded great: 3/8 HP. .2 gallons per minute. A two-gallon capacity hopper to increase spray time and convenience. A 25 foot spray hose attached to a professional-grade metal spray gun with a full-size in-line filter. It sounded like a quick and fast thing; We’d be done by halftime, yeah?
(Saturday, September 23rd, 2006) DIY keeps us sane again tonight and their I Did it With Duct Tape should be amusing.
All times are central
Our insomniac’s suggestions: The Scrap House (National Geographic, 1 a.m.) or Robot Rivals (DIY, 1 a.m.).
When we first looked at the XL Pass-Thru, we thought, “That’s pretty cool.” Once we had one in the shop, however, we revised our opinion significantly — upward. This is an incredibly useful tool that’ll pull your acorns out of the fire and make life easier. Really.
The concept beind the XL Pass-Thru is pretty slick. At its core, it’s a ratchet/socket set that’s driver from around the ring instead of the center. Think of it as the “rimfire” of sockets. But there’s more. Lots more.
Back when we originally wrote about them, we promised to check in with Hobart and let you know where you can find these great gloves. Well, we’re a bit late in doing so, but here ’tis:
You can buy these gloves at most farm supply stores, such as Northern Tool and Tractor Supply, as well as through a variety of other retailers. We didn’t see them listed online, but Hobart assures us that they carry them. If you aboslutely, positively can’t find them locally, try giving Hobart a call at 1-800-626-9420 (their customer service line) for help locating them.
The map you see above was borrowed from http://www.popvssoda.com/, a site that can almost conclusively tell you where you’re from based on what you call the carbonated stuff that comes in cans: “pop,” “soda,” or “Coke.” Not surprisingly, we’re from Texas (finally depicted as a “red” state in the map here, if nowhere else), and most of us call it “Coke” no matter what company actually produces it.
If you’re from up North, you probably think I’m kidding. I’m not. “I want a Coke,” you’d say. “What kind? 7-Up, Sprite, Dr. Pepper, Shasta?” your friends would answer.
Laugh away, but I’m willing to bet you do the same thing with tools. Let’s put you to the test.
(Friday, September 22nd, 2006) A new Trick My Truck, our favorite episode title to date of Holmes on Homes, and DIY’s dependable Friday automotive shows – not a bad start to the weekend.
All times are central.
Our insomniac’s suggestions: Speed Channel…watch a couple of laps and snooze.
My Dad made extra money for the family when I was a kid by doing small engine repair out of the garage, the upshot of which was that we almost always had whatever motorized lawn implements we needed/wanted. They might not have been new-looking, but we had ‘em, and they worked. But there were two lawn/garden machines that we didn’t have, and he always talked about them as if they we magic: the Troy-Bilt roto-tiller and the Ditch Witch.
The Ditch Witch wasn’t part of our fleet mainly because it was tremendously expensive — and we didn’t really have any good reason to dig that many ditches anyway. The roto-tiller, on the other hand, would’ve been extremely handy. Instead of Troy-Bilt’s smooth-running, easy-to-use Horse, we had a crappy open-front-tine type which tore the living mess out of whatever got near it (including me) and was prone to climbing chainlink fences. (Don’t ask.)
Bench Dog always seems to produce the simplest yet most intuitive tools. We wrote about their Pro-Cut portable saw guide before, and now we’ve come across their Trim-Loc casement installer tool. Slick stuff.
Think of it as a portable jig for trim work. It lets you quickly mark 45-degree and 90-degree angles and has a slot to hook your tape measure in, which makes measuring by yourself a whole lot easier.
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