I know.  Most Toolmongers hate the “extreme” moniker.  But hey — don’t you think it’s fair to call any handheld flashlight wih 30 LEDs just a bit extreme, considering that one to four generally gets the job done?

Besides the 30 LEDs, this light also features a rechargeable Ni-MH battery pack, which makes me just a little bit wary of the EZ-Red’s “Will not overcharge!!” claim.  On the other hand, I like the idea of an LED-based floodlight for the shop.  I’ve broken a couple of the old bulb-in-a-cage type lights and one fluorescent type.  This light looks more durable.

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We’re quite familiar with “combo kits” when it comes to power tools, but here’s a new one (for me anyway): lawn care combo kits.  Black & Decker’s offering a kit including three of their 18V lawn care tools — a string trimmer, hedge trimmer, and hard surface sweeper — complete with wallmount storage station and a charger that’ll charge all three batteries simultaneously.

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(Sunday, November 19th, 2006) You’re out in your shop, so why should you care that there is nothing but reruns on tonight?

All times are central.

• MythBusters: Killer Tissue Box (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Earthquake Machine (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 12 (Science, 7:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 13 (Science, 7:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Shattering Subwoofer (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• Classic Tractor Specials (RFD-TV, 8:00 p.m.)
• Rock Solid: Concrete Vanity (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• Tricked Out: Dodge Neon SRT-4 Exhaust Upgrade (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)

Our insomniac’s suggestions: Chop Cut Rebuild (Speed, 1:00 a.m.).

It’s been pretty crazy this week around the Toolmonger offices, and we’re looking forward to hitting the shop again next week to bring you some updates on Project Yukon and some of the other interesting hands-on tests we’ve been preparing.

But if you haven’t had a chance to keep up with Toolmonger this week, we suggest you start with these posts:

Hands-On: W.R. Case’s Red CV Pocket Knives
With a little goading we put aside our daily-carry pocket knives to try out a couple from Case’s new Red CV series.  Their covers are made of red-tinted bone, and they feature blades made of chrome vanadium — an alloy near to any Toolmonger’s heart.  We carried ‘em, used ‘em, and abused ‘em for two weeks straight and report our findings.

Finds: JET Box & Pan Brake
I’ve wanted one of these ever since I helped a friend build a part for his homebuilt airplane using one of these.  Alas, at just a few bills shy of $5,000, I probably won’t find on of these under beside the tree this Christmas, but one can always wish.

Finds: Miller’s Passport — Welding To-Go
I remember back years ago when Compaq released their first portable computer.  It was slightly smaller than the only other “portable” of the time, the Osbourne.  Compaq ran an ad that featured a picture of a sumo wrestler with an Volkswagon on his back and the text, “Anything can be ‘portable.’”  Portable means a lot of different things to weldors, too, but Miller’s Passport just seems like a great idea.  It’s a total MIG unit — including a small gas bottle — in a small, sub-50-pound, Pelican-like briefcase.  Instant MIG, just add power.

Finds: Panasonic’s Cordless Metal Saw
Metal studs are all the rage on commercial constructions sites these days, and this is just the tool to rip right through ‘em — sans cord.  It’s also great for cutting conduit.  Look at it this way: At least now you can’t accidentaly cut the power cord.

Preview: Bosch’s 36V (Hammer) Drill/Driver
This updated drill/driver from Bosch features their new Flexible Power System (FPS), which allows you to select from “SlimPack” or “FatPack” batteries to lighten the tool when you don’t need maximum runtime.  It’s also seriously powerful drill/driver, delivering 600 in-lb of torque.  It’s available in lots of different “kits” including varying combinations of FPS batteries.

Next Week/In The Pipeline

We’ve got some fun hands-on posts coming to you next week, including our experiences with the Dyson Root 6, Bosch’s 12V impact driver, and more.  We’re also in the process of adding some new features to the website to let you interact more effectively with us to let us know what you think is important in the world of tools.

Enjoy.  And don’t forget to check out the podcast!  It’s listed on iTunes now, so it’s easy to find.  Just follow the link, click on the banner, or if you want to grab it with iTunes, just click on the iTunes graphic in the sidebar to automatically open iTunes and jump right to the ‘cast.

Thought you read it all in the blog?  Get the inside skinny here as we take it to the next level discussing some of the best tools this week including the a new 36V drill/driver, a cordless metal circ saw, a box & pan brake, and a portable MIG welder (complete with gas).  We also talk more about our experiences over the last two weeks carrying pocket knives from Case’s new Red CV line, and Sean dishes up a great “Doh!” of the Week story to make up for the one we skipped on the blog.  Reader Eli joins us by phone to give us his opinions on the RIDGID tools he won — as well as lots of other things.

Our friends over at Make just sent out their latest Tools-N-Tips email, and it’s loaded with some great projects to help you avoid a turkey-induced post-Thanksgiving coma. 

Our favorite: Liquid nitrogen ice cream. 

Arwen O’Reilly: “Yet another of Turkey Tek’s Thanksgiving innovations, this ice cream frozen in liquid nitrogen makes running out to the stor for a last-minute Breyers run obsolete (assuming you have liquid nitrogen sitting around in your garage, that is).”

Check out the Tools-N-Tips site at Make for more information about the above (and other) cool items, or better yet just sign up for the newsletter yourself and let them deliver it right to you.  We do.

Irwin’s laser retro-fit for miter saws has been quite popular, and now they’ve expanded the line to include abrasive chop saws as well.  It’s really simple: Just bolt this on along with the blade on your older non-laser-equipped chop saw and you’ve joined the 21st century.

The laser automatically turns on and off with blade rotation.  It also ships with batteries and adaptors for most saws.  Irwin claims the batteries’ll last about 1.5 hours — or about 5,000 cuts.  They say you’ll get more like 3,000 hours out of the laser itself.

Street pricing starts around $20, and you can find this in most big-box retailers or online.

Abrasive Chop Saw Laser Guide [Irwin]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

Black Friday’s not just for uber-geeks and shopaholics — some of your favorite tool shopping haunts are servin’ up the deals, too.  Why not leave skip the new 42″ plasma TV and seek out that tool you’ve been wishing for all year?

Here’re a few Toolmonger-friendly Black Friday bits we’ve stumbled on around the ‘net this week:

• Ace Hardware’s ad (from GottaDeal.com)
• Harbor Freight’s ad (from GottaDeal.com)
• Home Depot’s ad (from GottaDeal.com)
• Tractor Supply Co’s ad (from GottaDeal.com)
• Lowe’s (rumored) ad (from DealTaker.com)

There are probably lots more out there, too.  For that matter, if you run across some great deals this holiday season, why not drop us a line and share?

Sean and I carry pocket knives every day.  Well, every day we’re not going to the airport, in which case we ship one in our checked luggage so we can have it on the other end.  Think of them as the ultimate man’s security blanket.  There’s just something comforting about having your good ‘ole pocket knife with you.  We use ‘em, too.   From slicing open the mail to cutting wire and digging stuff out of the shop vacuum filter, we use ‘em hard. 

So when Case suggested that we put aside our beloved daily-carrys and try out some of their new stock for a few weeks, we jumped at the chance.  Then it sank in.  Remember when Charlie Brown hid Linus’ blanket?  Yeah, that’s us.

Then the package arrived, and we opened it up to find two shiny-new W.R. Case Red CVs.  How do you get the attention of a couple of tool writers?  Send ‘em two knives with chrome vanadium blades and red bone covers.  Half our shop is red and/or CV.  Nice.  Instantly it was out with the old and in with the new.

Now after two weeks of daily use and abuse, we’ve got lots to say.  Read on to see how they fared.

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(Saturday November 18th, 2006) We’ve got a bunch of reruns and DIY’s woodworking fiesta are on tonight. So, if you’ve been busy all week and away from the TV, you’re good to do.  If you’ve been watching the tube all week, well, you’re outta luck.

All times are central.

• MythBusters: Explosive Decompression (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Ultimate Factories: Ferrari (National Geographic, 7:00 p.m.)
• A Closer Shave (National Geographic, 8:00 p.m.)
• Freeform Furniture: Versatile Bookshelves (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• Wood Works:  Egyptian-Inspired Mahogany Dresser, Episode 1 of 2 (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• Flushed (National Geographic, 9:00 p.m.)
• Handmade Music: Cajun Accordion, Episode 1 of 5 (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• Woodturning Techniques: Jewelry (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: 100th Dirty Job Special, Episode 1 (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: 100th Dirty Job Special, Episode 2 (Discovery, 11:00 p.m.)

Our insomniac’s suggestions: Robot Rivals (DIY, 1:00 a.m.).

If you’re out in the wilderness, multi-tools rock.  You’ll spot this kind of tool attached to the belt of more than one hunter and woodsman.

Besides its grass-colored non-slip handles — so if you drop it in the brush you’ll never find it – the Vista offers a good set of features that make sense for the purpose in which it was meant to serve.  The Vista’s wire cutters differ from other multi-tools’ standard pliers, and they look like they might be useful in the brush.  Then again, the standard pliers are pretty handy, too; just ask a friend of ours who spent a few hours using a pair to pull porcupine quills out of the mouth of a catch dog that didn’t know the difference between a hog and a porcupine.  The awl/punch will allow you to scratch hard surfaces like metal or poke through tough materials like leather. 

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Carl says: “I read your review of the PC palm sander.  I especially like the snap off cap idea — having conducted a few laborious tear-downs of my PC random orbit sander.  I’m wondering if you’ve had occasion to try the Bosch 1297DK with the new and improved sandpaper hold-down mechanism.  It’s a really good idea, in my opinion, and deserves more attention.  I’d buy one myself if I didn’t already own two palm sanders…”

Note: Carl writes for Rockler’s blog, and Rockler does sell the Bosch 1297DK.  That said, Carl put together a great writeup of the new SheetLoc mechanism for Rockler — link below.

New Bosch 1/4 Sheet Sander Solved the Paper Change Problem [Rockler Woodworking Blog]

Ahhh — the season of buying.  The season of deals.

There’s starting to trickle out folks, and here’s another one from Snap-on.  They’re offering 10% off some of their “essential” tools.  See the link below for the full list, but my favorite item: a 12-piece set of metric combo wrenches for $237.06 (regularly $263.40).

10% Off “Essential Tools” [Snap-on]

Here’s something that just struck me as a cool idea — a flashlight whose body unfolds into a tripod stand.  I know I’ve personally balanced my share of flashlights precariously on things around the shop (and under the car) trying to put the light where I need it, and this would have made things quite a bit easier: Unfold it, plunk it down, adjust the head to point the light — all done.

An important note: I didn’t really see the utility of this for quite a while as all the pictures I saw showed it in “tripod” mode.  I thought, “Who cares?  Just stick any light you have on a tripod!”  Then I saw how it folds up into a standard flashlight-shaped form-factor.  Bam!  I get it.

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(November 17th, 2006) Classic Car Restoration is starting work on a Thunderbird with two episdoes back to back, and there’s a new Trick My Truck (read: more trucker weeping)!

All times are central.

• DIY Tools & Techniques: Taper Cuts and Drill Bits (DIY, 5:00 p.m.)
• Trick My Truck: Sylvester Thompson’s Legacy  (CMT, 7:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Monkey Caretaker (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Toolbelt Diva: Doggie Duplex (Home, 8:00 p.m.)
• Classic Car Restoration: Thunderbird History and Restoration Overview (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• Toolbelt Diva: Building Bridges (Home, 8:30 p.m.)
• Classic Car Restoration: 1962 T-Bird Restoration: Long-term Storage Issues (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 12 (Science, 9:00 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Smoke & Mirrors (Home, 9:00 p.m.)
• Classic Rides:  Living Room and Rock Guard (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 13 (Science, 9:30 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Additional Grief (Home, 9:30 p.m.)
• Tricked Out: Dodge Neon SRT-4 Exhaust Upgrade (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)

Tonight’s insomniac recommendations: It’s all NASCAR in the overnight on Speed.

How often have you wished you could pick up your MIG welder and carry it over to a friend’s place?  Or to a job site?  Sure, there are lots of “portable” rigs you could use — but they never really live up to the quality of your unit at home.

Try this on: The Millermatic Passport is completely self-contained and requires only power for full-on MIG welding.  It holds 12 oz of CO2 and an 8″ spool of wire internally — all in a suitcase-sized package that weighs in around 55 lbs completely ready-to-weld.  Read past the jump for a diagram of what’s going on inside the little blue box.

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I realize that at a street price of around $4,800 that many of you aren’t going to run out to purchase one of these this moment — especially not for delivery via FedEx.  I certainly can’t.  But I’ve wanted one of these forever, so you can drool over it along with me, yeah?

The brake pictured above is JET’s 96″ floor-standing model, and can handle up to 16 gauge mild steel.  It ships with lots of different fingers as well to simplify the process of creating difficult corners.  It weighs just a nickel or two over a ton.

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