Anyone who’s spent time outside of the ‘burbs knows that when a bunch of guys get together, sometimes — usually after consuming a copious amount of beer — they’ll decide to find out who’s best at some ridiculous task.  For example, at some point in history one cowboy turned to another and said, “I’ll bet you can’t ride that bull for 8 seconds.”

So it shouldn’t be surprising that a few midwestern farmers (who apparently had a couple of old combines laying around after the harvest) decided to see who owned the toughest rig by convening an old-fashioned combine derby.

Except, of course, it is surprising.  Enjoy.

Sears is currently offering their Craftsman 13-watt fluorescent work light with 10′ 16 gauge cord (#73941) for $9.  The offer is good until April 21st.  The light illuminates from both the side and the top, and it includes a top hook for hanging as well as a bottom hook for keeping the power cord out of the way.  There’s also an additional 12 amp outlet to drive a power tools off the same cord — though we’d be careful running a motor-driven tool off that 16 gauge cord.

Craftsman Worklight #73941 [Sears]

(Wednesday, April 18th, 2007) Tonight: lots of episodes of How It’s Made, Junk and DiResta brothers, and a new Mythbusters where they test an avian myth that seems obviously false.

All times are central.

• Chop Cut Rebuild (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 5, ambulances, dining room tables, diatonic accordions and acrylic awards. (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 47, ceramic tiles, nuts, steel forgings and skateboards. (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 29, lighters, fossils, hockey pucks and high-pressure cylinders. (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 30, balloons, wallpaper, frozen french fries and incandescent light bulbs. (Discovery, 7:30 p.m.)
• Unique Whips: Community Service (Speed, 9:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Birds in a Truck (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Junk Brothers: The Art Deco Table and the Round Coffee Table (HGTV, 10:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Son of a Gun (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 46, 3D commercial signs, hardwood floors, corrugated polyethylene pipe, and mattresses. (Science, 10:00 p.m.)
• Hammered with John & Jimmy DiResta: The Copper Chimenea (HGTV, 10:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 45, brushes and push brooms, blackboards, salmon smoking and zippers. (Science, 10:30 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Turkey Farmer (Discovery, 11:00 p.m.)
• I Love Toy Trains (RFD-TV, 11:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

MikeR commented earlier today regarding yesterday’s headline comparing the combination of a $20 Craftsman auto switch and a $50 shop vacuum to Festool’s $400 dust collection vac:

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, easy there…  It takes a lot more than auto-start to compare to a Festool.  For the record, it takes twin HEPA filters with cleaner flaps, variable suction, quiet operation, an anti-static hose, air tool compatibility — not to power the tools, but that you can use Festool’s air sander and connect it to the ct22/ct33 and have it collect dust – AND auto-start, and then there’s still more…”

“You could have at least compared it to a yucky Fein vac  (Anyone want to buy a Fein mini-turbo?  The older model?)”

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go hump my vacuum.”

Priceless.

Don writes: “Of all the configurable ladders out there, this ladder is the perfect fit for my tiny Baltimore rowhome.  I have the 13′ fiberglass version, which allows me access to the high area below my stairs for electrical work – a very good reason to have the fiberglass version.  I’ve also used it as an extension ladder to do things to the outside of my house.  It works as a great stepladder, which I’ve used for demo, framing, drywall, etc.  The best feature I’ve found in the stepladder is that I can straddle the top and put a foot on each top “safe” rung.  Each set of legs extends through three different positions, which gives you the capability to use it as a stair ladder, too.  It also comes with a brace that locks it into place to use as a scaffold base — assuming that you have two of them.  When I’m done with it, the legs lock together and it collapses to take up very little space.  This is a must if you live in a tiny house like I do.”

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We happen to have a few more small tools in testing right now, so we thought we’d go ahead and re-activate our Submit a Tool, Win a Tool giveaway. 

What this means is that we’re offering up some of the smaller post-test tools hanging around the office to those who submit our favorite tools over the next few weeks.  So, if you’ve got a minute, drop us a line using the Submit a Tool form and let us know what’s in your shop that we should have in ours.

And hey — we’re not just seeking your favorite tools.  We’d also love to hear any tips you might have for fellow Toolmogners or great tool deals you’ve run across.

Note: This isn’t a contest, and we’re not going to announce winners; we’re simply going to pick someone from the list of submitters by whatever means that strikes us at the moment when we have something to give away, then contact that person by email directly.  So, if you might like one of these tools — whatever they end up being — be sure and enter a valid email in the submission form.

Submit a Tool [Toolmonger, of course]

Hound Dog’s Steppin’ Edger makes trimming your yard as easy as trimming your bangs.  (Well, almost.)  Its edging blade leverages your weight to cut the spare turf, making a hell of a lot less mess than a string trimmer or spinning-blade edger. 

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Yes, this 1/9 scale V8 runs.  It contains tiny pistons, connecting rods, a crankshaft, and everything else that makes full-sized V8s push cars down the 1/4 mile in no time flat.  From the engine’s maker, whose name I sadly can’t find on the site:

I first must let everyone know that I have been getting tons of e-mail from a lot of different people thinking my engine is a Challenger, or a Challenger hybrid of some type.  I have had questions about how I did the Hemi head conversion for the Challenger engine.  Sorry, guys.  This engine has nothing to do with the Challenger V8s.  It is not based on any type of scaled down full size engine.  No castings were used in this engine.  This engine was constructed based on ideas I thought would look neat and be fun to machine.  I do like the Challenger engines but I wanted to do something a little different.

Wow.

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Douglas writes: “The Stanley multi-saw is nice to have in the tool box for quick and rough cuts.  It takes any standard hacksaw or reciprocating saw blade and has a nice, large rubber grip that fills the hand.”

(more…)

What do you do if you’re Gus Freotte of the St. Louis Rams and you have $50,000 burning a hole in your pocket?  You fix up your crappy garage, of course.  We ran across an article this morning describing his “make over” which involved stripping that bad boy down to the studs and pretty much starting over.

“All the wood in the garage was in pretty bad shape,” he said. “There were wires all over the place, and those were all in tangles. Everything was in disarray, and it just didn’t work. So, we took everything out of the garage, put it in (storage units), and a crew came in and gutted the entire thing.”

And he does mean the entire thing.

The Garage Design Center in Fenton demolished the garage interior down to the studs, poured a new slab of concrete, and then installed a rubber floor. After that, vinyl walls with panels made especially for organized storage were installed.

As you can see from the photos, it turned out well.  All his clutter is gone and it looks like a nice room.  But as Toolmongers we’ve got to point out a problem: it’s a room not a shop.  Hell, it’s no longer even a garage. 

(more…)

In the scorching summer heat of Texas new trees and shrubs don’t last long without constant watering — which is difficult or impossible with tight water restrictions. The solution: Ooze Tubes” — bags that slowly leak to keep your new landscaping hydrated without attracting the “water police’s” ire.

(more…)

Rockler is having a two-for-one sale on these 50″ Jet parallel clamps. Their regular price for one is $48, but you can get two clamps for $50. They feature non-marring resin jaws for 1,000 lbs. of clamping force and slide and glide triggers for easy adjustment. Quantities are limited to 4 per customer.

50″ Jet Parallel Clamps [Rockler]
Street Pricing [Froogle]

(Tuesday, April 17th, 2007) Tonight: a lovely night, with a new episode of Made in America — be sure to catch the “astro-physics” segment on the rerun at 9:30. Trade School covers welding, and there’s a rerun (we assume so — it was cancelled, wasn’t it?) of the much missed Monster House.

All times are central.

• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 28, combination locks, pottery, recreational vehicles and erasers. (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 6, alkaline batteries, wheelchairs, flutes, cowboy boots. (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• Monster House: Biker House (TLC, 7:00 p.m.)
• V-Twin Motorcycle TV: Bling on a Budget (Speed, 9:00 p.m.)
• 10 Things You Must Know: Wallpaper (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Jacuzzi, Sand Trix, Dr Pepper. (Travel, 9:00 p.m.)
• Trade School: Welding (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Sub-Zero Refrigerators, Astro-Physics, Tylenol. (Travel, 9:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Voice Flame Extinguisher (Discovery, 11:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.

It’s been a busy week, but we still managed to run down the top five tools as selected by the readers of Toolmonger.com with the help of return guest Joe Brown of Wired magazine.  Highlights: we discuss some great uses for truck bed cargo blocks, speculate as to why tool bags are so popular this time of year, and hear about Joe’s tool-moving woes.  (Podcast Download)

Tip writes: “I’ve been looking for something like this for years.  I already have a remote for the dust collector in the shop, but I wanted something to automatically switch on my shop vacuum like the the Fein and Festool dust collection vacuums.  But $400 for a shop vacuum?  YIKES!  I once tried to make one from some relays, didn’t work.  After all, I’m a cabinetmaker not an electrician.”

“The $20 ‘Craftsman Auto Switch’ turned my $49 shopvac into a Festool – well, almost.   The auto switch has three outlets: one for the tool and two that are switched.  A toggle switch disables the switched outlets, and there’s a plug on the back for the power source.  When you turn on the tool plugged into the ‘tool’ outlet, the auto switch turns on your shop vacuum.  When you shut off the tool, the switch shuts off the vacuum after a two to three second delay to help clear debris out of the hose.”

Craftsman Auto Switch [Sears]

The Speed Rocker drywall knife adds a “tape hook” on the thumb rest so you can hold a measuring tape and make a score mark at the same time, and some drywall guys love the fact that there’s a fold-out drywall saw hidden in the handle.  But at $20, it’s a bit expensive for some people’s taste.

It’s solidly built — nice and heavy-feeling in your hand — and one side of the handle is also a drywall rasp for truing up edges, though we wonder if you’d still want to grab it after filing down drywall with the handle.

We’ve seen this knife a couple of times in the toolbelts of professional drywall workers, but we’re still a little held up on the price — and its specific combination of features.  What do you think?  Let us know in comments.

Speed Rocker [CH Hanson]
Street Pricing [Froogle]
Via Amazon [What's This?]

If you’re planning to drive on the beach — or to participate in any kind of off-roading — you’re going to need a shovel, and this little folding shovel from J.C. Whitney is a lot easier to stow than the one you use in the garden.  It’s 24” long and locks into both a straight and 45 degree position.  What’s even better is the fact that J.C. Whitney has them on sale right now for $4.

24″ Folding Shovel [JC Whitney]
Street Pricing [Froogle]