It’s been a busy week here at Toolmonger. If you’ve been spending time in the shop — you should! — and you haven’t had a chance to keep up with Toolmonger this week, we suggest you start with these posts, which our readers helped to select:

Makita’s Shear Wrench
This is just the specialty tool you need to wrench down shear-type fasteners.  Even if you don’t have any need for it, it’s a fascinating tool and worth a look.

Toolmonger’s Maker Faire Coverage
We attended Maker Faire 2007 in San Mateo, CA last weekend, and readers voted a good chunk of our live (and later) coverage into the top five this week.  If you missed any of our coverage, check out the link above or listen to this week’s special episode of Tool Talk where we talk about our Faire experiences along with lots of audio from the show.  We’ll have more details later, but as of right now we’re planning to attend Maker Faire in Austin on October 20th and 21st, too.

JLC Online’s Take On Small Drywall Finishing Projects
This awesome article over on JLC online covers many of the skills you’ll need to do simple drywall finish work on your projects.  They start with the tools and materials you need and run you through a pretty thorough how-to.

The Joist Jaw
This little tool grabs hold of joists and holds them properly in place while you attach them.  Think of it as a helper that always shows up on time and must only be paid once.

The Wonder Winder: Easy Extension Cord Storage
A visitor to our station at Maker Faire recommending this inexpensive cord winder from Harbor Freight, and it seems to be a hit among readers who’ve tried it.  Check out the post’s comments for details.

Help us choose next week’s Top 5!

We’d appreciate your help in choosing next week’s Top 5, which’ll be featured here, elsewhere, and in the podcast as well. While you’re reading TM this week, look out for the “Interesting Post” button at the bottom of the article:

When you see an article that piques your interest, click the button once. You’ll return to the same page, but TM’s software’ll score your click for future reference. We’ll check in on the totals before selecting next week’s Top 5.

I’m not sure I’d want to bet my ass on this — like hauling my Jeep up out of a ravine while I’m in it – but I can think of any number of projects that’d benefit from this tool.  And it’d beat the living hell out of a come-along for loading a car up a relatively shallow ramp.

Features include a 1.5 HP 12V motor, and remote control with a 9′ cord, and 50′ of 5/32″ aircraft cable.  But the best feature of all is the price: $49.99 at Harbor Freight right now.

2,000 Lb. Capacity Utility Winch [Harbor Freight]

While we were watching thousands of people drive (and strip) zillions of screws at Maker Faire, one attendee stopped by to suggest that we’d have had better luck with Deck Mate screws.  Actually, a couple of different people suggested them, which drove us to the Deck Mate website for a look.

Apparently the secret to Deck Mate’s screws is a set of “Anti-Camout Ribs” (ACRs) that match up with a set of ribs on Deck Mate’s special driver bits.  The difference between Deck Mates and other specialty screws (like LOX) is that you can drive Deck Mates with a standard #2 Phillips bit.  The special bits engage the ACRs and are less likely to strip, but if you need to drive ‘em with a standard bit, you can.

At any rate, with that many pros recommending them, they’re probably worth a look.  We’ll see about picking up some for testing when we can.

Deck Mate Screws [Corporate Site]

Amazon currently lists Black & Decker’s motorized clamp at $16.90.  They claim 350 pouns of clamping force and (of course) single-handed operation.  Sure, it’s questionable whether this is useful or just a gimmick, but if you’ve been thinking about giving one a try, at least it’s a little cheaper now.

The Auto Clamp [Black & Decker]
Via Amazon [What's This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

(Saturday, May 26th, 2007) DIY brings the woodworking you love, but precious little else is on.

All times are central.

• MythBusters: Bullets Fired Up (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• The New Yankee Workshop: Dressing Table (DIY, 7:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Birds in a Truck (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• The New Yankee Workshop: Dressing Table (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• Wood Works: Contemporary Dovetail Bench (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Walking on Water (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Wood Works: Asian-Inspired Open Bookcase (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• Freeform Furniture: Eco-Headboard (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

The friendly folks at Stanley gave us a call to point out an issue with our review of their FatMax Xtreme auto trigger clamp.  Apparently it does work as a spreader.  Our bad.

With a little help from the guys at Stanley, we pulled harder on the end covers and while they seem fixed in place, they actually do come loose as you can see in this series of photos (continued after the jump).

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Make no bones about it: though we keep our advertising sales and editorial work entirely separate, it’s advertisers who pay our bills and make it possible for us to continue bringing you your daily tool fix.  So with that in mind, we’d like to say a special thank you to Harbor Freight who recently bought the ad you see in the right sidebar.

As you can see from previous posts, we were fans of Harbor Freight long before they bought an ad, and will continue to be fans long after they move on — though not too soon, we hope.  (And we know from Interesting Post clicks that you’re fans, too.)  Ad or no ad, we’ll keep posting the cool (and cheap) stuff we find there, ragging on them for selling rubber frogs and Suduku games, and buying too much stuff from them every time we visit the store.

Anyway, thanks again to Harbor Freight for paying some of the TM bills, and be sure to check out their weekly sales — which are handily linked to the ad.

Now back to your schedule Toolmonger programming…

This sander from Festool offers the ability to switch from a “rotary” mode — which removes lots of material — to a random orbiate mode that’s appropriate for fine sanding and polishing.  Add to that a tool-free disc change system and you have one interesting little sander.

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This is just a reminder to everyone that we tablulate the weekly Top 5 votes tomorrow morning, so if you haven’t yet made your feelings known, now’s the time.  For latecomers (or those who’ve forgotten):

Help us choose this week’s Top 5!

We’d appreciate your help in choosing next week’s Top 5, which’ll be featured here, elsewhere, and in the podcast as well.  While you’re reading TM this week, look out for the “Interesting Post” button at the bottom of each article:

When you see an article that piques your interest, click the button once.  You’ll return to the same page, but TM’s software’ll score your click for future reference.  We’ll check in on the totals before selecting next week’s Top 5.

Even More Information for The Curious [Toolmonger]

PS: If you don’t already subscribe, be sure to check out our free Tool Talk podcast where you can hear Sean and me run down the top five in person.  We also bring in guests from time to time and answer any questions you call in.

We met these guys at Maker Faire, and finally had the chance to check out their website now that we’re back.  They’ve got all kinds of great stuff, ranging from iPod connectors and breakout boards to electronic components and microprocessors — including all sorts of stuff you’ll never find at your local shop.

At Maker Faire they brought a picture frame Tetris game they built using various components they sell.  It used 16 microcontrollers, 720 LEDs, and 1,300 lines of code, and it worked — as you can see from the video above.

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MAC’s spherical sockets sport a unique shape that grabs 6-sided, 12-sided, splined, Torx, square, and even 50% rounded nuts and bolts — and now MAC is offering them in a 15-piece 1/2″ drive set and a 13-piece 3/8″ drive set as well.

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Weldo commented on our “Hot or Not? Metal Chop Saws For Home Shop Use” post — where I lamented how the mess they make keeps me from having one in the shop — with a kick-ass solution:

I keep some paperboard (like what cereal boxes are made of) over a set of welding magnets behind them to catch the debris.  That way you just peel off the paperboard and let the filings fall into the trash.

Why didn’t I think of that?  Awesome, and I’m totally going to try it.

(Thanks to quinnums for this great CC-licensed photo.)

Remember that guy whose tools you left out in the rain when you were five?  Yep, that’s Dad, and his special day is coming up quickly.  And just like last year, we’d like to recommend a good quality pocket knife as a perfect Father’s Day gift.  We’ve posted about a few already, but here’s another you might consider: the Case Small Congress Mammoth Ivory.  It’s unusual enough that he wouldn’t likely spring for one himself, yet it’s still a strong, usable knife.

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I purchased this 7-piece set of Klein screwdrivers at Sears for $42.  It was an impulse buy, and I later found them online for $36.90.  My pain is your gain!  The set includes a 1/4″ slotted, a 5/16″ slotted, a 3/16″ slotted with 3″ shank, a 3/16″ slotted with 6″ shank, a 1/4″ slotted, a #1 Phillips, and a #2 phillips. 

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(Friday, May 25th, 2007) Only Discovery Home has anything relatively new on tonight.  We still want to know what a “mad bus” is, though.  Anyone know?

All times are central.

• How It’s Made: Episode 20, traditional bows, coffee machines, mascots and hammocks (Discovery, 5:00 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Twice Bitten (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 21, fiberglass boats, clothes dryers, bubble gum and fireworks (Science, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 45, brushes and push brooms, blackboards, smoked salmon and zippers (Discovery, 5:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 22, steel safes, false teeth, airplanes and maple syrup (Science, 5:30 p.m.)
• Toolbelt Diva: The Great Gate (Home, 7:00 p.m.)
• Take Home Handyman: Getting Drippy With it: Sharon and Zyon (Home, 7:30 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Pasadena 911 - Part 2 (Home, 8:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 50, countertop laminate, frozen treats, building blocks and detergent (Science, 8:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made, Season 3: Episode 2, wood burning stoves, orthoses, ballet slippers, mad buses (Science, 8:30 p.m.)
• Classic Rides: Living Room and Rock Guard (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• Classic Car Restoration: 1962 Thunderbird: Soft-Trim Restoration (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

This is a special episode of Tool Talk completely focusing on our experiences at Maker Faire 2007.  Even if you’re not a regular Tool Talk subscriber you’ll want to give this a listen as we talk about everything from remotely-controlled telescopes to robot fighting and huge tesla coils — with lots of audio from the event.  Remember, if you’ve got a question or comment for us — or some staining/sealing tips – you can call us at 866-718-9403.  (Podcast Download)

I know these are the bomb for ripping through pipe or tubing on the jobsite, but I’m a little uncertain as to the usefulness of one of these in the home shop environment.  It’s been my experience that they make a crapton of debris and fling it everywhere, which wouldn’t be a good thing if you’re in a shop that’s shared by the significant other’s car.

On the other hand, it’s probably a good ten times faster than a band saw.

What do you think?  Let us know in comments.