SK recently overhauled their site from the ground up and launched an entirely new interface.  This includes their shopping cart and direct tool buying areas. The new interface looks very Apple iPhone-ish, but the change is welcome.

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The Trench Foot attaches to your shovel to provide a small step you can push on instead of grinding the ball of your foot into the shovel’s thin metal edge.  It connects to other garden tools, too, often giving you purchase on tools where you’d traditionally have none.

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(Thursday, July 26th, 2007) A new Boneyard examines what happens to stuff from crimes.  Here’s hoping for a panoply of shivs and zip guns!  TLC gives us new content while again reminding us how much we miss Jesse — a new American Hot Rod, American Chopper, and American Hipster Hard Shine…

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Cold Comfort (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Flimsy Floor (Home, 5:30 p.m.)
• Build It Bigger: World’s Tallest Skyscraper (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• Monster Garage: Old School ‘54 Chevy (TLC, 6:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild: In the Hot Seat (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Leather Tanner (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• American Hot Rod: Hershey 3 (TLC, 7:00 p.m.)
• Classic Tractor Specials (RFD-TV, 7:00 p.m.)
• American Chopper: EDS/Byron Nelson Championship Bike 1 (TLC, 8:00 p.m.)
• Rock Solid: Travertine Patio (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• Boneyard: Crime (History, 8:00 p.m.)
• Rock Solid: Concrete Vanity (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Really Dirty Animals (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Hard Shine: ‘57 Chevy Gasser (TLC, 9:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Well Digger (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Don’t Sweat It: Bedroom Wall Repair, Attic Insulation, Building a Woodshed (HGTV, 10:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Blowing through channels looking for some signs of intelligent automotive life I ran across a show called V8TV on the Men’s Outdoor & Recreation channel. I’d never have expected to find badass muscle car restoration there, but that’s what V8TV serves up.

The show seems to focus completely on old 60’s and 70’s Detroit iron and ways to rod it out.  The episode I caught was on a ‘70 Trans Am that received tubs and a major suspension overhaul — all without crazy bosses or stupid design mods that don’t make sense.  How refreshing! 

If you get a chance, it’s worth a watch.  Check their site for times and details.

V8TV [Official Website]

(Wednesday, July 25th, 2007) Modern Marvels tells us all about Aluminum in a new episode tonight.  Aluminum is everywhere, and going by our experience most people are profoundly ignorant about this miracle metal.  There’s a new hoser-rific episode of Junk Brothers on tonight as well.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Botched Basement (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 47, ceramic tiles, nuts, steel forgings and skateboards (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild: Nostalgia (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 8, suits of armor, street light poles, bent hardwood and membrane switches (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• Modern Marvels: Drilling (History, 7:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Anti-Gravity Device (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• Modern Marvels: Aluminum (History, 9:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Hindenburg Mystery (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Junk Brothers: The Windows and the Sink (HGTV, 10:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Egon and the Ghostbusters II crew might have made it into the underworld before NYPD’s finest busted ‘em if they’d been outfitted with Bosch’s 35-pound breaker hammer.  Heck, at that weight, Janine and Slimer could’ve gotten in on the destruction, too. 

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Any foam-core modeler will tell you that it’s important to make a corner that looks flawless so you can easily paint it and finish it out.  A good way to do that is to use a rabbet cut — a notch cut along the length of the edge in question — to mate the two pieces.  The bad news?  Cutting rabbets in foamboard is a pain — unless you’ve got a foamboard rabbet cutter like this one.

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As you may have noticed, I did some museum hopping last week.  Thankfully I got a chance to cruise through the National Air and Space museum with a Toolmonger’s eye and caught a glimpse of this display of a German aircraft factory, circa 1918.  The tools you see on the table are actually from the original factory.

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The good folks at JLC have put together a list of best innovative Products for 2007, and it’s packed with products designed to help you work smarter, faster, and better.  Author Patrick McCombe goes breaks it down:

We’re constantly on the lookout for building products that can save time, improve work quality, and increase profitability. No doubt you are, too. But we have an advantage: a mailbox permanently packed with press releases from manufacturers eager to tout the benefits of their merchandise. While many products don’t live up to the hype, others strike us as genuinely useful. Here’s a roundup of products and tools that we think might help you run a better business.

The list gives a rundown of everything from drywall fasteners to belt sanders with a desription of why they made the list and what makes them “best in show” so to speak.

Best Products List For 2007 [JLC Online]

Join Sean and me as we update you on what’s happening in the TM shop and run down the week’s top five posts as selected by Toolmonger readers.  Highlights: we discuss the ins and outs of fiberglass interior work as we near completion on our first ‘glass project, discuss the joys of an unlimited hot water supply, and dish on some childhood indiscretions we probably should have kept to ourselves.  Remember, if you’ve got a question or comment you can call us at 866-718-9403. (Podcast Download)

Shears and shrubbers – while the casual gardeners’ trusty sidearm of choice — are probably the single biggest cord-cutting offenders.  All it takes is a moment’s distraction for the cord to slip forward and BAM!  You’re holding a useless, unpowered tool.  Why not pre-emptively cut the cord and go with a cordless model like Black & Decker’s SSC1000?

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My love obsession of anything with tracks led me straight to the “Our Lives: Contemporary Life and Identities” exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian.  Why?  I saw the picture of this Bombardier ice-fishing vehicle in the brochure at the front desk.

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In 1897 Karl Elsener created the Original Swiss Army knife in the small village of Ibach, Switzerland.  Ever since then, two things have remained true of Swiss Army knives: they’re red and they contain multiple blades.  The Pioneer is no exception to these rules, but it’s different than any other knife I’ve seen bearing the familiar silver cross — and it’s the only Swiss Army pattern I’ve ever carried daily. 

Even so, I haven’t carried a Swiss Army knife since I was a Boy Scout.  But this last week I was reunited with a childhood friend.  Read on past the jump for the rest of the story.

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The New Yankee cam is up and running again today and the 26th.  This recent screen cap (above) reveals some table legs that Norm’s crew recently turned, leading us to conclude that this run will be a fairly good sized table.  This is great stuff to check out instead of doing work. Come on – you know you want to.

Norm Cam [New Yankee Workshop]

(Tuesday, July 24th, 2007) Mike Rowe gives us a new Dirty Jobs all about the dirtiest machines on the entire planet.  We can’t be sure this one isn’t a clip/review episode with sections of old shows glued together, but we’ll take what we can get. 

John Ratzenberger also leads us through Marble King Marbles which could be more than a little cool.  Maybe it’s because when we think of marbles we can’t get the scene from Animal House out of our head.  Good times!

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Additional Grief (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• G.I. Factory: Episode 3 (Military, 5:00 p.m.)
• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild: I’ve Got Kidney Beans (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Well Digger (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Dirtiest Machines on the Planet (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• Build It Bigger: World’s Tallest Skyscraper (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Marble King Marbles (Travel, 9:00 p.m.)
• Ice Road Truckers: 06 - Driving on Thin Ice (History, 9:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Sub-Zero Refrigerators (Travel, 9:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

TM reader and photo pool member Milomingo posted some great shots of his shop, including this photo of his clamp storage.  Remember: if you’re planning on doing any woodworking at all, you can never, never own too many clamps.  What a great way to store them, too!

If you’ve got a sec, sign up for a free account with Flickr, join Toolmonger’s group, and post some pics of your shop — or your latest tools or project.  And keep an eye out for the latest pool addtiions in the center sidebar here on TM.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Rockler put their marketing guys together in a room, and they came up with the Scratch & Save coupon offer which we found on site today.  If you overlook the cheap-o, fast food scratch-off vibe, it looks like they’re offering some serious values — up to 50 percent off on actual products.  That’s better than free small fries that you won’t eat anyway, yeah?

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