Dowels joinery pretty much ensures two things: first, you’ll have a strong joint. The second is that you’ll have a frustrating time getting everything to line up — particularly on butt joints where you’re joining two boards edge to edge. Wolfcraft’s Dowel Pro jig claims to eliminate some of that frustration, saving you time as well.

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These wrenches are perfect for getting in those tight engine compartments, and at under $30, it’s probably a pretty decent addition to your toolbox. The set includes wrenches in SAE sizes – 7/16, 1/2, 9/16, 5/8, 11/16, 3/4, 13/16, 7/8, 15/16, and 1″ — and Metric sizes — 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 mm. For this price I don’t expect Snap-on quality, but for the weekend mechanic, they might serve well.

Licota Wrenches [Licota Tools]
20-Piece Stubby Combination Set [Tooldeals]

(Thursday, September 27th, 2007) We get a new Boneyard and American Hot Rod tonight along with a host of reruns including a rerun of a clip show, for the love of Mike!

We’ll leave it to you to decide who’s greasier, an oil rig or Boyd.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Semi Dilemma (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Bullets Fired Up (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• Monster Garage: Pike’s Peak Racer (TLC, 6:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild: Smell My Paintgun (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Crew’s Cruise (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• American Hot Rod: Bonneville Racer 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.)
• Boneyard: Oil Rigs (History, 8:00 p.m.)
• American Chopper: EDS/Byron Nelson Championship Bike 2 (TLC, 9:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Billboard Installer (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Don’t Sweat It: Faux Ceiling Beams, Kitchen Lighting, Self-Closing Gate (HGTV, 10:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

I hate sitting around spining an Allen key or hex wrench endlessly to get a fastener cinched down properly – particularly when there’s no space to spin it without hitting something – so the idea of a ratcheting hex wrench strikes me as first class. The tool end works either in-line with the ratcheting mechanism, or perpendicular to it for those hard to reach areas.

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Long-time TM reader PutnamEco gave our Hot or Not? Utility Vehicles post a one-word response: hot — and added this professional-looking picture of his John Deere Gator 4×6 to the photo pool.

I have a friend who lost one of these, and misses it almost as much as his old dog. Of course, as fredboness says in comments, “Nothing runs like a Deere, but nothing smells like a john.”

Amen. Enjoy your gloves.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

If you think high-lift jacks are just for off-road enthusiasts, think again. A serious all-purpose ratchet jack — in 48″ or 60″ lengths — like the Hi-Lift X-Treme is useful for all kinds of lifting, winching, clamping, and spreading jobs. And it’s made of cast steel for durability and longevity.

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If you’ve ever had trouble drawing two pieces of countertop together in a butt joint, you know how frustrating it can be — and how hard it can be to get a level joint. FastCap’s patented Qwikdraw countertop connector system claims to help with that in two ways: it facilitates drawing the two sides together, and it then allows you to securely fasten them in position.

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Traditional cutting and routing guides like this one only work when applied close to the edge of a workpiece and are not accurate enough for lenghty cuts. E. Emerson Tool Company’s All in One Clamp escapes these flaws: you can secure it on any surface with parallel opposite edges. To use it as a cutting guide, you can either push your tool directly alongside the sturdy straightedge or attach it to a separate jig that glides along the built-in T-track.

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NewEgg’s offering this 45-piece tool set for an easy $10 right now, and it contains most of the tools you’ll need for computer work. It includes a reversible ratchet driver with 21 bits and sockets such as torx, Philips, flat, square, AND Pozidrive bits and 3/16″, 1/4″, 5/16″, 11/32″, and 3/8″ sockets. Also included is a #1 Philips screwdriver, A reversible 1/8″ and #0 mini screwdriver, 5-” long nose pliers, 5″ wire-cutter/strippers, and nine hex keys in sizes 1/20″, 1/16″, 5/64″, 3/32″, 7/64″, 1/8″, 9/64″, 5/32″, and 3/16″.

RTK-045 Tool Set [Rosewill]
45-Piece Computer Tool Set [NewEgg]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

(Wednesday, September 26th, 2007) For all you fast boat freaks, a new Build it Bigger shows us what goes into racing boats.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Lack of Truss, Part 2 (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 52, putty knives, garage doors, electric motors and wool (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild: SUSPENSE-SION (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• Modern Marvels: Copper (History, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 16, ropes, billiard tables, sailboards and cymbals (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Air Cylinder Rocket (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Bullets Fired Up (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• Build It Bigger: Turbo-Charged Boats (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 29, wheel loaders, vegetable oil, hand tools and cotton swabs (Science, 9:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 30, temporary metal fences, asphalt shingles, expanded polystyrene products, and hard candies (Science, 9:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Do you love working on your car? Are you the type of person who can’t leave stock alone? If so, you’ll probably want to know that our sister blog, FullOnCustom, is currently seeking bloggers who have a passion for cars and all things custom.

If you’ve got what it takes to join the PostLab Media blogging team, drop us a line at jobs (at) postlabmedia.com with the subject line “PostLab Writer Search.” In the body, give us your name, your three favorite car mods, and two original, unpublished posts of around 50 to 200 words in the FullOnCustom style.

A few notes: We delete all emails with attachments, so include all your text in the email body itself. And if you’re not the world’s best writer, don’t worry. If you’re great at finding interesting car products and stories, we might be able to help. Our biggest requirements are that you’re interested and that you’re committed.

Good luck! And if you haven’t had a chance to check out FullOnCustom yet, there’s no time like the present.

FullOnCustom.com [PostLab Media]

Why detail sand by hand when you can buy a power tool to do it for you? To mimic hand sanding, the Festool Duplex LS 130 EQ linear sander’s head reciprocates in a straight motion. This allows it to sand with the grain, which leaves less visible scratches. And when you consider the advantages of finishing the job up to three times faster and landing most of the dust in your dust collection system instead of on you, its price of $290 doesn’t sound so high.

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I’m seeing more and more of these utility vehicles around lately. They’re made by companies like John Deere, Kawasaki, and Cub Cadet. Here in the commonwealth we don’t have as many farms as we used to, and I’m wondering why people own them.

I could totally see owning one if you had 3000 acres in Wyoming, but then again that’s what what pick-ups and tractors are for, right? The do look cool with their knobby tires, fancy independent suspensions, and roll cages, but does anyone really use them as serious work vehicles or are they mostly the toys of people with too much money?
So what’s your opinion? Useful as heck or over-hyped golf cart? Let us know in the comments.

It’s never too early to start your child’s tool habit. And what better toy is there to spark their lifelong interest in tools than a kid’s chainsaw?

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In case you missed the heads-up from a few weeks ago, now is the perfect time to take a stroll down your local power tool aisle. Fall cleaning, holiday stock preparation, and a lull in sales are prompting some decent deals at the big boxes. The key to getting a great deal around this time of year, though, is visiting the hardware stores in person since they don’t advertise most discounts — and the discounts are probably unique to each particular store location. 

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(Tuesday, September 25th, 2007) We get a new 10 Things You Must Know tonight, which covers one of those “round tuit” projects which, like installing molding, we never seem to complete. Otherwise it’s a slew of reruns.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Lack of Truss, Part 1 (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 p.m.)
• Chop Cut Rebuild: Ford Uncovered, Camaro Discovered (Speed, 6:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Billboard Installer (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Overhaulin’: Juvenille Delinquent (TLC, 7:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Homer Laughlin China Company Fiestaware, Emeco Aluminum Chair Company, Ball Corporation aluminum cans (Travel, 7:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Qubica/AMF Bowling, Honeywell Life Safety fire alarms, All American Hot Dog Cart (Travel, 7:30 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Cave Digger (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 41, glass bottles, hacksaws and goalie masks (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• 10 Things You Must Know: Installing Accent Lighting (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 43, battery tins and optical lenses (Discovery, 9:30 p.m.)
• Trade School: Industrial HVAC (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Ostrich Farmer (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Think of ”gaffer’s tape” as the Cadillac of general purpose tapes — the king of half-assed repairs. (Duct tape is the “queen.”) “Gaff” tape — as the pros call it – is a cloth-backed tape often used in cinematic and theatrical productions. It outshines regular duct tape in both tensile and adhesion strength — without leaving as much nasty residue as duct tape.

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