The BCB Mini Work Tool looks like a miniature version of the ATAX tool that Toolmonger featured a few weeks ago. This credit card-sized piece of stainless steel integrates 11 tools in its simple frame, including a knife, saw, bottle opener, flat screwdriver, and a hole that can be used as a wrench.

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If you’re a licensed arborist, please look away — but if you’re an occasional gardener who maybe has some branches to lop off, then check out this $4 saw at Northern Tools. The saw’s constructed from a painted steel frame and comes with the blade and a blade guard.

36″ Bow Saw [Northern Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

(Wednesday, January 30th, 2008) A new episode of Mythbusters tonight involves radio control, sprockets, and pillow blocks, although most episodes do, now that we think of it. Once again we’re not sure what episodes of Street Tuner Challenge are airing tonight, but the one at 9:00 might be new.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Due Date (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Build it Bigger: Biggest Warship (Science, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 9, bumpers, lighting gels & camera filters, steam-powered models, and candy canes (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 10, umbrellas, outboard motors, silver cutlery, and tape measures (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Underwater Car (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Airplane on a Conveyor Belt (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.) NEW
• Smash Lab: Train Crash (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Rock Solid: Stone Furniture (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• Street Tuner Challenge: Showtime (Speed, 9:00 p.m.)
• Hammered With John and Jimmy DiResta: The Retro Table Lamps (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)
• Street Tuner Challenge: Get Competitive (Speed, 9:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Breakstep Bridge (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Imagine a world without wires. Konarka’s Power Plastic converts light energy into electricity for your portable devices, so you never have to plug them in to a wall socket. The light-weight plastic technology offers a cheaper alternative to the current silicon-based cells which currently dominate the solar energy market.

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These days everything ratchets: screwdrivers, box end wrenches, adjustable wrenches, hex key sets — so why not bring your old drill press or power drill into the 21st century with a ratcheting chuck key from Ratchkey? If you’ve ever pinched or skinned your fingers trying to use an original chuck key, or had problems loosening the chuck to remove a bit, you’ll appreciate Ratchkey’s design.

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A former drywall professional invented Erase-A-Hole to take care of small patch jobs around the house. As an added bonus, the deodorant-like applicator and the suggestive name might make you crack a grin.

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Your Yankee screwdriver sits in the drawer collecting dust. You’d use it more, but it’s missing most of the special bits. Buying a new one is expensive, and so is buying the bits — if you can actually find someplace that sells them separately. There’s another option: head on over to Lee Valley Tools and spend $6 to make your Yankee screwdriver more versatile than ever with a hex adapter.

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Sometimes a great invention fails to hit it big simply because the financial circumstances aren’t just right — the Firelight Safety Switch is one of those potential innovations waiting in financial limbo.  When a small fire filled his son’s house with smoke, Tony Abuiso came over to assess the damage, and the idea hit him: a switch that could “hear” a smoke detector’s alarm and then turn on a light or activate an exhaust fan.

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We’re students of the old school when it comes to workbench design, so when we first saw Stanley’s Mobile Project Center we didn’t want to like it. We figured that a metal and plastic bench that stands high instead of wide wouldn’t last a week in the shop. We were wrong. Read on past the jump to find out why it’s one of our 2007 favorite tools.

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When drilling to a set depth, collar-type drill stops — think donuts — provide a less-than-ideal solution. Since they’re metal, they may damage the drill bit or mar the work surface. What’s more, you need one for just about every drill bit size, and when it’s time to use or adjust them, you have to find the right size Allen wrench. Recently I stumbled across something that may replace the metal, collar-style stop in my toolbox: adjustable plastic drill stops.

Made from brightly colored, high-impact plastic, you can spot these drill stops easily in your toolbox or drawer. They come in sets of two: the smaller one fits bits sized 1/16″ to 1/4″, and the larger fits bits sized 1/4″ to 1/2″. You simply twist the threaded sleeve around the internal double-ended collet to lock it at the desired depth.

At $5 to $6 a pair, are these stops the slickest invention since sliced bread, or worthless pieces of plastic? Tell us what you think in comments.

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Plastic Drill Stops [Lee Valley]
Plastic Drill Stops [Woodcraft]

Lee Valley’s offering an eight piece insulated screwdriver set with carrying case for $8. They describe them as “made for the German market,” with no other information on the make. Lee Valley put the drivers on sale because the European certification for the insulation has expired. This deal ends when they sell out of the remaining stock.

Screwdriver Clearance [Lee Valley]

(Tuesday, January 29th, 2008) New episodes of Dirty Jobs and Some Assembly look pretty interesting. We’re still waiting for some new episodes of Tank Overhaul, though.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Falling Waters (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Build it Bigger: Big Easy Rebuild (Science, 5:00 p.m.)
• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 49, handcuffs, caulking and joint compound, propane tanks, and forensic facial reconstruction (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• Tank Overhaul: The Panther (Military, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 45, pistons, paint rollers, parachutes, and chimneys (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Cave Biologist (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Buoy Cleaner (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.) NEW
• Some Assembly Required: Episode 5, steel knife, the country’s oldest chocolate factory, assembling a John Deere lawn mower (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.) NEW
• MythBusters: Is Yawning Contagious? (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.

What happens to our feathered friends in the icy winter months? They freeze their tails off like everyone else! But now you can give them a haven right in your backyard — and liven up the drab winter landscape at the same time. API (Allied Precision) makes a 20″ heated bird bath (read: hot tub) that’ll keep water from freezing in outdoor temperatures down to -20 F.

With the included hardware, you can attach the plastic basin to a separate stone or plastic pedestal, or to a wooden railing up to a foot wide. Since a fresh water supply in the winter is vital to the chilly critters’ survival, you can keep the birds coming back all year by providing the H20. Next DIY: Installing bubble jets.

Bird Bath [Allied Precision]
Bird Bath Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]
Mounting Bracket Via Amazon [What's This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

First up in our no-particular-order top ten favorite tools, 2007 edition, is Skil’s ever-popular circular saw — the 7-1/4″ Skilsaw. And we’re not talking about their high-buck worm-drive model. Our 2007 favorite is the model 5400-01, which we snagged for a whopping $25 off a Lowe’s sale table sans operator’s manual. Read on past the jump for details.

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Archimedes said something like, “Give me a lever big enough, and I’ll move the world.” I’m fairly certain the same general idea applies to Matjack’s low-pressure, high-lift bags — at only 8 PSI they can lift one and a half tons or jack up three ton vehicles. Applications include everything from off-road 4X4 lifting to search and rescue.

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Forget those glass blocks! Don’t you wish you had a building material with the structural integrity of concrete and the light transmitting ability of glass? Litracon wins major cool points by putting fiber-optic strands in concrete blocks to achieve results like the ones above. Even cooler: Light can travel 20 meters through the fiber optics before losing brightness.

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Yep, we’ve seen our share of “ten best” lists, too. But trust us: this one’s a little different. Rather than just rounding up the the new tools last year and picking our favorites, we’ve taken a more Toolmonger approach. These tools are the tools we used the most in our shop during 2007. They’re the tools that we just couldn’t put away no matter how hard we tried.

Some of them are new, and some of them are older. Some of them are tools that we’ve reviewed in the past, and some of them are just tools that we dropped our hard-earned cash for because we needed (or wanted) ‘em. But they all share one common thread: we used the ever-lovin’ crap out of ‘em, and we can recommend them wholeheartedly.

You’ll also notice that the pictures we’ll post aren’t studio shots. They’re photos of the actual tools we used and beat to hell — dirt, scratches, and all.

We’ll post the list one tool at a time throughout this and follow on with a roundup once we’ve revealed all our selections. We look forward to hearing your opinions in comments.