(Saturday, March 22nd, 2008) Science shows us how they do it and How It’s Made tonight, and DIY works wood.

All times are central.

• Dirty Jobs: Brown Plate Special (Discovery, 5:00 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Sweet Home Abandoned (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 4: Episode 14, magnets, cooked ham, silver-plated teapots, and crash test dummies (Science, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 4: Episode 15, curling stones, refrigerators, aluminum baseball bats, and opalescent glass (Science, 5:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 4: Episode 16, levels, hot dogs, abrasive grains, and sandpaper (Science, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 4: Episode 17, ice cream treats, wooden golf clubs, aircraft wings, and car batteries recycling (Science, 6:30 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 4, fresh drinking water in the desert, large LED TV screens, and Ferrari sports cars (Science, 7:00 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 6, drink cartons, pre-fabricated houses, and mobile intensive care vehicles (Science, 7:30 p.m.)
• New Yankee Workshop: The Windsor Chair (DIY, 7:30 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 7, weather forecasting and hovercraft vehicles (Science, 8:00 p.m.)
• New Yankee Workshop: The Lowboy (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 8, building mega freeways and minting coins (Science, 8:30 p.m.)
• Wood Works: Hall Table with Leaf Inlay (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 9, mega cargo ships and Peterbilt vehicles (Science, 9:00 p.m.)
• Wood Works: Veneering Tips and Techniques (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 10, rockets, binocular lenses, and windshield wiper blades (Science, 9:30 p.m.)
• Hammered With John & Jimmy DiResta: The Children’s Bunk Beds (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

We have no wish to harm our friends of the feather, and neither do the business owners who deploy these spike strips to deter birds from roosting in signs and overhangs. They’re just trying to keep their business from turning into Fort Pigeon, where random organic ordinance often comes into play. But the problem is this: in some cases, the birds aren’t put off at all.

We’ve seen all kinds of methods for scaring off birds, from these spike strips to sirens blaring scary bird sounds. Is this actually a good way to go about de-birding your entry ways, or are “Bird Bombings” just going to happen at storefronts no matter what anyone does? Let us know what you think in comments.

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What's This?]

Cutting conduit leaves sharp edges that can nick and penetrate wire insulation, especially when pulling wire. The rough edges also can make it difficult to attach fittings. Klein makes a screwdriver specifically for reaming conduit. As a bonus they also provide a hood around the screwdriver blade, to make tightening conduit fittings easier.

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This month Lincoln released their newest big-dog welder, the Ranger 250 GXT. The 600-lb. monster sports more power output and a huge AC generator, for some truly awesome portable power.

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Last week I was on-site to help put up a truss structure for an outdoor event. We requested four forklifts from the equipment rental company. What we got were not your standard warehouse forklifts, but these bad mamma-jammas with telescoping booms — they’re called telehandlers, or Lulls, the Kleenex of telescoping boom lifts.

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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:

It’s Just Cool (Or Hot): Klein Beverage Hauler
Ask any pro and they’ll tell you that this is the most important tool on the jobsite. The Klein insulated beverage holder keeps your beverage of choice — in this case, every tool guy’s lifeblood, coffee — hot and ready to go. The design, inspired by Klein’s soft-grip driver line, gives shaky, decaffeinated hands a chance to grip the precious elixir without spilling any.  And it looks cool.

Preview: Hitachi’s Twin Hammers
Hitachi power tools feature a love-it-or-hate-it design. Some Toolmongers treat the wave-green designs like kryptonite, while others dig the funk and relish the fact that their hardcore power tools look like alien weapons from Halo.  Either way, some serious green hammer drills are hiding under that alien camo.

Straighten Up With A Radiator Comb
The radiator in your vehicle is first in line to take all the abuse the road has to offer. After a while the fins get bent and reduce the cooling power. The fin straightener employs tiny fingers that pull bent metal flat to get the fins facing the right way.

Skil Expands Their Circ-Saw Blade Lineup
Skil’s new 77 series contractor blades might actually entice you to try a few cuts with it, instead of opting for a higher-dollar blade right out of the box. The new blades sport a thin-kerf design which results in a faster cut versus fat-body blades.  Toolmongers remain cautious, but these do look like an improvement over the standard Skil blades.

Tambour Doors Without Wires
With Amana’s new tambour door bit set, you can say goodbye to the archaic method of gluing the slats to a cloth backing and then fishing a wire through every slat to hold the tambour door together. Now you can build a rolltop desk quickly, with slats that interlock and pivot on their own — just like the pros do it.

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.

Changing bits in a table-mounted router can be awkward, unless you have a router lift that raises the collet above the table. If you’re not lucky enough to have one of those lifts, you can try to work underneath the table, or you can remove the router from the table every time you want to change bits. Or you could just get a bent or offset router wrench — it allows you to access the collet without removing your router from the table.

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When you sign up for the Bench Dog Club you can enter to win your very own Bench Dog system — the only expense is your email address. It’s actually not a bad deal if you’re into the gear anyway, and you get a chance to win a complete rig, even if it’s a bit of a Hail Mary.

One person will win the vaunted prize — a ProMAX Complete (Router Table and Cabinet) with a cast iron top, precision aluminum fence, and pull-out bit storage. Enter at your own risk, but it is good gear. They’re offering the deal through December 31, 2008, so you have some time.

Bench Dog Club Sign-Up and Entry Form [Bench Dog]

(Friday, March 21st, 2008) You’ll get no surprises tonight, just a ton of reruns on the DIY, Home, and Science channels.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Stone Walled (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Build It Bigger: Turbo-Charged Boats (Science, 5:00 p.m.)
• Today Show Tips: Building Storage Units (DIY, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 41, glass bottles, hacksaws, and goalie masks (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 28, engine blocks, jawbreakers, drum shells, and drums (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• Toolbelt Diva: Attic Access (Home, 7:00 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 12, halogen light bulbs, car mufflers, and lock and key sets (Science, 7:00 p.m.)
• Take Home Handyman: Help in the Bedroom: Holly & Dave (Home, 7:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 3: Episode 3, robotic arms, tattoos, and concrete pipes (Science, 7:30 p.m.)
• Holmes on Homes: Holmes Inspection - Part 2 (Home, 8:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 4: Episode 12, bacon, snow blowers, and luxury cars (Science, 8:00 p.m.)
• Hammered With John & Jimmy DiResta: The Pool Table (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made 4: Episode 13, automatic transmissions, silver miniatures, hot air balloon baskets, and darts (Science, 8:30 p.m.)
• Wood Works: Magazine Storage Boxes (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• Build It Bigger: Super Fast Warship (Science, 9:00 p.m.)
• Wood Works: Torsion Box (DIY, 9:00 p.m.)
• New Yankee Workshop: Barrister Bookcase (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Vodka Myths (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Forge and Anvil (RFD-TV, 10:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

When using a ratchet, sometimes the nut or bolt is loose enough that you can’t rotate the ratcheting mechanism, but tight enough that you can’t quite turn it by hand. Some ratchets provide a little thumb wheel just for spinning the socket with your fingers — but Girard Development designed a more elegant solution: a ratchet with a finger spinner on the back.

Their 3/8″ standard drive ratchet features a 72-tooth ratcheting mechanism.  The direction pawl’s additional position of neutral allows you to quickly turn the socket with the spinner.  A flexible plastic grip covers the handle to make the stubby ratchet more comfortable.

For $15 this ratchet might be a curiosity, but it’s an inexpensive one.

Girard Finger Spinning Ratchet [McFeely's]
Via Amazon [What's This?]

What do you do with an old copier? You scavenge metal rods from it and turn ‘em into sweet drawing pencils, of course! The ones pictured above were made by one Bradley Lewis for a co-worker. Check out his site (link below) for numerous photos of the process.

By the way, we stumbled across this on our friend Mister Jalopy’s new site project Dinosaurs and Robots. As usual, he brings an entertaining mix of art, DIY, and the unusual. Give it a look if you get a chance, and don’t forget to weigh in on his mystery tools!

Drawing Pencils From Steel Copier Rods [NonEntity Artwork] [via]

Pure oxygen is awesome stuff — combine it with with a fuel source, and it can produce a brilliant flame capable of burning through nearly anything. The traditional fuel source for Oxy-Metal cutting has been compressed acetylene; but now Petrogen offers a cutting system that uses regular gasoline.

Their gasoline cutting torch outperforms its acetylene cousin in several ways, and especially in fuel cost savings. Two and a half gallons of regular pump gas can do the work of approximately 250 cubic feet of acetylene, offering greater portability as well as significant savings — even with increasing gas prices.

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I’ve often wondered how something like lacewood would finish out, if used as a main design piece. Photo pool member Butterjug2000 has removed all doubt in this matter with his recent mantle project.

Normally, we don’t see much lacewood outside of veneer, but this looks to be a solid piece. If it’s not, Butterjug did a masterful job of concealing it with the finished edges. We also applaud him for keeping the design very simple and letting the wood speak for itself.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

To install screw hooks, you have to tediously screw them in by hand and finish with a pair of pliers when that gets too hard. So how can a horribly named product from an ambiguously named company make your life easier? Sophron Marketing’s The Screw Up features magnetic sockets that hold the hook in line with your shank. You can even thread The Screw Up into an extension pole, to install hooks in places where you previously had to use a ladder.

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Learning how to weld can be a bit intimidating for some, but the best way to learn is to study with folks who know how to teach it. The Lincoln Electric Welding School in Cleveland has been doing just that since 1917 — if you want to sign up, they’ve just announced the 2008 schedule.

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I’m finally getting into the world of routing, and my entry point is this Hitachi KM12VC plunge and fixed-base router kit, available from Amazon for $130. The router features an 11A, 2-1/4 HP variable speed motor (8,000 to 24,000 RPM), and it includes the plunge base, 1/2″ and 1/4″ collet chucks, template guide adaptor, centering gauge, sub-base plate, three wrenches, and a five-year warranty.

I chose to save a Jackson and a Hamilton and get the refurbished model from the folks at Reconditioned Sales for $102.

KM12VC [Hitachi]
Via Amazon [What's This?]
Hitachi KM12VC Refurb [Reconditioned Sales]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

(Thursday, March 20th, 2008)  Who Knew?, which might be new, visits Smith and Wesson.  There’s also a new American Chopper and a host of other fun stuff to watch.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Completely Incomplete (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Build It Bigger: Super Fast Warship (Science, 5:00 p.m.)
• Today Show Tips: Organizing the Garage (DIY, 5:30 p.m.)
• Rides Hollywood: Speed (TLC, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 23, gummies candy, fish are farmed, aluminum cans, and bronze sculptures (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Classic Tractors (RFD-TV, 7:00 p.m.)
• American Chopper: Klipsch Bike (TLC, 7:00 p.m.)
• Smash Lab: Fluidized Sand (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.)
• Who Knew? with Marshall Brain: Gun, Bike, Fire Extinguisher (National Geographic, 8:00 p.m.) NEW?
• Cool Tools: Light It Up (DIY, 8:00 p.m.)
• American Chopper: Viega Corporation (TLC, 8:00 p.m.) NEW
• Cool Tools: Frame It (DIY, 8:30 p.m.)
• Smash Lab: Runaway Trailer (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 5, shipping packages and mining coal (Science, 9:00 p.m.)
• How Do They Do It?: Episode 15, gasoline and Swiss Army Knives (Science, 9:30 p.m.)
• Ax Men: 02 - Risk and Reward (History, 10:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.