To drill angled holes, you can tilt your drill press table, but sometimes it’s easier and more precise to use a cradle-style angle vise instead. The head of this particular vise from Palmgren locks at preset stops every 15° from 0° to 90°, simply by inserting an alignment pin. Set any other angle by removing the alignment pin and hand-tightening the locking mechanism.
Many folks don’t understand the beaming pride of transforming a rather pathetic looking object into something with an entirely new life, perhaps better than it ever was. Take this machinist’s tool chest, for instance. Compare the awful ‘before’ picture on the left with the breathtaking chest on the right. This goes beyond repair – it’s custom restoration.
With no control over what he’s handed, reader txinkman repairs and restores these old chests, creatively putting right what time and a few decades of hard shop treatment have torn apart — and obviously he’s not afraid to accept a challenge. We put this kind of work on an even par with artistic endeavors. Hats off and beers up to you, sir.
Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]
Recently in Massachusetts, a semi driver was critically burned and later died after the tanker he was driving flipped, igniting over 9,000 gallons of gasoline. Bystanders valiantly tried to rescue him, but the flames and a stuck seatbelt prevented him from being rescued in time. A half-sharpened penknife could have made it possible to release him sooner, and that might have changed the outcome of this tragic story. For whatever reason, no one at the scene carried a knife or rescue tool — and it made me wonder why.
I once received detention for accidentally (I swear) bringing my giant SwissChamp to high school. Upon learning this, my father was surprised — because in his uphill-both-ways school days he was required to bring a knife to school. Pencil sharpeners weren’t available, and everyone carried a knife.
What do you all think? If you carry a knife or pocket tool with a blade, what issues have you come across? If you don’t carry one, why not? Tell us in the comments.
No, the WASP Sander isn’t designed for White Anglo-Saxon Protestants — it’s an innovative attachment for your drill press. This tool turns your drill press into a belt sander, a drum sander, a floppy belt sander, a flat belt sander, or a curved belt sander, depending on how you configure it.
As featured recently on Toolmonger, the SawStop table saw features a safety system that starts by inducing an electrical signal onto the blade. If your fingers (or any other part of your body) come in contact with the blade, the signal changes and the blade retracts within milliseconds, leaving your fingers with only a scratch. SawStop currently offers only one product, the table saw, but they’re working on some other stuff. These two quick videos give a first look at future SawStop products.
Note to viewers: imagine that the hot dog is your favorite finger.
SawStop [Corporate Site]
Around 17 or 18, the age when most kids trade in their model cars for real ones, they also put away their hobby knives in exchange for shiny mechanic’s tools. But if you ever want to rejoin the model crafting ranks, you can grab a full set of hobby knives for less than you’d pay for one of the old Revel models you used to put together with ‘em.
Northern Tools sells this 35-piece set of hobby knives and blade attachments in a nice wooden box for $10. The set includes three different handles, two saw blades, six shaping blades, 17 cutting blades, three awl points, an edge trim guide, tweezers, a mini-planer, and a sanding block — you know, all that stuff you used to ignore when building models as a kid.
35-Piece Hobby Knife Kit [Northern Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
(Monday, April 28th, 2008) A new, gross, Dirty Jobs, involves shoulder-length rubber gloves and the rear end of a cow. Also, Dr. Who pops in on Top Gear.
All times are central.
Enjoy.
(Sunday, April 27th, 2008) We think this is a new Ax Men tonight. There’s also tons of How It’s Made for your Sunday evening.
All times are central.
Enjoy.
(Saturday, April 26th, 2008) We’re intrigued by the Mythbusters Young Scientist Challenge — it should be amusing and inspiring if you have kids.
All times are central.
Enjoy.
A chisel is a useful hand tool or bench tool, but you don’t want to carry it around in your pocket. You risk cutting your pocket and yourself, unless you can keep track of the plastic caps that sometimes come with them. FastCap has come up with a solution in their new Pocket Chisel.
These aren’t my X-rays, but last night, while working with my Craftsman nail gun, I had the pleasure of shooting a 2″ nail into my thumb. The nail passed cleanly through without doing any real harm. On the positive side, I came up with a new combination of swear words, I now have a great deal more respect for air tools — and I’ve started taking safety a little more seriously.
Sensgard claims the ZEM hearing protection device dampens the loud noise of machinery yet allows you to hear people talking to you, so you don’t have to remove your hearing protection. Instead of using foam or other material to attenuate sound waves, the ZEM directs sound away from the ear.
When biscuits came out in 1956, they changed woodworkers’ approach to butt joinery. Simply by lining up two separate slots and inserting a glue-covered biscuit, you could join panels easily. Now Lamello, the company that brought us the biscuit, has come out with a new way to join wood: the Fixo biscuit.
If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes fiddling with a watch band, trying to seat the spring pin before throwing it against the wall, then check out this little watch-band spring tool. It belongs to that class of tool that’s pretty useless 99% of the time — and totally worth the few bucks you paid for it 1% of the time.
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:
A Tale Of Three Pin Wrenches
The super-expensive grinder in your toolbox loses a lot of its value if you can’t change the wheels out — which is exactly the situation if you lost the pin wrench that came with it. Luckily, you can get super-cheap adjustable models, that fit grinder hubs from 3/8″ to 1-1/16″, for around $4.
Proxxon’s Block Belt Sander
This little green brick of a belt sander may not be pretty, but it packs power. Weighing in at just 1-1/2 lbs, this little belt sander can chew through ferrous and non-ferrous metals, wood, and plastic, almost as well as its larger brethren. However, not many larger versions can be flipped on their back and used as a stationary bench sander like this one.
Makita’s Unshakable Saw
What do a BMW motorcycle and the new Makita AVT saw have in common? They both feature a mechanism inside that propels a counterweight to balance the force of the motor’s stroke. Just like a boxer engine, the AVT recip saw offers its user a much smoother experience.
New Lock-A-Wrench Organizer
The Lock-A-Wrench from Snap-on sticks to your metal toolbox or cart to keep tools within reach, and a locking mechanism holds tools snugly until you need them. Insert a wrench and turn it clockwise to secure it — reverse to pull it out. We must say, it beats pegboard.
This Ain’t Your Granny’s Rolodex
On principle, we have to like any tool that reminds us of the turbine on a jet engine. The Rolabit kit from Worx includes 100 drill bits, screwdriver bits, and other accessories housed in a rotary organizer with a crazy green styling. It spreads the bits out between eight removable cassettes, and it takes up minimal bench space.
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.
This set probably won’t replace any of your other tools, but it’s definitely worth grabbing one to keep in the trunk or on the boat. The set includes a universal ratchet driver, 12 SAE drive sockets, 12 metric drive sockets, 20 hex drive sockets, 17 slotted drive bits, seven star drive bits, four pozi drive bits, four Phillips drive bits, four square drive bits, a 42-piece picture-hanging kit, and a carrying case.
You can get it from ToolsNow, via Amazon, for $5 — add $7 for shipping and handling, for a total of $12.
130-Piece Screwdriver Set [DealNews]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
(Friday, April 25th, 2008) Friday is rapidly becoming our favorite sleep aid. Whether it’s the endless reruns or the soporific droning of David Marks, we’re not sure, but it’s a snoozefest! The only salvation is the airing of Forge and Anvil on RFD-TV, if you haven’t fallen asleep by then.
All times are central.
Enjoy.
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