(TV Tonight, Wednesday, December 24th, 2008) This is one of the shortest TV Tonight postings in a while, with only DIY giving us reruns. You can catch a bunch of reruns of Pinks! on Speed or Wednesday Night at the Range programming on the Outdoor channel — but likely you’ll be wrapping, trimming, and generally wassailing through the evening…
Many of the project sites we look at take a Julia Childs approach to their holiday wood projects — you know, using materials you don’t have, tools you can’t afford, and plans you couldn’t draw up even if you were a rocket scientist. So to combat this effect we put together a reindeer and accompanying sleigh that you can assemble with a few simple tools and under $15 worth of lumber — in under a day.
I’ve always wanted to try my hand at building a sweet cutting board, so when reader 1200tec posted up a few examples of his latest project I felt a little behind. I’ll admit to altering my plan after seeing his excellent and stylish execution.
1200tec chose walnut, purple heart, and what looks like maple to create a sweet checkered block. The project started off as an exercise in gluing and clamping, but later he got to add sanding and oiling to the list. He used the small amount of stock to great effect, and from what we can tell, the two days he worked on the board was time well-spent.
You’d pay a small fortune for a cutting block like this if you bought it in a store, so hats off to 1200tec for his hands-on approach.
Hanging Christmas lights each year can be both a chore and a danger — the less time you spend up on that ladder the better. The Fast Trax track light system makes it easier to put up your Christmas lights and get them straight the first time. When the holiday season ends, Fast Trax also stores your lights tangle-free.
Here we see our Ridgid twin-tank aluminum air compressor in its native environment — its central position right under the miter saw is no accident. This compressor is a slightly dusty star of the show, and the shop wouldn’t be able to function correctly without it.
Falling snow can be a beautiful sight, but that pristine white snow soon turns into the gray and brown slush that sticks to the underside of your vehicle. Park your vehicle in your garage after driving through the snow, and the next morning your garage floor is covered with water and slush. Though your push broom may move some of the mess, a floor squeegee like these AquaDozers from Unger will do the job more effectively.
If the Polar Express ever got stuck, they’d have to send this rig to go get it. There’s just something cool about a snowblower hooked up to a train that makes me want to live further north.
Then again, this choo-choo isn’t for show. It’s a hardworking train with some serious work ahead of it, and I’m a big sissy when it comes to shoveling snow. Even with that straight in my mind, I think I’d still get in line to run this thing into a few snow banks.
ANTOnline is selling this 3′ pipe-heating cable for $18. If you live in the US this week, chances are your pipes have already frozen — but if you’d had one of these cables wrapped around your pipe, it might’ve kept the water flowing.
(TV Tonight, Tuesday, December 23rd, 2008) We get a new Modern Marvels about measuring and a new Extreme Trains. Discovery is running a Time Warp marathon from 5:00 to 9:00; don’t make us list all the episodes…it’s just stuff in slow-mo after all.
All times are central.
Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 pm)
Rock Solid: Granite Countertops (DIY, 5:30 pm)
Ask This Old House (DIY, 6:30 pm)
Cool Tools: The 25 Coolest (DIY, 7:00 pm)
Modern Marvels: Measure It (History, 7:00 pm) NEW
How It’s Made: Steel Shipping Drums, Police Whistles, Miniature Train Cars, and Glass Blocks (Science, 7:00 pm)
How It’s Made: Ice Cream Cones, Tent Trailers, Shoe Polish, and Pliers (Science, 7:30 pm)
Deconstructed: bathroom scale, a catalytic converter, a toilet, and a barbecue (Science, 8:00 pm)
Rock Solid: Tile Bathroom Upgrade: Country to Elegant (DIY, 8:30 pm)
Strapped for cash this holiday season? Replacing an alternator can cost you several hundred bucks at the local repair shop, but it’s one of the simplest repairs you can do at home. With a few tools and about an hour you can swap it out yourself — and keep your dough in your pocket where it belongs. In this case we’re replacing an alternator on a ‘95 GMC truck, however the process is very similar for most vehicles.
Join us as we run down this week’s top five, chat about what we want for Christmas, and hear about Sean’s brother’s awesome new paint-stripper discovery. Remember, if you’ve got a question or comment you can call us at 866-718-9403. (Podcast Download)
Sure, the new sub-compact driver class is sweet. But if all you really want is a screwdriver why should you be robbed of modern conveniences like a removable battery, comfy rubber grip, and sub-$100 price? Think of Bosch’s new 4V “Max” as the Lexus of cordless screwdrivers: It looks like a Mercedes, but it’s based on a cost-practical Toyota.
The “Max” features all the conveniences we’ve come to expect from screwdrivers in the $50 range — an ergonomic grip, LED lighting, a magnetic bit holder, and a wide trigger — but you also get two removable batteries and a charger for around $75. That’s a great investment in my book, especially if you might burn through more than one charge a day — and hope to keep the tool for more than a couple of years. Your extra $25 essentially buys you a non-disposable cordless screwdriver.
Every Toolmonger Sean and I meet seems to have one or more sources for low-budget materials — a scrapyard where aluminum is cheap, a junkyard full of make-specific car parts, or even a surplus equipment shack full of everything from busted computers to aircraft instruments. Personally, I’d like to find a shop that stocks (stacks?) Porsches like the one pictured above. Hell, even in the picture I can see a trim piece that I’d love to have for my 944.
So what’s your favorite secret stash? Where do you go to find parts and materials cheap?
(Thanks, Williamson, for the great CC-licensed photo.)
Christmas is coming early and often for me this this year — trying to get families together at the same time has resulted in at least four different Christmas gatherings. At the first of these many gatherings I scored a Craftsman folding utility knife with rosewood handle.
Here’s a TM solution to the scarcity of $40,000 incubators in poor nations: build one from car parts. Utilizing the vehicle’s air filter, fan, headlights (for heat), door alarm, and more, a group of scientists at the Global Health Initiative commissioned this model for less than $1,000 — and say a similar low-buck solution could save thousands of lives each year.
Why car parts? The scientists note that they often visit places where incubators are rare but there always seems to be functioning motor transportation — in many cases a Toyota 4Runner. So they contacted nonprofit firm Design That Matters to design the product from just the Toyota parts. The kicker: they believe that the less-complicated junkyard incubators are more likely to survive the rigors of spotty third-world power and maintenance than high-buck models.
They’ve assembled car-part plans for other medical equipment, too, including pumps and a surgical aspirator.
The Dovetail Master System allows you to make dovetails on a mortising machine or on a drill press with a mortising attachment. Besides not needing a router and a dovetail jig, the Dovetail Master offers other advantages like less noise, dust, and tear-out. Also, you’re not limited to stock patterns — you can use any number of pins and tails, spaced however you wish.
The iRobot store is selling their Looj gutter-cleaning robot for $70. Based on the comments we got on this one, it definitely doesn’t work on all gutters; but if it works on yours, it could turn the chore of gutter-cleaning into a pleasant and easy experience — certainly well worth the price.
