Since I’m not lucky enough to have access to a concrete mixer, I used to mix concrete in a wheelbarrow, which was fine — except I’d often end up with some dry mix in there, and using a rake or concrete hoe was tiring, and I’d always get splashed with the stuff.  Then I discovered the CreteSheet.

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Whether you don’t want to spend the $100+ for a downdraft table from the store or you want to build a custom downdraft table right into your new bench, Rockler’s new solid-steel downdraft table panels are an easy way to start building your own.

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Reader 1200tec can boast some crazy-mad cabinetry skills as we’ve seen with his nail gun cabinet — so what happens when he actually builds something for the kitchen? As you might expect, he applies the same level of badass to inside-the-house projects as he does to ones out in the shop.

If you think about it, 1200tec has included three different storage systems here: the shelves on the top piece, a drawer in the middle on sliding rails, and an actual cabinet on the bottom. It all looks great, but once 1200 puts some finish on it and perhaps a little hardware here and there, it’ll be a total show-stealer in the kitchen — at least, it would be in our kitchen.

The capital across the top looks great, too.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

My old Dee Zee bed box is getting worn out and I can’t find any parts for it, so I’ve been shopping around for a replacement box.  The Montezuma LA400 looks like a good option for the organized Toolmonger who needs to carry tools in or on his vehicle to perform his job.

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Trimming out a house means moving from your knees to your chop saw and back again all day — then you get to crawl around on your knees some more to set all the nails you drove or that your nail gun missed.  If you use Stanley’s cushion-grip nail set maybe your hand won’t be as sore as your knees.

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A heat gun used to be a luxury item in the shop, but nowadays it’s almost a necessity — you need it for heat-shrinking tubing, stripping paint, thawing pipes, etc.  And while you might get by with the traditional shop heat gun and its two settings, Low and High, for some jobs you’ll want a tool with in-between settings, like Griot’s Variable-Temperature Electronic Heat Gun.

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Highland Woodworking is selling this Anant Round-Face Spokeshave for $10. It’ll help you shape concave surfaces such as chair bottoms.

Anant Round-Face Spokeshave [Highland Woodworking]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

(TV Tonight, Wednesday, February 25th, 2009) No new Mythbusters, but we get new episodes of Drag Race High and Project Extreme for our viewing pleasure.

All times are central.

• This Old House (DIY, 5:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Photographs, Fur Tanning, Welding Electrodes, Electric Violins (Discovery, 6:00 pm)
• Weapon Masters: Dueling Pistols (Military, 6:00 pm)
• Rock Solid: Fire Pit and Grill (DIY, 6:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Wooden Barrels, Fire Hydrants, Automotive Seats, Cathode Ray Tubes (Discovery, 6:30 pm)
• Ask This Old House (DIY, 7:30 pm)
• Deconstruction: Home Building (DIY, 8:00 pm)
• MythBusters: Coffin Punch (Discovery, 8:00 pm)
• Project Extreme: Chesapeake Bay Bridge (DIY, 9:00 pm) NEW
• Drag Race High (Speed, 9:00 pm) NEW
• MythBusters: MacGyver Myths (Discovery, 9:00 pm)
• Deconstruction: Granite (DIY, 9:30 pm)
• Wrecked: Fire and Ice (Speed, 9:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Steel Wool, Ranges, Carved Candles, Slot Machines (Discovery, 10:00 pm)
• How It’s Made: Scalpels, Oil Paints, British Police Helmets, Ice Axes (Discovery, 10:30 pm)

Enjoy.

I remember it clearly, though it happened 20 years ago:  I took my brand new 3/8” air ratchet to a valve cover bolt — and snapped the bolt cleanly in half.  That same day, after I was done with the ole extractor set, I picked up my first pressure regulator, one that you could turn the valve a quarter turn to regulate pressure, but it wasn’t very exact or reproducible if I needed to repeat a settings.  We’ve come a long way from that to Eastwood’s Digital Pressure Regulator.

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Reader Engmike8 put together this sweet and rather familiar-looking bookcase.  It looks like Mike opted for pine, which on the whole is much cheaper than hardwood — and as we all know, there are more than a few times when cheap = good.  Regardless of the material, we always dig folks getting out in the shop and making some dust, especially when they have something to show for it afterward.

Mike also went with the adjustable-rails method of shelf control, which is both handy and largely a pain-in-the-ass when compared to other methods.  At least it always is for us — with our small trim router we have to make two passes for each slot cut on the inside.

Like a true pro Mike didn’t stop after the carpentry was done;  we noticed the entire unit is stained. Well done.  We can’t count how many times we’ve seen projects linger in the “waiting for finish” stage — including our own.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Rod Naylor designed this drill clamp to be part of his Supersharp Sharpening System — it lets you mount your electric drill to your bench and tilt it to any angle in any direction. Besides sharpening you can also use this setup for sanding, buffing, polishing, or anything else that requires you to move the work over a stationary tool.

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The Optivisor is well-advertised in many catalogs as a helpful tool for close-up work — it gives hands-free binocular magnification in a variety of powers.

I’ve resisted getting one (my eyesight is pretty good, but as I get older…) for two reasons: 1) I don’t enjoy putting on any more cumbersome gear than I have to when working in the shop;  and 2) I worry that I’ll scratch the lenses as often as I scratch the lenses of my disposable safety glasses, adding yet another consumable expense (about $12+) to my shopwork.

So what do y’all think, Hot or Not?  Let us know in comments.

Optivisor [Donegan Optical Co.]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Steel City continues to flood us with granite tools, this time in the form of their 40615G jointer, a 317-lb beast that combines the traditional steel bed with a granite fence.  Its 68”-long bed will make jointing those long boards easy work.

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I can’t imagine a time when I would lose my mind enough to consider spending $85 on a cross-peen hammer — in fact, I have people standing by, ready to smack me in the head should I attempt such a maneuver. That said, these Lie-Nielsen hammers look good.

As you can see from the tool porn picture above, they all sport beautiful cherry handles and either brass, A-2 steel, or hardened A-2 steel heads. Lie-Nielsen says they’re good for tacks, brads, and fine blade adjustments on your planes. Personally, if I’m paying just shy of $100 for a tack hammer, it had better have zombie-slaying magic or be able to summon the power of Zeus or something.

If not, I’m sticking with my cheapo tack hammer and small ball-peen hammer which put together don’t total $25.

Cross-Peen Hammers [Lie-Nielsen]
Street Pricing [Google]

Keep your cables, hoses, and cords out of your way and out of harm’s way on the job site with Lidwig’s Claw lead holder.  Plus, when the day’s done, you can coil up your “lead,” lock the claw around it, and hang it up.

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(TV Tonight, Tuesday, February 24th, 2009) We get new episodes of Dirty Jobs, Wreckreation Nation, and Deconstructed tonight, although Dirty Jobs is a retrospective. What do y’all think of Wreckreation Nation, having seen a few episodes?  Is it Toolmonger-worthy?

All times are central.

• Extreme Trains: Ice Cold Express (History, 5:00 pm)
• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 pm)
• This Old House (DIY, 5:30 pm)
• Modern Marvels: The Alcan Highway (History, 6:00 pm)
• How It’s Made: Steel Wool, Ranges, Carved Candles, Slot Machines (Discovery, 6:00 pm)
• Rock Solid: Fireplace Facelift (DIY, 6:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Scalpels, Oil Paints, British Police Helmets, Ice Axes (Discovery, 6:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Wheel Loaders, Vegetable Oil, Hand Tools, Cotton Swabs (Science, 7:00 pm)
• Ask This Old House (DIY, 7:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Temporary Metal Fences, Asphalt Shingles, Expanded Polystyrene Products, Hard Candies (Science, 7:30 pm)
• Dirty Jobs: 200 Jobs Look-Back (Discovery, 8:00 pm) NEW
• Deconstructed: Jackhammer, Smoke Detector, Electric Meter, Air Purifier (Science, 8:00 pm) NEW
• Rock Solid: Interlocking Stone Wall and Steps (DIY, 8:30 pm)
• Deconstructed: Fire Extinguisher, Coin Changer, Water Heater, and Tractor (Science, 8:30 pm)
• Wreckreation Nation with Dave Mordal: Swamp Buggy (Discovery, 9:00 pm) NEW
• How Do They Do It?: Recycling, plasma TV, fireworks, railroad tracks, ink (Science, 9:00 pm)
• How Do They Do It?: Airbags, Ice Rinks, Mattresses (Science, 9:30 pm)
• How It’s Made: Three-Wheeled Vehicles, T-Rex Vehicles, Baseball Bats, Artificial Bonsais, Trombones (Discovery, 10:00 pm)
• How It’s Made: Combination Wrenches, Deli Meats, Golf Cars, Airships (Discovery, 10:30 pm)

Enjoy.

Like most table saws’ stock miter gauges, mine isn’t good for much except to play sword-fight with, so I’ve been looking for a replacement miter gauge, a bigger one with better angle accuracy and a higher fence — the EB-3 hits all of those marks.

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