You want to install a ceiling fan in a room that’s not wired for controlling both a fan and a light.  Sure, you can operate the fan with the pull chains, assuming you can even reach them, but then you have to get up off your duff.  This RF remote control from Hunter has solved this problem for me and will hopefully help you, too.

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A ladder can help you get from one place to another, like from the ground to the roof, but you probably use it more commonly as a platform for working where you couldn’t otherwise reach.  Getting the right tools up the ladder and keeping them there can be a shuffle even with a tool belt, but this ladder caddy from H.F. Staples looks like a neat way to carry and hold all the tools you’ll need while you’re off the ground.

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The Little Green Sucker really does suck — it takes air from your compressed air line and creates suction to hold itself to an interior or exterior wall, where it can hold up whatever material you’re fastening. The Little Green Sucker was first made to hold up Hardyplank siding, and I imagine a tool that can hold up a board made with concrete shouldn’t have a problem with other applications, like holding up crown or case molding.

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The versatility of the reciprocating saw puts it on the list of must-have tools, but here’s one use we bet you hadn’t thought about: power rasp!  Paws Off manufactures a rasp blade that fits most reciprocating saws, for if you ever need to remove some wood in a hurry.

Attach the Woodhog-Rasp to clean out notches, round over edges and corners, or shape curves faster than a hand-held rasp and without banging your knuckles.

We’ve yet to see pictures of the other side of the rasp, so we’re not sure if it’s curved or flat, or if it even has teeth, but if the Woodhog fills a need that you didn’t even know you had, you can pick it up for around $27.

Woodhog-Rasp Adapter [Paws Off]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I own my share of bit sets — a few mismatched sets and even a couple of complete ones — but they never seem to be in the right place when I need something different.  This Leatherman Bit Set includes all the bits you’ll need for your Surge, Charge, TTI, or Wave, all in a nylon sheath you can wear on your belt.  I know some Toolmongers aren’t fans of the “Batman look,” but if I’m working on a job, I’d rather look like Batman than be running back and forth to wherever I left my bits.

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While FastCap’s My Grip probably won’t win any beauty contests, it might just be the most comfortable grip you’ll find for your power tools, hand tools, yard tools, or sporting equipment.  That’s because you mold the grip with your own hand.

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I thought Velcro — or more generically, hook-and-loop fasteners — only came in adhesive-backed styles, but then I ran into these Velcro rolls at work, where we use ‘em for cable management.  The hooks are on one side of the roll and the loops are on the other.  I may be the last Toolmonger to come across these little round gems, but I thought I’d pass ‘em along just in case.

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What weighs just nine ounces but can lift a sheet of plywood or drywall with a single bound? The Pocket Kicker II can!  Another one of those “why didn’t I think of that” ideas, the Pocket Kicker will not only lift panels of all sorts, it’ll trim and rasp drywall, and it also works as a prying tool.

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The edge of regular sanding discs can dig into your prized work, but New Wave sanding discs have wavy edges that curl over the side of the sanding pad, so the edge doesn’t come in contact with the workpiece.

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If you’re looking for a tool to save your marriage and/or your mind, this may be it. Have you ever been in the situation where you’re trying to line up your hitch with a trailer that’s too small to see in your mirrors?   If you don’t have a person who can back you up, you’ll end up jumping out of the cab a couple of times (at least) to get it right — unless you’ve got the Reese Solo Hitch.

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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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Unless you like flirting with danger, you probably don’t want to rip thin strips against your table saw fence. The correct way is to cut the strips on the opposite side of the blade, leaving the meat of the wood between the fence and the blade, but doing it this way you have to recalculate the distance between the blade and the fence after each cut.

Rockler’s thin-rip tablesaw jig makes the job easier — each time you make a new cut the jig remains stationary, defining the thickness of the strip, but the wood and the fence move to butt up against the jig.

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This dado measuring gauge from Infinity Tools tells you exactly which blades and chippers to use for a given dado thickness.  Simply find the slot that matches the stock and read the combination next to it.

Designed to work with their Dadonator stacked dado blade set, the dado measuring gauge should work with any stacked dado set that uses 1/4″ blades and 1/16″, 3/32″, and 1/8″ chippers — practically all of them.  It’ll measure 19 different thicknesses, accurate to within .003″.

Available directly from Infinity Tools, you’ll pay $30 plus $8 S&H for this gauge.

Dado Measuring Gauge [Infinity Tools]

Mobility and stability don’t have to be mutually exclusive.  Mount these heavy-duty casters from Woodcraft to your machine, and when you’re done moving it you can raise the machine off the caster and level it at the same time with the included wrench.

The casters attach to your machine with a four-hole plate, and they’re rated for 660 lbs apiece or 1,320 lbs spread between all four casters.  Also, the feet are made of a material that reduces vibration, so your machine will be more stable under use.

A set of four casters runs $100 at Woodcraft.

Leveling Casters [Woodcraft]

Rather than resting on their laurels, it looks like Irwin has been as hard at work on new clamping products this year as they’ve ever been — they’re about to roll out the Irwin Quick-Grip XP600. The new clamp boasts increased clamping force, up to 600 lbs of it, for heavy-duty applications like installation, demolition, and rough glue-ups.

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Whenever I see an outlined pegboard I can’t help but think back to my school days in shop class. All the tools were outlined in white like a crime scene. To be fair, most of the stuff we were doing with them was probably a crime in some states.

Reader Simple Simon snapped this picture of his pegboard outlines going up, and it brings up mixed emotions for me.  As a freshman I spent a lot of time volunteering in the shop-class tool room. It was a steep learning curve because the upperclassmen would ask for ka-neuter valves and the obligatory snipe wrench and then swear I was too stupid to locate them.

My only revenge was when an outlined tool was missing;  someone checked something out and didn’t bring it back or left it at their station. All one had to do was go down the list and find who didn’t check an item back in.

To this person went the ultimate shame — they would spend the next day sweeping the shop under the watchful gaze of our taskmaster who was utterly merciless. It was rather like putting someone in stocks and throwing fruit at them. If you had trash of any kind you threw it on the floor. Grinding was also very popular when someone was on broom duty because the sweeper had to clean it up for you.

Good times.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

This photo by reader and Flickr pool member Gareth.ky caught our eye — we’re not sure why, but there seems to be something in the middle of the shot that makes us smile. What could that be? We can almost put our finger on it.

Kidding aside, shameless flaunting of our Tool Talk podcast at least deserves a wink and a nod. Not only is Gareth demonstrating excellent taste, he’s also observing our “stereo in the shop” rule, the importance of which can’t be overstated.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]