You can carve an incredible face, but if you don’t get the eyes right, what’s the point? Used correctly, these American-made eye punches from U.J. Ramelson will give you perfect eyes every time.

U.J. Ramelson makes two types of eye punches: round and oval. You use the round punches to create human eyes and the oval punches to form animal eyes. To make round eyes you position the properly sized punch over the otherwise completed face and rotate it while pushing on the handle.  We’re not exactly sure how to use the oval punches properly.

They manufacture round punches in 3mm, 5mm, 7mm, 1/8″, 5/32″, 7/32″, 1/4″, and 9/32″ sizes with either palm or stub handles. Oval punches are also available in the same sizes with palm or stub handles, except one oval punch is 5.5mm instead of 5mm. All the punches measure approximately 6″ in length.

A single punch retail for $12 to $14.  You can also pick up a set of three round punches for $37 or a set of two oval punches for $26, including shipping and handling.

Eye Punches [U. J. Ramelson]
Round Set Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Oval Set Via Amazon [What’s This?]

When it comes to MacGyvering, the only thing better than duct tape — besides paper clips and gum — is superglue.  Working in special effects shops, I picked up a trick to make this miracle tool even more versatile. Its short name is zip-kick or zip-kicker;  in fancy terms it’s a cyanoacrylate accelerator, and it allows you to build up large quantities of glue and have them harden very fast, so you can make fillets.

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If you solder many hours a week you don’t want to scrimp on your iron, but for an entry-level price the occasional user can get some nice features and accessories with this dual-temperature iron from Black & Decker.

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In the modern machine-built age most people have forgotten the art of leathercrafting, but a few hardworking people still practice and support it.  This set of starter tools provides a solid entry point for those rugged folks who’d like to give it a go.

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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]

Needlenose pliers excel at precision work: those times you want to grab that small screw, bend that wire, or pick up that button from the small hole in the floor. Any old pair of needlenose will work for those tasks, but what if you need to grab wires so fine you can barely see ‘em? You don’t want some clonky pair of needlenose pliers whose jaws don’t even touch — you want the strength of pliers, plus the precision of a pair of tweezers. Xuron’s Tweezernose pliers give you just that.

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If you want to showcase your special photographs or artwork, you can put ‘em in a custom frame — but driving the glazing or framing points that hold the backing in the frame can be a challenge. Hammers are too difficult to swing on frame backs, and framing pliers never seem to push the point the way you want. Fletcher’s FrameMaster eases this frustrating task.

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Some materials just don’t want to cut nicely. Foams can create irritating chips that stick to everything, and nylon ropes and polyester fabrics like to fray after cutting. For these materials, you need a hot knife — it can cut through foam, nylon ropes, and poly fabrics easily.

If you’d rather not use a homemade rig made out of wire and a rheostat, Hotwire Direct offers this commercial solution for cutting foam. Their handheld hot knife can reach working heat within five seconds of turning it on. With 16 different temperature settings, you pick the best temperature to slice through foam or to fuse nylon easily, and the circuitry inside prevents the tool from overheating. The blades provided are designed to take the heat without warping over time, but if you want some variety you can add the groove sled to cut different profiles in foam.

Hotwire Direct’s hot knife runs $244, so you if you only need to do a little foam cutting, you may be interested in making your own. If you want to see some of Hotwire Direct’s tools in action, check out this video of hot knife sculpting (.wmv) and this awesome clip of their hot wire CNC machine (Youtube).

Hot Knife [Hotwire Direct]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Microlux, maker of miniature tools, has come out with a filing machine. It won’t help with your taxes, but it’ll take the tedium out of filing metal, resin, plastic, or wood.

Though filing machines are usually heavy dudes, Microlux has made one for the serious hobbyist. The tool works like an inverted jigsaw, but with a file instead of a blade. The machine cuts only on the pull stroke and only on stock up to 3/8″ thick.   Just clamp it to the edge of your bench and begin filing.

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I’m a big fan of the folding type of utility knife that Superknife is known for. If you’re hard on knives or don’t want to worry about losing a family heirloom, they’re great knives to keep in your pocket — however the standard utility knife blade isn’t exactly a precision instrument. Fortunately, Superknife offers a smaller exact…..I mean folding hobby blade knife for those who often need to make finer cuts.

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If you or your children are interested in crafting small derby cars, head to Lowe’s on Tuesday for a free demonstration. After they show you how to make a derby car faster and more aerodynamic, your kids’ll get an attendance badge, and you’ll receive a coupon for 10% off Dremel products. See more details after the jump.

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“Paint easier. Paint smarter. Paint without the wait!” The makers of Painter’s Pyramid claim their product will save you time and effort, and we found much truth in this claim. The simple plastic devices allow you to paint one side of a workpiece immediately after the other without having to wait for the fresh paint to dry. They’re non-stick and non-marring, and they can even handle large workpieces weighing up to 200 pounds!

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Proxxon’s FKS/E table saw may look like a toy, but it’s a fully functioning miniature table saw.  When you’re making a scale model, a tiny error can be like flubbing a cut by a whole inch at full scale. To help model makers make exact cuts, Proxxon has been building precision power tools like this one for 30 years .

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This wire bending jig helps you bend wire neatly and accurately to make everything from custom pegboard tool holders to more creative projects like jewelry. Most importantly, it spares you the messy results and frustration of trying to bend wire just with pliers or your hands.

With this cast aluminum jig, you can bend up to 1/4″ mild steel wire. Just fit the wire into the grooves for simple angular bends, or insert the steel pegs to shape the wire in more complex shapes and curves. With two screw holes you can mount the jig to a bench, so you can apply more force to your bends. It’s one of those things you buy for one reason and keep finding uses for — at about $10, I can’t think of a reason not to get one.

Wire Bending Jig [Lee Valley]
Street Price [Google Products]

The best gifts for kids teach them — without looking like they’re anything but cool. Take the Snap Circuit from Elenco for instance. Powered by two AA batteries, it walks youngsters though building everything from an AM radio to a burglar alarm, all via easy-to-understand guides utilizing snap-together components.

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Looks like Dremel is jumping back into the Lithium-Ion scene with their new 7.2V driver, and while this tool isn’t revolutionary, it does include a few interesting features such as a motor brake and “ergonomically-optimized” body.

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Any foam-core modeler will tell you that it’s important to make a corner that looks flawless so you can easily paint it and finish it out.  A good way to do that is to use a rabbet cut — a notch cut along the length of the edge in question — to mate the two pieces.  The bad news?  Cutting rabbets in foamboard is a pain — unless you’ve got a foamboard rabbet cutter like this one.

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