Need a square hole in a brick wall? You can try to cut it with a circular saw, but what are you going to do about the corners — chip ‘em out? Why bother, when you can use the AS160 from Arbortech? The AS160 cuts so precisely, you can remove a single brick from a wall without damaging the surrounding bricks. If you find that hard to believe, watch their repetitive but informative video.

Moving in an orbital motion, two forward-facing blades provide a simultaneous hammering and cutting action, minimizing the danger of kickback. This arrangement also cuts cleaner, throwing no dust, so the work is more visible, and there’s less mess to clean up. Another advantage: The blades cut dry, so all you need is a standard vacuum to suck up the debris, and with an optional dust boot you can clean as you cut.

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How many improvements can be made to the common prybar? Well, the GripBar, I think, adds a major one: the knuckle guard. Along with all the features you expect from a prybar — a curved shape for extra leverage and a U-shaped channel for nail removal — you can flip the prybar over and pound nails with the built-in hammer head.

For me, though, the clincher is the padded handle/knuckle guard — because grazed or bruised knuckles, even with gloves, come with the territory of demolition. The 18″ GripBar weighs in at 2-1/2 lbs., and you can get it at the Duluth Trading Company for $20.

GripBar [Tool Innovations Inc.]
GripBar [Duluth Trading Company]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Although at first look this tool might seem like a Rube Goldberg design, on closer inspection you appreciate the ingenuity of its designer.  I can’t attest to how well it actually works, but it definitely looks cool.

Strike the top of this 8″ tool like you would a chisel to get the narrow 5/32″ jaws underneath the nail head. When you attach your hammer to either the top or side of the puller and lever against the fulcrum, the spring loaded jaws close to grip the nail.

Add this nail puller to your collection of eccentric tools for $15.

Forged Nail Puller [Lee Valley]

Call it what you like — Sabre, Sawzall, Recipro — I call the reciprocating saw a must-have tool.  Since Milwaukee Tools originated it, I’m not surprised that they’re the first to add a 360-degree rotating handle.

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All of us here at Toolmonger dig Stanley’s Fubar line of demolition hammers. You can imagine my glee when browsing Target’s clearance end cap I found a model 55-119 Functional Utility Bar (or Fubar) on clearance for $15 — that’s half off its usual retail price of $30!

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With the right attachment, Paratech’s Airgun 40SC can punch through concrete, smash locks, and cut through metal at a rate of 600 blows/minute. That’s pretty damn cool. But what’s even cooler? It’s portable – perfect for forced entry in firefighting.

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Dead-On quietly released an “ultimate wrecking bar,” the Annihilator, designed in response to the “dysfunctional” utility bars already on the market. We couldn’t dig up many details, but from the looks of it, the Annihilator is intended for nail pulling, demo work, lumber tweaking, chiseling, and killing vampires.

I couldn’t find the Annihilator at any local retailers, but a handful of online distributors list it. You can get it for $39 plus shipping via Dead-On’s direct store.

Dead-On claims the Annihilator is vastly superior to Stanley’s FUBAR lineup. Does anyone here think the Annihilator stands a chance? Let us know in comments.

Press Release [Pull'R]
Storefront [Dead-On]

Lowe’s is currently offering Stanley’s 2-piece demolition driver set for a hair below $10. In case you don’t remember, these drivers can take a serious pounding. As part of the the set, you get a 5/16″ flat driver and a #2 Phillips driver — both massively overconstructed and ready for abuse. For reference purposes, street pricing on this set is about $15.

2-Piece Demo Driver Set [Stanley]
2-Piece Demo Driver Set [Lowe's]

We asked for demolition pics a while back, and TM reader and photo pool member kayacabana provided us with some. Here you can see him in the midst of tearing up flooring.

Yes, he’s not wearing the proper clothing and safety gear for the job. Yes, he’s going to catch hell in comments for it. But you have to give him props for a) getting his ass out to do the work even when it was “hot as hell in Tucson,” and b) for getting the job done with “a HF air scraper with an underpowered PC compressor.” He says the low-buck gear “worked well and made a hell of a mess.”

Nice.

By the way, Toolmonger’s photo pool is quickly approaching the 1,000 photo mark. If you haven’t taken the time to browse through ‘em — and share your own — now’s as good a time as any. There really aren’t any rules there. Just post anything a Toolmonger would enjoy seeing: unboxing pics of your new tool, photos of your latest project, or a quick pic of a funky unidentified tool you saw at the flea market. We’re game. We’re Toolmongers!

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

After lots of internal wrangling, Stanley recently launched a public site dedicated entirely to the FuBar — everyone’s favorite tools for straigtening studs and breaking s#!%. In fact, with the release of this site — and the FuBar III — Stanley has finally embraced the FuBar’s rightful position as King Of Breaking S#!%: the site lets you select an item, then watch four trash-talking workers break it. Really.

(And when you see “King Of Breaking S#!%” on Stanley products packaging a few years from now, remember you heard it here first.)

StanleyFubar.com [Stanley Tools]

Busting up a boulder in your back yard isn’t any fun with a pneumatic hammer. But blowing it up? Sweet. Ezebreak’s Micro-Blaster II employs small powder-filled cartridges to break up smaller rock and concrete bits — without pissing off the neighbors or involving federal authorities. You don’t even need a license to use it!

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Ok, so it’s not meant to be deadly, but it sure looks that way to us. This drill employs microwaves to drill through concrete, stone – and even glass without breaking it. And it produces no dust or noise, either. Of course, stray microwaves can effectively cook your internal organs if you’re not paying attention, so, um, pay attention.

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Here’s another tool for breaking s#@! from the firefighters’ playbook. It’s called the Rabbit Tool by most, although it’s officially the Hydra-Ram. Whereas many of the other fire and rescue tools we’ve featured require some pretty violent swinging force — or a powerful pneumatic or hydraulic power source — to get the job done, the Rabbit Tool just needs one guy squeezing the handle and the tool together.

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Thanks to MSA Safety Works and their line of NFL hard hats, you can now break s#!$, support for your favorite football team, and protect your melon all at the same time! These hard hats meet industry standards and (most importantly) feature bright, colorful logos that you can proudly wear in public. Not only do they look good, but these hats are said to be comfortable enough to wear through an entire game project.

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Dubbed the KATool by manufacturer Council, its “KA” supposedly stands for Kwik Access — but it could just as easily be Kick Ass. We hear that firefighters love this tool because it’s a classic fast attack tool, allowing you to tear up a wall quickly to check for fire extension, cut wires, clear doors, etc. And we hear they particularly like like the fact that it’s light enough to carry into a fire along with all their other gear.

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It’s a pry bar. It’s a nail puller. It’s a hammer. It’s a pick. It’s yet another demolition multi-tool with a kick-ass name: the Demo Dawg. Designed by a remodeler to simplify many of his back-breaking tasks, the Demo Dawg helps remove drywall, tear up flooring and roofing, tear out cabinets, and even relocate a landscape planting.

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Don’t let getting hit in the head by flying debris stop your demolition fun — especially when you can pick up this hard hat is from Mfasco for under $4. Is it the best hard hat around? We doubt it. But every bit of damage this cheap-ass hat soaks up is damage you won’t take to the head.

The Radians #300 Safety Hard Hat features a snap adjustment and meets ANSI Z89.1-1997, Type 1, Class E g and C standards for helmets. And it rings up at $3.92 — which means you have no excuse for not owning one.

Plus, if nothing else you could wear it with a suit and be Max Zorin for halloween.

Radian 300 Hard Hat [Mfasco]
Street Pricing [Google Product]