Until vehicles come with outlets built right into the dash, we’ll have to settle for the nuisance of portable inverters.  To help disguise what’s often a tangled, messy eyesore, Original Power cleverly designed their PowerCup in the shape of a coffee cup, to take advantage of the ubiquitous cup holders in cars, trucks, and even boats.  It provides two 120V AC outlets and a USB charging port.

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PCs don’t feel too at home in the shop, what with all the dust, dirt, oil, paint overspray, you-name-it. Open up your home or office PC case and look at how much dust has accumulated inside it — that’s only a fraction of what happens in an industrial setting.  Made of a breathable fabric, the PC Dirt Bag totally encases your PC and filters out all the nasty shop crud.

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If you’re in the market for a cheap and cheerful power inverter, then head over to Buy.com and check out the Jensen JP-20.  It features a load capacity of 160W continuous power/300W peak power, which makes it perfect for charging power tools and running lights.  Buy.com is selling it for $15, with free shipping.

Jensen JP-20 [Buy.com]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Used to be when soldering the lead of a heat-sensitive component, you were supposed to clip on a heat sink to dissipate the heat away from the component. But with surface-mount components replacing through-hole components, the heat sink has been slowly moving to the back of the toolbox where tools go to retire. The tool hasn’t become obsolete yet, though — you can still find plenty of heat-sensitive specialty and hobbyist parts with leads.

This version from Miller is an example of a quality heat sink. The spring-loaded copper jaws efficiently absorb heat and move it away from the sensitive component, while the nickel plating ensures that solder won’t stick to the tool. To stop the heat from being efficiently transferred to your hand when you remove the heat sink, Miller coats the handles in soft plastic.

Unfortunately, I can’t find the Miller tool for sale, but for comparison I included links to inexpensive Radio Shack and Hexacon heat sinks that’ll probably get the job done for $2 to $7.

Heat Sink [Ripley-Miller]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Heat Sink [Radio Shack]
Via Amazon(B000PDOOXQ) [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Automotive wiring is black magic — how else could a short in the right front headlight cause the rear left blinker to burn out? When troubleshooting this sort of voodoo, you need all the help you can get. IPA’s Fuse Saver lets you get on with troubleshooting without repeatedly replacing the same fuse or foolishly bridging the contacts — like you haven’t thought about it.

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The next time you catch crap from your tool buddies for carrying such a gadget-geeky cell, tell them to kiss your iPhone-carrying ass. Then point them here to see how handy Apple’s finest can be in the hands of a Toolmonger. I’ve found dozens of shop-friendly uses for my phone. Here’s five.

1. Carpenter’s Square

Sure, the iPhone’s not big enough to replace a real carpenter’s square, but it kicks the crap out of “that looks close enough” when your square is miles away back in your toolbox. In the picture above I was building a bit of impromptu signage (read: an 8′ tall stand to hold a banner). The result: close enough that it stood straight even in some pretty stiff wind.

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HMC Electronics is selling these Xuron Micro-Shear flush cutters for only $4.40. The Xuron flush cutters are great for doing tiny flush cuts on wire, for craft and electronics wire work. Flush cutting leaves a square end, rather than a typical mashed chisel end.

Xuron 170-II Micro-Shear Flush Cutters [HMC Electronics]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Once a month, for all of 2008 — oops — Steinel is giving away an Ultimate Butane Kit to a randomly selected website registrant. You don’t even already have to own a winch! You will of course have to surrender the normal contact information and receive promotional materials and junk forever, but there’s a lot of great stuff in the kit.

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MSC has marked down the Mitutoyo Digimatic 0-6″ digital calipers to $90, almost $50 off the $137 list price. The Digimatic, the workhorse in the world of digital calipers, features long battery life and accuracy to 1/100th of a millimeter. It can take inside, outside, and depth measurements, incremental or absolute, with .0005″ resolution, displayed in metric or imperial units.

In short, it’s a powerhouse of measuring, and discounted to boot. The sale goes through August 11, 2008.

Digimatic 0-6″ Digital Caliper [MSC Direct]

Wahl clippers allow many of us to cut our hair without paying a professional — the true DIY spirit — and now they’ve applied their expertise in cordless clippers and palm-sized electronic tools to the world of soldering. Finally we get a tool from Wahl that we don’t need to lubricate, and that’s supposed to get hot! Seriously though, we’ve discussed cordless soldering irons before, both butane and AA powered, but I’m glad to find a NiCad version — now I won’t have to go shopping because I ran out of fuel.

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We like stripping coax wire about as much as ripping our eyelids out. Unfortunately, this past week we’ve been carefully stripping miles of coax and, of course, swearing a great deal. Xcelite makes the Coaxial Two-Step Stripper to simplify this chore — though we’ve yet to check it out, it looks like it might beat our current method.

The Two-Step Coaxial Wire Stripper Kit can strip all single- or double-shielded coax cables for connections or soldering. It slides over your thumb and the wire goes through the hole on the side.

We’re not sure if something like this works better than the standard guillotine strippers, or if it’s just an overpriced cigar clipper. What do you think? Let us know in comments.

Coaxial Two-Step Stripper [Specialized Products]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

I’m amazed at how good digital imaging technology has gotten — it’s not quite as neat as x-ray vision, but cool anyway.  Consumer grade digital cameras and video cameras take higher resolution pictures than most of us will ever need; we can look at good images from space for free on the internet; and prices are dropping on super spy cameras like this one. You can get the Li-Ion version for about $240.

Now you can check out the insides of gas tanks, garbage disposals, and even walls if you’re willing to patch a 3/4″ hole.  This could prove very helpful even to those of us who aren’t professional inspectors. Your local equipment dealer may even rent you one if you just want something interesting to play with.

Digital Inspection Camera [Milwaukee]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Have you ever gazed up at the starry night sky and wished you could remember more from high school astronomy than just the Big Dipper? With the Celestron SkyScout Personal Planetarium, you just point, shoot, and learn. The SkyScout uses GPS technology, calculation positioning software, and gravity and directional sensors to identify celestial objects and tell you all about them.

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These may not be the best tweezers on the market, but they have one cool feature: touch the tips of these 5″ long tweezers to the terminals of any 1.5V battery, and the LED in the handle will tell you if the battery is charged or dead.

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The electronics geek in me got giddy when I saw this picture of Knipex’s ribbon-cable cutters. OK, so not everybody is going to get as excited about this tool, but next time you have to cut ribbon cable, you’ll remember this tool exists, and you’re going to be bummed that you don’t have one.

Knipex’s cutters cut ribbon cable up to 56mm — that’s 2.2″ for you metric-impaired readers — without crushing the conductors. The integrated fence in the base allows you to make perfectly rectangular cuts, and you can replace the blade with a conventional, trapezoidal, utility-knife blade.

Knipex makes the handle and blade mount of these 8-1/2″-long cutters from high-strength steel. A spring returns the handles to the open position when they’re released, and a locking lever keeps them closed for storage.

Look to pay anywhere between $60 and $100. If you don’t have that kind of money burning a hole in your pocket, or if your employer can pinch a penny so hard that Lincoln cries, UltraShear makes a cheaper alternative — albeit without the fence — the Superknife.

Cutter For Ribbon Cables [Knipex]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

In a recent Dealmonger, we let you know that the big boxes were clearing out their Circuit Alert wire strippers, but it turns out it wasn’t because of slow sales. In fact, the Circuit Alert tools have sold so well, they decided to completely overhaul the product line.  Now all Circuit Alert tools come with the same tiny, interchangeable voltage sensor.

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Tangles of wires have become as ubiquitous as the computers they connect to — you’ll find them in the shop for controlling CNC machines, in the garage for diagnostics, and in my favorite personal hangout, the electronics lab, for everything. While the WireMate isn’t strictly a tool, it can help unclutter your workspace.

Note: this is an “As Seen On TV” product, and some of their marketing has the same feel as an instruction manual translated from Chinese, especially the phrases, “Function So Easy!” and “Form So Perfect.” Despite the marketing, the concept looks sound.

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