Incorrect torque on a small screw may not lead to a life-ending event on the highway, but on precision machines and carefully calibrated devices, small screws require careful handling.  If you don’t care to keep up with the digital age, an “old-fashioned” torque driver will do — but if you’re interested in the tools of the new millennium, check out this digital torque driver.

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Electronic Goldmine is selling this 8-piece miniature Torx driver set for $3 — it’s handy for taking apart all sorts of items with tiny Torx screws.

Mini 8-in-1 Precision Torx Driver Set [Electronic Goldmine]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

LOX screws are so strip-proof, you’d practically have to take a drill bit to ‘em to ruin ‘em.  The same goes for spline bolts — good luck stripping them — plus many spline wrenches are “backwards compatible” with hex, twelve-point, female Torx, and square-heads, and they’re more effective at turning 50% rounded fasteners.  Now the Wright Spline takes another step.

According to the Wright website, “Most wrenching problems occur in removing fasteners, because the removal torque is frequently twice or more the installation torque,” so they took that into account when designing the Wright Splines.  Go figure;  a tool manufacturer looks at when we all have the most trouble — removing bolts — and figures out how to handle it.

Here’s the problem with loving the technology so much:  It looks like technology has gotten ahead of industry, because I can’t find them for sale anywhere.  As if I really need them…

Wright Spline [Wright Tool]

Sometimes you can’t move a job to a place with proper light and heat for human beings to work in. Spaceflights, ship repair in the North Atlantic in winter, and underwater construction all require special tools and special outfits. Though the Gorilla Tool isn’t specific to any of them, it could come in handy — especially if you or your assistant haven’t got a good eye for bolt and nut sizes.

The Gorilla tool combines bolt-sizing and thread-sizing in a tight package with a pre-drilled lanyard hole.  Gorilla makes it of stainless steel so it won’t rust, and the large tension wheels seem designed for easy use — maybe easy enough for gloved hands.  The quality looks good, but it runs $45 for either the American or metric version.

Most of us will have the luxury of not needing a tool like this — going back to the toolbox isn’t likely to freeze off our delicate bits or run us out of air.  But if you really needed to be sure the first time…

Gorilla Tool [Corporate Site]

If you’re installing 8-1/4″ horizontal lap siding, take a look at PacTool’s new PacStrips, designed to make installation faster and easier.  PacTool claims you can shave 25% off your installation time while maintaining the factory-set reveals.  As a bonus, PacStrips allow trapped water to drain behind the siding, increasing its life.

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Of course you’re smarter than a bolt, but SmartBolts are still pretty crafty — they can show you if they’re loose, tight, or overtightened. For the average Toolmonger, this is overkill; we’ll break out the torque wrench if we need to know when the bolt’s tight enough.  When it’s not critical, the grunt method works — one grunt for tight, two grunts for really tight.  However, neither of these methods will show you if a bolt has loosened over time.

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Growing up, I came to the conclusion that duct tape wasn’t just adhesive tape — it was more like a secret substance that ninjas used to hold the universe together.  Little did I know that my Kung Fu wasn’t strong enough to handle the heavy guns, like this three-foot roll.  Reader Simple Simon caught this roll in a rare moment, out in the open where mortals could see it.

We’re guessing this is used for keeping lots of cables from popping up and tripping people — the background looks like they’re setting up for a show of some kind.  Its real purpose could also be wrapping up the bodies that the tool ninjas had to dispose of for gazing upon the mystic three-foot roll.  We fear for Simple Simon’s safety.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

DM Seeleys is selling this no-name-brand rivet nut tool with a kit of common rivet nuts for $18.  Rivet nuts work great if you need a blind fastener but, due to material thinness, you can’t put a tapped hole.  Insertion of a rivet nut is pretty similar to using pop rivets, but you have to unthread the mandrel after applying the nut.

45-Piece Nut Riveter Set [DM Seeleys]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

SJ Discount Tools is selling the 3/8″-16 Helicoil Repair Kit for $14.78.  Helicoil’s kits (and other tried-and-true insert products) will help you repair a thread in a stripped-out hole without replacing the entire part.  You can find kits in other sizes as well, but the cost may vary.

Helicoil 3/8″-16 Thread Repair Kit [SJ Discount Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Once upon a time, when pneumatic nailers were all the same — to me at least — this fine tool would’ve escaped my attention. This is a multi-blow nailer, which means there’s no depth adjustment; you simply hold the actuator until the nail is driven to the depth desired.  If you hit a knot, just hold the actuator longer.

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Are you tired of rounding over your square-drive insert bits? Woodcraft designed their Highpoint insert bits to last longer than a standard insert bit, by combining a mild-steel hex insert body with a precision-milled, hardened tip.

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Sometimes Toolmonger news just rolls into my e-mail! Rod sent the following “press release” along with the picture above:

Just thought I would show you a picture of the new nail gun DeWalt just came out with…this baby is a Man’s Tool!

It can drive a 6-D nail thru a 2 X 4 at 200 yards.

This makes construction a real breeze — you can sit in your lawn chair and build a fence.

Just get the wife and kids to hold the fence boards in place while you sit back, relax with a cold drink — when they have the board in the right place, just fire away.

With the hundred-round magazine, you can build a fence with a minimum of reloading.

After a day of fence-building with the new DeWalt rapid-fire nail gun, the wife won’t ask you fix or build anything else.

We likey. Just make sure the fam is wearing safety goggles, and some Kevlar.

Pounding tent stakes into hardpan, into tree roots, into rock — into just about every impossible plastic-stake-breaking, metal-stake-bending situation there is — has been an American pasttime for as long as camping has been. These ScrewPegs should take some of the pain out of the situation.

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Driving fasteners into concrete or steel can be painfully slow and difficult, but Toolmongers during WWII needed a fast way to attach a steel-plate patch to the steel hull of a damaged ship. So, Yankee ingenuity produced powder-actuated tools.  A chemical propellant — like gunpowder — explodes inside the tool and drives the fastener, with action similar to a firearm.

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Cable ties belong in the esteemed category of tools that includes gaffer’s tape, super glue, and locking pliers — they’re almost infinitely useful, and if you’ve got some, you’re halfway to fixing nearly anything. However, if you’ve ever spent time bundling up a bunch of cables just right, only to have to snip apart all your hard work when you notice what you did wrong, you owe yourself a big bag of releasable cable ties.

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Teflon tape can take the place of a good thread sealant, but there are plenty of other alternatives. Occasionally you even hear stories about people confusing thread sealants with thread lubricants or, worse, thread lockers.

Worse still, you may someday be told not to use super glue on threads, and the admonishment could end with, “Ask me how I know.” Duct tape isn’t the only substance that holds the universe together.

I’ve always preferred Teflon tape, because that’s what my dad used. Do you choose Teflon tape over the alternatives? Why, or why not?

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Back about six years ago, when I used to fabricate and install granite countertops, we caulked with manual guns — the fancy electronic ones weren’t available yet. During an install, we’d set the granite countertop pieces on the cabinets, align ‘em to their final position, and then lift up the pieces to caulk underneath ‘em. And the guy doing the caulking had to race to squeeze out enough caulk before my arms gave out from the insane amount of weight.

It seems that a powered caulking gun would’ve been very useful to squeeze the caulk out faster, but I’ve never used one and don’t know anyone who has. So, I’m turning to you. Do you have a battery-powered caulking gun — or maybe a pneumatic? What brand is it? Does it lay down a seriously precise bead of caulk? Or is it a heavy, cumbersome waste of money?  Let us know in comments.

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]