I’m the last guy who wants to get in a fight, but I’ve had the same idea I’m sure a lot of you have while hefting a meaty Maglite: if worse comes to worse, I could give a bad guy a good thwack with this thing. Rothco has expanded on that notion with their side handle system. It turns any C or D Maglite into a police style tonfa club, for defense or just showing off your mad flashlight-twirling skills.
Sure, you’ve got your Mag-Lites and your Surefires for your everyday and even tactical flashlight needs, but where do you turn when you’re looking for a little something extra? How about a light whose friends just call it “The Torch?” If you’re not careful, this light’ll catch newspaper on fire at close range, or it’ll cook scrambled eggs in about a minute and a half. A fully-charged battery pack lasts just about 15 minutes, so remember to keep it charged — and hide it from your kids.
Let’s say you need to look at something in high-end detail, but it’s in a tiny corner of your car/truck/garage — and you need a light, too. Now you can accomplish this with a single tool: Moroso’s lighted magnifier. It’s a flashlight that provides 3.8X magnification.
You may laugh, but this looks to be perfect for identifying spark plug problems.
Lighted Magnifier [Moroso]
It’s easy to see where the “UFO” part came from in UFO Tool And Flash Light: after watching enough bad sci-fi movies, you’ll notice this tool does resemble the typical alien flying saucer. Resemblance aside, UFO Toollight — the company — might really have come up with a good idea. Slip the UFO light over the shaft of your screwdriver, nut driver, 1/4″ ratchet extension, or any tool with a 3/16″ to 7/16″ shaft, and you can clearly see the fastener you’re trying to reach.
When Maxxeon designed the Workstar 1200 specialty work light, they had mechanics in mind. Where a lot of LED shop lights boast an array of LEDs that flood work areas with light, the Workstar makes a tighter beam that focuses on just the task at hand. It features a hideaway hook and also two floating, rare earth magnets, so you can securely mount it to any ferrous object — for easy, hands-free lighting.
Small spenders take note: Ryobi has added lithium-ion power to their low-buck One+ system, dramatically increasing the line’s potential and raising the bar significantly for affordable cordless power tools. You’ll find several combination sets on store shelves now — all featuring the new batteries plus a retina-burning, high-visibility green color scheme.
For today’s test, we snagged a four-piece set — the “Ryobi One+ 4-PC Lithium Power Tool Kit,” which includes a charger, two batteries, a drill/driver, a reciprocating saw, a circular saw, and a worklight. Wondering just what $300 buys you in a four-piece li-ion combo? Read on past the jump to find out.
I’ll preface this post by pointing out that clearance deals vary from store to store. However, I’ve found Maglite and Nite Ize LED upgrade bulbs on clearance at three separate Targets. These replacements for standard flashlight bulbs shine for tens of thousands of hours, and they last longer than regular bulbs on a given set of batteries.
Maglite designed several versions of their LED upgrade bulb, and each version goes with a flashlight that runs on a specific number and type of battery cells. The Nite Ize versions will work in flashlights that run on two to six cells. I’ll point you to the Candle Power Forums to discover the finer points of each brand.
The official Maglite bulb was selling for $13, about $6 less than the normal price. I bought the Nite Ize version for $7, down from $10. Like I said, your local discount, if any, will likely vary. But you might want to browse a bit, next time you’ve got a few minutes.
LED Upgrade [Maglite]
LED Upgrade [Nite Ize]
Store Locator [Target]
We spent some time with the Stanley crew today in Dallas, and ran across this interesting new flashlight destined to land on shelves later this spring: a rechargeable tripod light. It’s a little larger than Stanley’s standard tripod shop lights — and a lot larger than the mini-tripod light — and features built-in NiMH batteries to save you cash normally spent on AAs.
The light-emitting diode — low-powered, long-lasting, bright, and cool — makes the perfect bulb for a work light. Toolsale.com is selling this Tooluxe 130-LED, rechargeable, cordless floodlight with stand for $48. The 130 pure-white LEDs, rated to 100,000-hours, run off of a 7.2V lithium battery. The battery will last 3-1/2 hours after each charge from either the included 12V DC charger or a 110V AC charger.
130-LED Work Light [ToolSale.com]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
Just guessing here, but it looks like EZ Red took the “light the darkness with your cell phone” trick to heart. Their flip light works just like that, brightening up your work area with 18 LED lights.
Bosch has added a new halogen shop light to its line of 10.8V lithium-ion tools. Back in June we had Bosch’s ear, and we asked Toolmonger readers what you’d like to see in this line of compact yet powerful tools — Big Brother Bob seems to have listened. A compact light ranked high on the wish-list; now that we’ve got one, we have eight more tools to look forward to in 2008.
The FL10 compact halogen light features a six-position neck and an adjustable-focus beam. The 10V batteries give it some heft. You can buy the light at Amazon for about $15 without a battery. Also, some stores are offering it as a freebie when you buy the Bosch PS20-2 pocket driver kit.
With a free light and the promise of eight new tools this year, this might be the time to go out and get yourself a new toy.
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
Toolmonger has covered both flexible claw pickup tools and lighted magnetic pickup tools, but Neiko Tools makes a pickup tool that can retrieve items either magnetically or by using a claw. In situations where the magnetic retrieval won’t work, like an object in a metal box or a non-ferrous object, you can unscrew the magnetic head (unfortunately taking the light with it) and expose the retractable claw tip.
Whether you’re an audio engineer, an IT guy, or just a regular dude with a computer shoved under your desk, eventually you’re going to have to crawl into a tight, dark space and try to fix a wiring issue. A TV-biz friend of mine recommended a much better solution: slap a stick-on light under that desk or console before crunch time.
When a bolt falls into the depths of your engine block, fish it out with a flashlight — that’s the idea behind the CatsPaw telescoping magnetic flashlight. It sounds a bit strange, but combining a light with a magnetic grabber does free up one hand, which could actually be helpful.
Fluke markets its LVD1 as a non-contact voltage detector (”volt sniffer”), but I’ve found that the bright LED at the end makes a perfectly competent flashlight, too. The LVD1’s voltage-sensor indicator light glows when the unit is close to an AC field, as you’ll see after the jump.
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Sometimes a Mini-Maglite provides all the light you need, but when you‘re itching for a little more oomph, try the 20 million candlepower Vector VEC192. With the power of the Vector’s badass double halogen bulb in your hands, you’ll probably be tempted to set up your own SETI program or communicate with airline pilots.
A member of Candlepower Forums (at www.candlepowerforums.com) who calls himself sizzlechest has an awesome collection of Mini-Mag Maglites, which he shared online. His collection contains everything from run-of-the-mill units to custom-milled and wooden versions made by other forum members. Wow!
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