Looking at a printed circuit board (PCB), ever wonder how they bend every one of those resistor leads perfectly every time? Depending on how many PCB’s are in a production run, you’d use different tools.  For a run of one or two boards, you could always try a pair of pliers and a keen eye, or you could use a plastic lead former. If you’re running a ton of boards at once, a better solution would be a lead forming machine from a company like PEI.

Slots for radial lead resistors run along the length of the high impact ABS plastic former. Each slot is .05″ longer than the next and has radiused edges to make perfect bends without stressing the leads. It can be used to bend the leads of 1/2 watt resistors, 1/4 watt resistors, and diodes.

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Want to get the kids involved in handiwork but not ready to hand over your power drill to a first-grader? Arizona Tools offers a cool gift idea for kids aged around 6-10: Allied’s Junior Cruiser Assortment Tool Set. Aside from giving them a chance to spend time with Dad or Mom or Grandpa Joe, it goes a long way toward developing dexterity and a sense of independence (read: when they’re thirty they won’t still be calling you to help them put air in a tire).

The kit is made with heat-treated, likely inexpensive materials (the whole set retails for under $30) including a flashlight (batteries not included), tire gauge, Phillips and flathead screwdrivers, 18 hex keys (SAE/Metric with holders), a 10′ tape measure, 6″ slip joint pliers, a 1/4″ spinner handle, and 20 1/4″ drive sockets of various SAE and metric sizes. Customer reviews at Arizona Tools are positive, though many folks wish that it included a hammer. Then again, when you’re eight, everything’s a hammer.

Allied Junior Cruiser Assortment Tool Set [Arizona Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Allied Junior Tool Sets Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Know what else the holidays entail? Checking out all the new gimmicky tools that magically arrive just in time to become gifts. Kidding aside, not all “stocking-stuffer-esque” tools are junk. Each year we come across a few that’ll serve a useful purpose all year long — and a few that’ll end up in the trash by Valentine’s Day.

So which bin does B&D’s new ReadyWrench fall in? First, let’s take a look at the basics.

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Nailing up hidden gutter hangers can be a challenge. One reason they’re called “hidden” is they are fastened to the fascia under the lip of the shingles and inside the gutter where there ain’t much room to swing a hammer. To solve this problem, Malco’s Gutter Nail Driver both holds the nail and transfers the striking surface outside the gutter where you can get a good swing. (more…)

One of my uncles loves to tell the tale of how he acquired much of his impressive collection of fine Snap-On tools and the four-foot-wide roll cab they came in. As he tells it, back in the sixties he purchased the full cab from a dealer who was going out of business, and had somehow wound up with the full chest, no key, and apparently no idea about the value of its contents. Price? $200. He bought the cab, dragged it home, popped it open with one of the few tools he owned (a lock pick set from working with a towing company), and was the proud owner of a fully stocked dealership tool set at about a 97% discount.

Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know, but he does use a pick set to open his tool box, claiming he’s nostalgic and never saw the point of getting it re-keyed. Picks are useful little devices, if you can get a set that isn’t from a shady dealer. Look for stainless steel pieces with good metal handles, which should cost around $30, and you usually won’t go wrong. Johnny Law may frown upon owners, but in the right circumstances, they can save some serious headaches. Practitioners claim that lock picking is as much an art as welding, so maybe it’ll morph into a hobby as well as a practical skill.

LAB 11-piece Mini Pick Set [Lock Picks by Brockhage]
Clear Practice Locks [Lock Picks by Brockhage]
Professional Picking Tools [Lock Pick Shop]

Constant-tension hose clamps are fast becoming ubiquitous on mass-produced cars, courtesy of their stone-cold reliability and automatic adjustment. Worm gear and T-bolt hose clamps should be re-torqued after installation with the hoses hot, since the clamping force squeezes rubber out from underneath the band (a tendency called cold creep), but constant-tension clamps keep themselves properly adjusted. They are, however, one of a mechanic’s knuckles’ worst enemies, and very difficult to detach without the right tools. Additionally, factory installations aren’t always the easiest to remove, which is where flexible hose clamp pliers come in.

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Why use a brass pin punch? Well, for one brass doesn’t spark, so if you ever need to drive out a pin in a flammable environment, you’d probably want one. Secondly, they are less likely to leave a mark on steel surfaces.

This brass pin punch set by Solid includes a 6″ center punch and pin punches sized 3/32″ x 4-1/4″, 1/8″ x 4-3/4″, 5/32″ x 5″, 3/16″ x 5-1/4″ and 1/4″ x 5-3/4″.  It runs about $26 shipped.

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

Not many screws are long enough to merit a 1:4 gearing to help tighten them more quickly, but the little buggers get frustrating fast if they are. This is the Skew Products Fastdriver, a screwdriver with a little (extra) twist. There’s a gear set in the body which turns every handle rotation into four shaft rotations. If you need more torque, the gearbox can be disengaged for normal 1:1 operation. It comes with two Phillips and two slot drivers and is compatible with 1/4″ hex inserts, the same type you’ll find in just about any interchangeable-head screwdriver, so this should work with your existing collection.

The Fastdriver’s pretty cheap, too — just $12 before shipping from SJ Discount Tools. I’d imagine it’s roughly as fast as a ratcheting screwdriver, but a little easier to use — no rapid back-and-forth nonsense making the tip slip out of the screw head.

Fastdriver [SJ Discount Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Besides shop uses like examining sharpened edges and getting a closer look at that splinter in your finger (TM 7/03/09 post), I think small handheld microscopes are just plain cool. The Celestron 44306 is a Handheld Digital and Optical Microscope, with adjustable brightness LED illumination, a 20X eyepiece for optical viewing (4X to 8X on the LOW setting; 50X on the HIGH setting) and a USB 2.0mp digital camera for snapshots and video on your computer (20X to 40X on the LOW setting; 200X on the HIGH setting). It’s 2″ × 1.25″ × 3.5″, weighs 2 oz, and includes a USB cable and ArcSoft Photo software. The user has to supply two AAA batteries for the LED.

There are lots of fun things to look at with the microscope, like fountain pen writing on an index card, a cat whisker — it fell off, honest — , coins, wood grain, random garage bugs…

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Veritas® flush-cutting saws have teeth that are set only on one side of a thin flexible blade. This allows them to trim protruding plugs and dowels without damaging the surface. They cut on the pull stroke. (more…)

Sometimes a product comes along that captures the spirit of innovation so head-on it becomes an instant classic. Toolmonger readers, I present to you — the Bottle Opener Hammer.

Yes, nothing quite says, “I plan to go out there and do the bare minimum” like the Bottle Opener Hammer. Try as you like, this piece of out-of-the-box thinking is something you just won’t find anywhere else. Purpose built for not hammering nails — no joke, there’s a warning saying not to hammer with it — this hand tool goes above and beyond the call of thirsty workers everywhere.

The good news is that you to can own this vital piece of shop gear for the get-them-while-you-can price of $2.87 from Harbor Freight. ‘Nuff said.

Hammer With Bottle Opener [Harbor Freight]

Mortise and Tenon joints are a staple of the furniture building craft, the very foundation of strong, long-lasting woodworking projects. I don’t really use them because there are other ways to make joints, and building in Mortise and Tenons is a giant pain the rear. But the Footprint Rosewood Mortise and Marking Gauge from Woodcraft is a beautiful-looking way to make the argument that I should.

The gauge starts off with Rosewood construction on the block and slide track and features a single pin on one side and double pins on the other to help mark your material before sawing, chiseling, or cutting. It also sports a brass inlay, thumbscrew and slide to offset the Rosewood.

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Rockler has a small autoloader screwdriver (see TM 2006 and 2007) for $10 as an online-only special. The unit comes with 6 bits (Phillips #0, #00, #000; slotted 3/32″, 1/8″, 5/32″; all bits are 5/32″ × 1″) that are accessed by pulling back on the handle, twisting to select the desired bit, and then pushing the handle forward. A large autoloader with 6 bits (Phillips #1, #2, #3; slotted 1/8″, 3/16″, 1/4″; all bits are 1/4″ × 1″), is also on sale for $15 (online-only). Free shipping with promo code V9789. This online sale ends this Wednesday, September 30.

Small Autoloader Screwdriver [Rockler]
Large Autoloader Screwdriver [Rockler]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Starrett is arriving late into the digital inspection scope arena with their recently-introduced inspection scope. Made in the USA, the scope features an auto-focus digital camera with a full-color resolution of 320 x 240 pixels. The camera can focus on object anywhere from 0.4″ to infinity and displays the image on a 2.5″ LCD with a 55° degree viewing angle.

Powered by 4 AA batteries, the device lasts 4 hours on average. Dual LED’s give can be set to three different intensity levels. The inspection scope comes with either a 3′ or a 6′ water-resistant shaft that measures .42″ in diameter at its widest point and can be bent in a 2.5″ radius circle. It also has an RCA output that will connect to an NTSC monitor.

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The General No. 142 6-inch dial caliper does direct reading of .01″ (outer scale) and 1/64″ (inner scale) on its dial (plus mm readings on the bar scale, but — without getting into that whole metric thing — I don’t find this “feature” very convenient). It can do inside, outside, depth, and step measurements. Its fiberglass-reinforced plastic body makes it a good choice for damp/wet environments. You can pick one up for around $24.

There are many alternatives (TM has covered calipers a few times: in 2006 and 2007, for example) and some are less expensive (HF or the General 141), but I especially like this model for woodworking.

General Tools [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I’ve seen 2 references (Brian’s Blog & Cool Tools) recently about using paracord to wrap tool handles, so it must be significant. Peter Atwood has both a video and a short web tutorial showing his wrapping method. The picture above is from Brian’s Blog showing the Atwood-method wrap on a mini pry bar (the Pocket Widgy® from County Comm).

Given that you can get 50′ of paracord for around $3 and that its 550-lb. tensile strength is useful in many other areas, this looks like a neat application for it. Maybe paracord should join duct tape and vise grips as another universal solution?

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

I’ve had a Radi-Plane (similar, if not identical to, the picture on the left) for many years*, and found it very handy for easing edges. I recently added — following a “suggestion” from the home project coordinator, a.k.a. my lovely wife — a couple of extra shelves to a cabinet above the oven. I used MDF for the shelves and my Radi-Plane did a great job rounding the edges (and was easier and quicker than digging out the router).

While checking options, I found Benjamen’s post on the Veritas Cornering Tool Set (shown on the right above; $33 for 2 tools with 4 different radii and a sharpening kit), and was wondering how these compare to the Radi-Plane (or the apparent equivalents, Woodstock’s W1100 Slickplane [What’s This?], available for $13, and the Rockler radius plane, available for $22). Has anyone had experience with both? Any other good suggestions for quickly and consistently easing edges?

*15? 20? I found a Radi-Plane reference in the Aug. 1990 issue of American Woodworker [Google Books]. My versions are branded “RADI-PLANE, L.A. Mathers Co., Stockton, Calif.”

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Radius Plane [Rockler]