Archive for the 'Hardware' Category

Magnetic Child Locks

Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

Anybody with kids or grandkids has gone through the childproofing stage. You find yourself crawling around on all fours, permanently damaging your nice cabinets (and maybe your knees) by installing safety latches to keep the wee ones out of unfriendly places like cleaning cupboards. Then after a few weeks you find yourself walking halfway across the house to throw something away in your bedroom rather than fuss with opening the latch to the kitchen garbage.

Kidco’s magnetic child locks could solve some of the potential pitfalls of installing child safety latches.  First they attach with adhesives, possibly saving your cabinets from damage. Second they open simply with the touch of a magnetic key in the proper location. They claim the key will release the latch through over one inch of solid wood.

The best pricing we could find was $20 shipped for a pack of three locks with one key and key holder. Now if it only had a targeting laser…

Magnetic Child Locks [Kidco]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Posted in Amazon, Hardware, Magnets, Safety, Storage | Comments Off

Pegasus Pip Pins

Tuesday, September 29th, 2009

I could have been a little more specific and called these quick-release pins, but how often do you get to start every word in a title with the same letter? Pegasus Racing pushbutton quick-release pins are handy little devices for critical, frequently-serviced assemblies. What makes them remarkable when compared with stainless marine versions or mild-steel hardware store parts is their strength. How does an 8,200-pound breaking strength when mounted in double shear sound? And that’s for the smallest of the lot, with only a 1/4″ diameter. Larger sizes (5/16″ and 3/8″) are also available and ratings increase accordingly, topping out at 18,400 pounds for the heaviest 3/8″ version.

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Posted in Hardware | 6 Comments »

Captive Nuts

Thursday, September 10th, 2009

The sun rises, the sky is blue, dogs bark, and threading sheet metal sucks. Fortunately, there are lots of little shortcuts, but most of them require very soft materials, welding, or special installation tools. One type, the captive nut (also known as an insert nut) requires none of the above. An arbor press or a careful hammer blow will do just fine, and they can work with very thin materials.

While captive nuts are not exactly new, they’re surprisingly rare, but McMaster-Carr is an excellent source for these parts. They’re available in most small ANSI inch and ANSI metric thread pitches, and at around $5 for a pack of ten, it’s a small price to pay for not needing to worry about losing track of tiny parts.

Captive Nuts [McMaster-Carr]

Posted in Hardware | 5 Comments »

Pentagonal Bolts For Securing Manhole Covers

Monday, August 31st, 2009

GMP Tools manufactures pentagonal head bolts to secure manhole covers. That’s right, not square, not hex, but pentagonal — another case of security through obscurity. Of course, if you sell bolts with heads that have an odd number of sides you need to supply the corresponding tools to turn them, so they also sell two different sockets: one with a 7/16″ hex drive for impact tools, another with a 19mm hole which you can turn with a rod.

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Posted in GMP, Hand Tools, Hardware | 15 Comments »

Bridge The Spiral, Don’t Crush It

Friday, August 14th, 2009

A standard hose clamp doesn’t work very well for clamping a spiral hose such as that found in dust collection systems. It has to clamp over one of the coils which can make a less-than-airtight connection. To solve this problem you can use a bridge hose clamp which has an offset connector that crosses over the coil without crushing it.

Made for right-hand spiraling hoses, the Rockler version of this clamp goes as far as replacing the usually frustrating screw head with a thumb screw and extends the shaft to give your fingers more clearance while turning the screw.

A five pack of the Rockler style 2-1/2″ clamps will run you $8 and a five-pack of 4″ clamps will run you $10. Other retailers sell similar products for both right- and left-hand spiraling hoses, but it seems only Rockler sells bridge hose clamps with the thumbscrew.

Bridge Hose Clamps [Rockler]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Posted in Amazon, Hardware, Rockler | 5 Comments »

Temporary Door/Drawer Pulls

Friday, July 3rd, 2009

Use TapeNIX temporary pulls anytime you haven’t put pulls on the cabinet or drawers, but still need to easily open and close them. Presumably they are so named because Anthony LaFemina created them to replace the blue tape he saw being used as temporary pulls.

Made in the USA, TapeNIX pulls slide over cabinets and drawer faces up to 3/4″ thick. Simply slide them off once you’ve installed the permanent pulls.

A bag of 10 TapeNIX pulls shipped from McFeely’s will run you $12, but you get a better price break at 100 pcs. — $33 shipped.

TapeNix [FastCap]
Tapenix [FastCap eStore]
TapeNix [McFeely's]

Add Category Tool Type: Hardware

Posted in Fastcap, Hardware, McFeely's | 1 Comment »