By sight, most people can’t tell a 20° angle from a 22-1/2° angle or even a 25° angle, but guessing incorrectly can lead to a tool that no longer cuts well. With a bevel gauge like this one from Richard Kell, you can make sure you’re honing your blade at the correct angle. Don’t confuse this bevel gauge with the adjustable or sliding bevel gauge — only this bevel gauge takes the guesswork out of checking angles.
If you’ve ever had to lay a curve over and over again, you probably made a template from whatever you had around — a piece of cardboard, a piece of paper, maybe a moldable French curve. Woodcraft recently added a flexible template to their inventory. It’s cool because you can mimic a curve up to 37″ long. Even cooler: You can lock it to keep that curve no matter how many times you transfer it.
The locking template sells for $40, and Woodcraft appears to be the only place offering it.
Curve Template [Woodcraft]
Have you ever tried to do a level and measured layout for hanging a picture or the hardware for a towel rack? You can do it with a box level and a tape, but it can be difficult. If you have to do multiple layouts over and over, it can be downright frustrating. Empire Level makes a unique straightedge that can be a big help in this type of situation.
The Bubble Stick incorporates a built-in level and plumb vial into a four-foot, plastic straightedge. Because it’s not as bulky as a box level and the measurements are on tapered edges, you can see your pencil tip and the gradations easily. The edges aren’t hard or sharp, so it won’t mar painted or wallpapered surfaces.
With digital calipers you can take quick measurements of any number of things. Unfortunately, most digital calipers only display in metric and decimalized Imperial units — not fractions. That’s fine if you’re good at on-the-fly conversions, but what if you’re not? Several manufacturers offer digital calipers that’ll display fractions, for error-free measurements.
Levels have come a long way in the last hundred years, and Stanley has been there for the entire ride, making a good product the whole way. One of their latest, the Fatmax Xtreme level features bigger vials and aluminum construction. We admitted to being pretty big fans when it came out, and we still are.
We’ve used ours not only as a straightedge for scribing a line and truing up a surface, but we also clamp it down and use it as a guide fence when crosscutting sheets of plywood. We’ve put it through all manner of abuse, and it still looks like new — not bad for a $50 off-the-shelf piece of gear.
Our Fatmax Extreme level performed so well in the shop, we requested them for our birthday presents last year. Light, comfortable, and easy to read, they display all the hallmarks of a good level as far as we’re concerned. They’re gorgeous to look at as well — chrome and silver is never a bad combo in our book.
48″ Fatmax Xtreme Level [Stanley]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
U.S. Tape’s Ultimate ProTape looks like somebody put it in a hydraulic press. The 1-1/2″W x 2″T x 4-3/4″L case houses a 25′ long, 1″ wide tape — but because of its oblong shape, it fits in your hand like a much smaller tape measure. To make the Ultimate ProTape even more comfortable, rubber grips cover the top and bottom of the case, and you can easily reach the locking button with your thumb.
Do you ever feel like your carpenter’s square isn’t the precision instrument it could be? It won’t work well on materials with profiled edges, and sometimes you feel like you need three hands to use it. The Veritas square fence can solve these problems. You can attach it to either leg of your carpenter’s square, and now, because the square is resting on the workpiece, it doesn’t need to be supported.
If you haven’t been hiding under a rock, you should know that Magneto is the mutant foe of the X-Men who has the power to control magnetism. A similarly named tool uses the power of magnetism to hold your tape measure to your belt — making it easier to remove and replace than the standard tape measure clip.
If you’re like me — always losing your pencil in the midst of a project — this deal won’t help you stop losing them, but it will make it easier and more cost-efficient to reach for a new pencil. Contractor Tools is offering this 72-pack of Keson industrial-grade, carpenter-grade pencils for $33, about 45 cents a pencil.
The pencils measure 5/8″ by 7″ with a hard #3 lead. Since they’re flat, they won’t roll away — and they’ll fit behind your ear.
Keson [Corporate Site]
Keson 72-Pack [Contractor Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon
While doing some research on the deck I’m going to build next summer, I ran across these Bolt-Rite anchor templates over at Awesome Tools. You can get ‘em in a variety of sizes to suit your project/job. This 9″x9″ adjustable template takes anchor bolts up to 7/8″, and you can run conduit through the 2-1/8″ center hole.
Their aluminum construction makes them lightweight and reusable. You can adjust the templates for multiple applications. Center-line marks on the templates help with transit layout and stringlines. Normally $15 apiece, the price drops to $14 apiece when you buy a 10-pack.
Bolt-Rite [Corporate Site]
9″x9″ Four-Bolt Anchor Template [Awesome Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Though it may just look like an odd level, Bosch’s Miter Finder calculates angles within 0.05 degrees. And once you’ve measured an angle within a gnat’s whisker, it tells you what angle to cut for trim installation. That’s not hard with flat molding, but if you want to cut compound angles while keeping the trim flat on the saw, the Miter Finder will do that, too. That means you won’t have to fiddle with crown jigs on your miter saw, and you’ll still get a good fit.
If you do any kind of machining or part-making, you need to check your accuracy on an absolutely flat surface, like this 24″x24″ black granite surface plate from Grizzly. For only $110 you get a grade B, non-magnetic, abrasive-resistant, corrosion- and warp-resistant, easy to clean surface with a +/- tolerance of .00015 inches. The plate weighs 234 lbs, so you’ll pay around $100 for shipping — but even for $210 it’s a sweet deal.
24″ x 24″ Granite Plate [Grizzly]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
I recently found this useful little slide chart (close cousin to the slide rule) that converts metric to US units on the fly, and vice versa. It converts back and forth between feet and meters, pounds and kilos, gallons and liters, as well as a few other common units. If you don’t want to fill your head with conversion factors, this will save you the trouble.
There are two identical items under the Skill Tech and Empire Level brands — that means it’s likely manufactured by some third party company. Does anyone know know who made them? They each cost about five bucks.
Street Price [Google Products]
I don’t usually need to make measurements beyond 10′ when I’m wood-working, but recently I started a project that sent me to the local big box in search of a 12′ tape. Most of the 12’ tapes I wanted couldn’t be bought stand-alone, and a lot of the others I wouldn’t dare try out in the shop because they’re so crappy. But one tape stood out from the rest - the Komelon Self Lock.
The Self Lock gets its name from the self locking action on the tape itself. Just pull out to the desired length and the tape stays out until you press the button located on top of the unit. I found only one drawback: when you wind the tape back in from more than nine feet, the end of it will whip back and slap your hand if you’re not careful.
Aside from that, it makes a sturdy addition to the workforce. Lightweight and compact, the 12′ model serves well for smaller measurements; the Self Lock also comes in 16’ and 25’ lengths.
Street pricing starts at $4 for the 12′ and goes up to $8 for the 25′.
Self Lock Tape [Komelon]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
A thing of beauty is a joy forever, and these beautiful levels are guaranteed to be accurate within .015 of an inch for three years. Handmade from quality hardwood stock in Ben Wheeler, Texas, Crick’s levels cost about twice as much as the standard offering from other manufacturers. Of course, they’re also better looking than most.
While 40′ probably doesn’t sound “short” to you (or me!), most framers call any self-wind tape like this one a “short tape” — distinguishing it from the soft, hand-cranked types that extend 100′ or more. In the past, short tapes have been 25′ long, or maybe 30′ for some of the newer ones. But with taller-peaked roofs becoming ever more popular in today’s McMansions, some runs now exceed 30′. That’s why Stanley’s now offering a whopping 40-footer.
Looking for an easy “starter set” gift for relatives who’re just starting to get their hands dirty? Stanley’s making it easy by combining their products into quite functional tool kits. Pictured above, for example, is their FatMax Xtreme kit, which includes a 25′ tape, a marker, a utility knife, a rip claw hammer, a box beam level, a chalk box, a FuBar, a demolition driver set, and an auto trigger clamp — all in a handy open-mouth tool bag — for $250. Other sets range lower and higher in price.
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