Eagle Tool Company’s sheet metal installation tool lets you pre-drill holes and drive hex head metal screws without changing bits. They build a hex driver socket into the tip of a sliding barrel, so when the barrel is locked in the forward position you can drive screws and when you twist the barrel and slide it back you can drill.

Eagle Tools hardens the hex drive socket to make it durable and they claim the tool’s quick change shank fits most quick change drivers, which means the shank must be 1/4″ hex. When you break the drill bit, you can buy a kit that comes with three replacement drill bits, an Allen wrench, and three replacement set screws.

Eagle sells installation tools both for 1/4″ and 5/16″hex head screws. I can’t find either tool for sale anywhere on the web and they don’t list retail pricing on the site, but I can confirm I saw the 1/4″ driver on sale at Menards for a little more than $10.

Sheet Metal Installation Tool [Eagle Tool Company]

If you want to know how the welding supply industry is reacting to the cordless market, take a gander at the Trek 180 battery-powered MIG Welder. It’s awesomeness in a 52-lb. box.

We’re not saying this is meant to replace a larger shop model, and neither is Hobart. What the Trek 180 is designed to do is take care of small jobs when you are away from anything resembling civilization. The rig can run off its own 120 amp 17VDC battery or from an 115V power outlet with a 20 percent duty cycle.

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DeWalt says their new 6-3/4″ metal-cutting circular saw can plow through up to 2″ conduit and pipe in a single pass. A stainless-steel shoe prevents rust and helps smoothly push chips away to keep them from tearing up your cutting surface, too. But is DeWalt’s 18V battery line enough to keep it running all day?

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Sure, you can use a calculator or even your head to find the circumference of a round duct by measuring its diameter, but with the Cooper Tool Tinner’s Circumference Rule all you need to measure is the diameter — the ruler will read the circumference.

The tempered medium-weight steel rule measures in inches by 1/16″ on the top edge and circumference inches by 1/8″ on the bottom edge. The black markings are easy to read, and on the reverse side Cooper has printed relevant formulas and tables for easy reference.

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Malco’s duct folding tool doesn’t look like much, but it allows you to evenly fold sheet metal for forming various duct parts. It’s simply two steel plates joined together at the center. You insert the sheet metal in the gap between the plates until you see it through the diamond site holes, then twist the tool to form the bend.

Malco sells five versions of the folding tool: 8″ and 12″ long folding tools that make 3/8″ and 1/2″ bends and 12″, 18″, and 24″ tools that make 3/8″ and 1″ bends. The longer the tool the more uniform the fold; the 24″ version can even be used as a mini brake for flashing and siding.

You can pick up one of these folding tools for between $10 and $15.

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

While delving into some metal working sites I came across these cool-looking tools for forming sheet metal: forming stakes. The above catalog picture shows some of the many shaped heads that are available for creating different shapes.

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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?]

Fein added an interesting feature to some of the angle grinders in their WS 14 line; they replaced the switch with four touch pads — two in the front and two in the rear.

You start the grinder by touching one of the font pads and one of the rear pads. The grinder will continue to operate as long as you touch one of the four pads and will slow to a stop when you release it. Just so you don’t accidentally start it, you can lock the grinder off.

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While the name of M-Power’s Tri-Scribe may be from one of those we-like-hyphens-too-much marketing sessions, this seems to be a pretty clever little tool. I stumbled across it while browsing drafting implements and it’s an innovation I wish I’d had on hand in the past.

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I’ve never — knock on wood — had the “fun” of trying to repair stripped threads in a key mechanical component, but I’ve seen various options. It seems that the two main contenders for thread inserts are Heli-Coil® and TIME-SERT®, but I don’t know which one works better for which applications and materials. TIME-SERT® requires drilling, counterboring, and tapping before installing the insert. A typical TIME-SERT kit, with all the required tools and several inserts, costs around $74. Heli-Coil preparation needs drilling and tapping before installing the insert. A Heli-Coil kit, with a tap, the installation tool, and several inserts, will be about $27.

So, all you Toolmongers out there with experience in this area, what’s your favorite? Are there alternatives?

Time-Sert [Manufacturer's Site]
Time-Sert Street Pricing [Google Products]
Time-Sert Via Amazon [What’s This?]
HeliCoil [Manufacturer's Site]
Helicoil Street Pricing [Google Products]
Helicoil Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Though silver solder is designed mainly for bonding its namesake, it’s useful for just about any metal. The stuff ships in thin sheets which are designed to be cut into small pieces (pallions, for the picky), so you can pre-place exactly as much as you need in precisely the right location. The process is similar to brazing, but is less likely to damage fine or thin metals. A careful user can fuse two 0.025 in. copper wires end-to-end. The end result is also much cleaner than lead- or tin-soldered joints, and with proper technique, stronger as well.

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The metal shaper is a derivative of the planer, which is ultimately a machine meant to replace a human with a chisel forming metal. I use an Atlas shaper. I don’t use it all that often but for jobs such as removing mill scale from a large piece of Hot Rolled steel, the shaper will do it without ruining a good end mill and it produces a great surface finish.

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J.W. Done makes an interesting tool for deburring internal cross holes: the Orbitool. As you may know, when two holes are drilled into one another there’s usually a nasty burr that can be very hard to remove. The common solution is steel or abrasive brushes; however, those can negatively affect bore finish and diameter.

The tool is a half round bur with the largest diameter at the end of the tool and a polished collar around the periphery. In use it’s inserted into the hole and pressed against the wall of the hole. When it reaches the cross hole the machine revolves the tool (or the part is revolved around the tool) filing away the burr at the intersection of the holes. They show both manual and automatic usage in their YouTube videos. They also offer carbide and abrasive-headed tools that operate on the same principle. There’s a detailed test report (.pdf) that shows the results obtained in a range tests.

Has anyone out there had the opportunity to use this tool? Looks like a great way to deal with a common problem in all sorts of manufacturing and hobby metalwork.

Orbitool [J.W. Done]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Irwin has been busy doing what Irwin does best: making products under their ever-growing umbrella makes sense. In this case we’re talking about the Irwin Performance Threading System. In a nutshell, their new system takes a few evolutionary steps in an attempt to make our tapping projects easier.

First, Irwin sings the praises of their new self-aligning taps that feature new starter threads to get the tap aligned properly before getting cranked up. Simply place the tap in the hole and it aligns itself correctly every time. The new taps also feature a chip-breaking technology (or CBT) that helps smooth the thread-making process a little more than their older bits.
 
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It’s not slight of hand; it’s a magnet. Wave Bessey’s MagWand over your swarf (metal shavings and waste) and poof! It’s gone — well, at least from the work surface. Now it’s stuck to the MagWand.

This 22″ long magnetic wand attracts up to 12 lbs. of magnetic metal waste so you don’t have to pick it up by hand and risk cutting yourself. You can wave or roll the wand over your work surfaces. To dispose of the waste, pull back the sliding magnetic insert and the waste will fall into the scrap bin.

You’ll pay somewhere in the $30 to $45 range for Bessey’s MagWand. Has anyone tried a less-expensive homebrew model?

MagWand [Bessey Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Reader Tmib_Seattle has managed to put together a badass little blacksmithing program for the local Boy Scout troop he labeled “Camp Hahobas 2009″ in the Toolmonger photo pool. Whether or not it actually is located in the historic BSA camp grounds doesn’t really matter to us, though it might be since Seattle is only about 30 miles north of Tacoma.

Check out the wicked metal bending these guys have going on and you begin to understand what Tmib is actually doing. These are kids that would probably have no exposure to blacksmithing in their lives, and a day or two spent over a fire gives them a positive, hands-on experience to take away with them. (more…)

If you’ve never tried putting a 5-1/2″ hole in a piece of 1/8″ stainless-steel, my advice is to avoid attempting something so mad. However, if you need to put big holes in tough materials, there’s no substitute for a set of carbide hole saws outside of a knee mill, water jet, or EDM, and none of those are easy to find in the average home shop.

Carbide is a machinist’s darling, and the material is superb for this set of 14 hole saws from MK Morse. $125 for the set is steep, but discounted thanks to Amazon’s usual excellent prices. Milwaukee makes a similar set of five hole saws, but a careful user can cut just about anything with a good, high-torque drill motor or drill press. The ability to tear a sizable, accurate hole in just about anything can be a bit of a tall order for standard bi-metal hole saws, but carbide is up to the task.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]