Recently Hitachi announced the release of their new N5010A 1/2″ Standard Crown Stapler and N5021A 15/16” Wide Crown Stapler. Both lightweight staplers look very different from Hitachi’s alien-skinned power tools. It seems Hitachi’s pneumatics division designed these staplers to be practical for the jobsite — there’s no green rubber, just metal — and we dig it.

These staplers’ll work for a variety of tasks, ranging from light construction sheathing to roofing applications — and you’ll probably need to put the tool to a lot of those tasks, in order to justify the steep asking price. We’ve found spots online offering the new staplers for around $385, which puts them in the higher-end price bracket for staplers.

Pneumatics [Hitachi]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

The nail gun revolutionized carpentry, but at the expense of tying the carpenter to a stationary compressor. Companies have devised some ingenious solutions to this problem — but battery-powered or battery-and-gas-powered nail guns can be heavy, awkward, and costly; and CO2-powered belt packs can only drive so many nails before you have to buy a new canister. Palmgren devised another solution: a portable, tank-less compressor that weighs just 6.6 lbs including the battery, so you can carry it easily over the shoulder or around the waist.

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When you hear die grinder, you probably think of a small tool that you operate one-handed — and with most die grinders you’d be right. But the Dynabrade 8″ extension grinder could grind that perception right out of your head. The 8″ extension grinder grinds metal like your average die grinder, but the handle has grown eight inches. It gives the tool a greater reach, but more importantly it gives you more leverage, because the standard one-handed tool has become a two-handed grinding machine.

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Whether you’re an aircraft mechanic, auto mechanic, welder, or DIYer, you’ll eventually need to grind or sand some metal. But what happens when your angle grinder doesn’t offer the finesse you need for a small, intricate job? What happens when you need to get into a hard-to-reach area? Here’s a solution that takes advantage of a tool you already have — 3M’s Roloc drill-mounted grinding/sanding/finishing system.

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Bending over or working on your knees with your nail gun can be tough on your body, especially when you do it every day. Wouldn’t it be nice to drive nails while standing up? Sure Drive’s pneumatic Nail Gun Extension lets you operate almost any nail gun with a handle and a trigger from a standing position.

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These days it seems everyone has a nail gun, no matter how few nails they need to drive — even someone who’s never hefted a hammer can pick up a nailer/compressor package for the simplest of projects. But when it comes to getting nails out of lumber, we all seem to resort to the same simple tools: wrecking bars, cat’s paws, FUBARs, and brute force. Now the Nail Kicker gives you a way to reclaim lumber, without relying on just hand tools.

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Throwing water balloons is for children.  Adults launch them, usually with a rig based on surgical tubing. But for true Toolmonger overkill, you’ll need the Balloon Bazooka: a pneumatic launcher that can loft a balloon over 300 feet — or launch up to twelve balloons at once.

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L.C. Miller’s air-powered hacksaw, the Tigair, offers all the quick-cutting convenience of a reciprocating saw, without some of the recip saw’s shortcomings.  For instance, it won’t get damaged if it bogs down; it makes fine burr-free cuts with a common hacksaw blade; and you can even operate it underwater or in flammable environments.

At about 2″ wide, 6″ tall, and 16″ long, the Tigair packs a lot of power in a small package –  it runs at speeds up to 1,200 spm.  It cuts with standard high-speed hacksaw blades or modified reciprocating saw blades, and it weighs about 5-1/2 lbs, so you can maneuver it easily, even one-handed.  The Tigair requires 6-1/2 cfm at about 90psi, so you can power it with a moderately sized air compressor.  L.C. Miller doesn’t list a price, but if you’re interested you can request a quote.

The Tigair [L.C. Miller]

We’re big advocates of using small brads to hold together glue joints in quick-build furniture. Sure, it’s not a method you’ll use on heirloom projects, but if you just need to throw together a quick-’n-cheap bookcase out of hardwood ply, they beat the crap out of clamping and waiting. This looks like an even better tool for the job: Bostitch’s 23-gauge headless pinner.

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Finish nailers often go overlooked in favor of their larger-gauged brethren, but in the Toolmonger woodworking shop we pick up the Ridgid 2-1/8” brad nailer as our first choice.

This gun claims the singular distinction of being the only nailer in the Toolmonger shop never to have jammed. This is no small feat; we’ve run close to 10,000 nails of different sizes through this gun and not had an issue — ever.

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Archimedes said something like, “Give me a lever big enough, and I’ll move the world.” I’m fairly certain the same general idea applies to Matjack’s low-pressure, high-lift bags — at only 8 PSI they can lift one and a half tons or jack up three ton vehicles. Applications include everything from off-road 4X4 lifting to search and rescue.

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With the right attachment, Paratech’s Airgun 40SC can punch through concrete, smash locks, and cut through metal at a rate of 600 blows/minute. That’s pretty damn cool. But what’s even cooler? It’s portable – perfect for forced entry in firefighting.

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If you’re looking for a small, high-powered air compressor for your vehicle, I highly recommend the Master Flow. I picked one up a while back, but finally got around to using it this morning to inflate a flat tire at 6 a.m. in the rain — and I was very impressed. 

The Tsunami is powered by a 1/3 HP oil-less motor that delivers a maximum of 150 psi and features a built-in serviceable air filter. Its large gauge makes it easy to read — like, say, from inside a warm car — and the compressor connects to your car battery with alligator clip connectors. Or, you can permantently mount it and wired it in directly. It comes in a carrying case with 16′ of coiled hose and an easy-twist screw-on brass inflator nozzle. 

And I paid considerable more than the $49  — with free shipping, too, dammit — that Amazon wants for it now.

Master Flow 1050 [Q Industries]
Via Amazon [What’s this?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Busting up a boulder in your back yard isn’t any fun with a pneumatic hammer. But blowing it up? Sweet. Ezebreak’s Micro-Blaster II employs small powder-filled cartridges to break up smaller rock and concrete bits — without pissing off the neighbors or involving federal authorities. You don’t even need a license to use it!

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Ingersoll-Rand’s workhorse rock drill is mean. It can drill a 2″ wide hole up to 18” deep into solid rock — perfect for when the s#!$ you need to break is made of stone. And just think how cool you’ll look weilding it!

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Why toil removing ugly ’70s tile on the kitchen floor with a normal floor scraper when you can tear that s#!$ out quicker with a power tool? Powered by an air compressor, this chisel scaler delivers 3,500 blows per minute to speed up the removal of flooring, roofing, concrete, hardened deposits, and yes even ice. The Big Stick is the most powerful chisel scaler EDCO offers.

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Building codes across the country are now requiring more and more metal connectors (joist hangers, hurricane ties, etc). In order for a connector to meet code in most places, you need to have a nail in every hole available. This meant a lot of hammering, because you couldn’t just use a pneumatic nailer — until now. Stanley Bostitch’s StrapShot pneumatic nail gun actually exposes the tip of the nail, so you can place it right in the hole in the metal connector. Pull the trigger, and move on to the next nail.
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