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The Make blog used the above picture to point to mtneer_man’s Flickr page with 47 photos of the different workbenches he’s had. It’s quite an assortment, and very nicely organized (although I do wonder about that little bench or desk elevated by concrete blocks on the right). A geo-physicist, he lives in rural Oklahoma, has four — !!! — workshops, several workbenches (“…dirty work, clean work, electronics work, photography, automotive…”), and even sub-workbenches — would those be sous-benches? — for “sharpening, grinding, glueing…” There are many more picture sets on his Flikr page documenting some of his other projects (e.g., workshop building, shelves, tools…) and travels.
Time for a little workshop and workbench envy?
Workbench [Flickr: mtneer_man]
Matco Tools announced an addition to their tool cart line today, pictured above. Besides its “distinctive look,” features include bar magnets inside the lid to hold commonly-needed (and presumably ferrous) tools, magnetic door closures, a molded tool organizer, and two cup holders.
The thing about having tools around the shop is we tend to use them for things they weren’t intended for. The Stanley Guard System truck-toolbox is a rugged piece of solid gear. While in the shop for testing, we discovered it also doubles as a handy beer cooler.
Not only are the folks at Stanley not full of crap about this bad boy being water-tight from the inside or outside, but when deployed in what we call the “beer configuration” you can lock those mooching free-loaders who didn’t bring any beer to the Christmas party out of the holiday spirits. Plus, large wheels on one end and a handle on the other made it easy to pull the thing outside and dump the leftover water.
Reader Litcritter just received a Christmas present from hell. Check out this old workbench. Complete with vises and clamp-holes, this bench has seen its share of action. Litcritter gives us the low-down:
Christie’s folks brought this up with them when they came for Christmas, and if it were my only gift, I’d be ecstatic. Here’s what we know about it: It belonged to her great grandfather, who was a hospital administrator in Michigan. The hospital he ran provided occupational therapy for shell-shocked vets returning from WWI, and it likely came from there.
The blue tape is the labels Christie’s dad made so we could reassemble it. It will quite likely never be this clean again.
We’re not sure it would be any more useful cleaned it but we’re positive it would lose some character if he polished the ol’ tank up. Besides, half the fun of having a rig like this is making a mess with it. Looks great to us just the way it is.
Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]
Rather than spinning a dial with numbers, Master Lock’s Speed Dial combination lock uses up/down/left/right movements. In addition to the new code entry system they use an anti-shim technology and a hardened steel shackle to prevent circumventing the combination. The result is a lock that they claim is faster to open, easier to use, and more secure then a standard combination lock.
Is only having four possible choices instead of 40 for each move in the combination possibly be enough? In reality, on many dial combination locks you can be off by a number to the left or right, so instead of 40 possible choices you’re reduced to maybe 15. With three numbers in the combination that gives you 3,375 (15*15*15) possible combinations. To get the same level of security with this new Speed Dial Lock you’ll need at least six moves (4*4*4*4*4*4= 4,096).
And, just in time for Christmas, Campbell Hausfeld announces their new line of truck storage solutions. The TruckWrks, available exclusively at Home Depot, comprises a variety of storage options, shown above, aimed at the professional contractor with a full-sized pickup. I’m not a professional contractor, and my pickup is not full-sized, so I’m not likely to buy any TruckWrks soon. Besides, they seem a tad pricey. For example, the Hitch Caddy, intended for compressors or generators up to 300 pounds, is $499, and the Bed Box for long-bed, covered pickups is $2,649. In spite of all that, I’m still a little tempted, just so the next time I go out to help someone with a project, I can easily take most of my s#!$ with me.
To all you Toolmongers out there who do this stuff professionally, how does Truckwrks compare to alternatives?
I just came back from my annual stocking-stuffer trip during which I noticed that Wal-Mart is selling a Stanley Tool Box combo for $9. The first tool box is a Stanley model 19151. I could not find that specific number on the web, including on the Stanley site, but their model 19013, shown above, appears to be almost identical: plastic, approx. 19″ × 10″ × 9″ with a removable tool tray, two built-in organizers on top, and two metal latches. Wal-Mart’s combo puts a Stanley model 13004 (approx. 12″ × 5″ × 5″; simple plastic box with plastic latch and no tool tray) inside the model 19151. The label on the combo said “made in the USA with global materials.” Just so no one is confused by the picture, the tools and parts are not included.
We have yet another toolbox restoration from longtime Toolmonger reader txinkman. This time the Black & Decker box which he was a little hesitant to restore has undergone its time in the txinkman shop and come out looking as good as the day it was made.
I liken txinkman’s ability to fix up old wood tool boxes to those montages where Charlie Brown and the gang wave their arms around and make crappy things look new — except txinkman’s way is full of hours upon hours of work and effort, and Brown and the gang were on LSD having a shared hallucination.
This is positively the best-looking Black & Decker tool chest I have ever seen. It’s too bad they aren’t making these anymore; I’d take this over another stud finder any day.
Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]
Though you don’t hear of Kennedy much around the garage-shop circuit, it’s a common name among machinists. (I have a very old Kennedy machinist’s chest that belonged to my father, for example. It needs a good cleaning up, but it’s still in one piece and all the drawers/doors move smoothly.) What you see above are Kennedy’s Pro-Line series — high-gloss powder coated finish, welded steel construction, ball-bearing drawer slides, and roller-bearing casters, plus a replaceable MDF top work surface.
Need extra space for your shop? Or maybe an extra room for those holiday guests, but a tent seems a little chintzy? Then you might want to try a Concrete Canvas Shelter™. Setting it up, as shown in the pictures above, is as simple as rolling it out, inflating it, hydrating it, and waiting 24 hours for it to cure. The resulting structure is fire proof and has a design life of 10 years. The basic material for the shelter is a concrete-impregnated fabric bonded to a plastic liner. Their CCS25 model provides 25 square meters of space (5.0m long × 5.6m wide × 2.6m high). The company also makes Concrete Cloth™ — bringing new meaning to the term “concrete overcoat” — which has a variety of applications including ditch lining, slope protection, and sandbag reinforcement.
Concrete Canvas Shelter™ [Manufacturer's Site]
TM on Flickr
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