As the military is always at the forefront of weapons development, it comes as no surprise that an inventive soldier has taken on the task of producing a six round, 152mm/40 caliber prototype hand gun. Seen here in its proto-mockup phase with its creator Jeffrey Immer, it may seem a little unwieldy. However, we’re positive it will strike fear into the hearts of anyone who stands before it.

Kidding aside, this looks awesome! We love that he took the time to color the checks in the grip and make a 3D cylinder. Hats off to you Jeffrey and try and stay cool in the shop, if that’s even possible over there.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

You can carve an incredible face, but if you don’t get the eyes right, what’s the point? Used correctly, these American-made eye punches from U.J. Ramelson will give you perfect eyes every time.

U.J. Ramelson makes two types of eye punches: round and oval. You use the round punches to create human eyes and the oval punches to form animal eyes. To make round eyes you position the properly sized punch over the otherwise completed face and rotate it while pushing on the handle.  We’re not exactly sure how to use the oval punches properly.

They manufacture round punches in 3mm, 5mm, 7mm, 1/8″, 5/32″, 7/32″, 1/4″, and 9/32″ sizes with either palm or stub handles. Oval punches are also available in the same sizes with palm or stub handles, except one oval punch is 5.5mm instead of 5mm. All the punches measure approximately 6″ in length.

A single punch retail for $12 to $14.  You can also pick up a set of three round punches for $37 or a set of two oval punches for $26, including shipping and handling.

Eye Punches [U. J. Ramelson]
Round Set Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Oval Set Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Homemade chests or cabinetry can be some of the most rewarding projects a woodworker can produce. But if your potential client is a youngun’ with fingers just begging to be smashed, you have to consider their safety when designing your project. For all those items out there with closing doors or lids, Rockler has developed these stay-open hinges.

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Often we are at our most creative when a need arises for us to be so. Take our friend, rreimund, for instance. He didn’t have any help on hand when he needed to fix a door, so rigged his own help.

Necessity, the mother of invention. Needed to shave a bit off the door to Antonio’s room as it was sticking and had no one to hold the door for me. Some parts from an old computer desk and some clamp…voila!

From what we can tell the homemade jig looks to have done the trick. The clamps held the stands pretty firmly and most likely didn’t cause any heinous gouging on the door’s finish. Then again, if he was just trying to stop it from sticking, I doubt a scratch or two would bother anyone too much. Nice work sir: simple, effective, and my personal favorite — zero cash.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

(TV Tonight, Monday, June 22nd, 2009) A new Swamp Loggers provides excitement this evening.

All times are central

• Trains & Locomotives (RFD-TV, 5:00 pm)
• This Old House: Newton Project (DIY, 5:30 pm)
• Modern Marvels: Wiring America (History, 6:00 pm)
• Dirty Jobs: Mule Logger (Discovery, 6:00 pm)
• Ask This Old House: Childproofing, Sump Pump Installation (DIY, 6:30 pm)
• Top Gear: Season 12 Ep. 2 (BBC America, 7:00 pm)
• Dirty Jobs: Leech Trapper (Discovery, 7:00 pm)
• How Do They Do It?: Airplane Recycling, Fireworks, Computer Printer Cartridges (Science, 7:00 pm)
• How Do They Do It?: Diamond Mine, Skyscraper, Car Crusher (Science, 7:30 pm)
• Top Gear: Season 12 Ep. 1 (BBC America, 8:00 pm)
• Swamp Loggers: Cutting It Up in the Muck (Discovery, 8:00 pm)
• King of Dirt: A Yard’s Attitude Adjustment (DIY, 8:30 pm)
• Rock Solid: Rubber Pebble Pool Deck (DIY, 9:00 pm)
• Swamp Loggers: Logging for Steak (Discovery, 9:00 pm) NEW
• Jesse James Is a Dead Man: Arctic Bike Journey (Spike, 10:00 pm)

I saw this image in the photo pool and had to know more. These badass-looking planes are the work of Steve Knight — apparently he’s been professionally crafting wooden planes for close to ten years now. As soon as I started looking around a little, I came across lots of praise for his handmade planes, and looking at these examples I can understand why.

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Wooden shims have their advantages — for instance, with just two cheap tapered shims, you can adjust their width almost infinitely — but they’re not very handy if you want a bunch of 1/8″ shims.  Plus if you don’t stack an even number of shims, the surfaces aren’t parallel.  Although these Handi-Shims are more expensive, they might work better for some applications.

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Depth stops like we recently mentioned don’t work with Forstner bits — or spade bits for that matter.   That’s where you need a depth stop like this one from Peachtree Woodworking Supply.  It works with bits up to 2-1/8″ in diameter with 3/8″, 7/16″, or 9/16″ shafts.

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I’ve always looked at metal-milling machines like they were only half-functional.  I felt that any machine built to cut or drill metal would work just as well with wood stock rolling through it –- still do, actually.  Metal guys will give you the stink-eye about it, but still, I’m a wood guy.  I see that Grizzly designed this G9959 mill for both metal and wood;  now there’s a forehead-smacker if ever I’ve heard of one.

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If you’re planning to make cutting boards, bowls, spoons, or any other project that’s going to come into contact with food, you don’t want to finish it with stain and polyurethane.  Instead you need to use a food-safe alternative like Behlen’s Salad Bowl Finish.

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A good finish is as important to a furniture project as its construction. You’d be surprised how much trouble that statement has gotten me into over the last few years, but it happens to be true.  The first reaction I get to it is, “Not every project needs a finish,” and that’s also absolutely true — however, that particular statement is often the battle cry of the lazy.

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Think of the EZ Smart system like a sort of reverse table saw — instead of the stock moving over the saw, a circular saw runs on a track and slices up stock in a controlled, precise manner.

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Mounting your router inside your router table can help you get the most out of it, but then it can be difficult to get to the router to change out the bits or adjust the height. Bench Dog’s ProLift allows you to get your router up fast so you can make those adjustments quickly and easily.

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While looking into the Shopsmith band saw question the other day, I happened upon this awesome image from Life magazine — it has to be from the forties or fifties, when the unit was new.  This family of four, with the help of what certainly looks like the ShopSmith 10ER (the one sold in Montgomery Wards), are getting a few “projects” done.

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Yesterday I mentioned Grizzly’s SuperBar, but if you really want to be accurate when adjusting your saw blade, you’ll want to use that gauge in conjunction with a Master Plate.  You install Grizzly’s Master Plate on your saw’s 5/8″ or 1″ arbor — unlike a blade, the Master Plate won’t flex when you’re making your measurements.  It’s worth the extra effort to keep the blade at exactly the correct angle to the work surface, ’cause if you’re off just a degree, or a fraction of a degree, it’ll show up as loose joints in the end product.

Grizzly’s Master Plate measures 6″ by 10″ with zero runout, and it’ll help you set your saw to 90 degrees or any other angle.  It sells for about $50.

Master Plate [Grizzly]
Street Pricing [Google]

Reader Mike is in the market for a Shopsmith band saw, and he asked us how we like it.  It’s a great question, and some folks have already rung in on this one in the positive.

I might be a little biased, but I’d say if your Shopsmith was made in the last 30 years and you want a band saw, it’s a no-brainer.  The saw features a 6″ depth of cut;  the table tilts 5 degrees left and 45 degrees right;  and the blade spins from 700 to 1,050 RPM.

As others have said, you’ll have to tune it and spend a minute or two setting it up, but it’s a small price to pay as far as I’m concerned.  Retail price is in the neighborhood of $500 — but the one I just started running in the shop is on its third decade, and it doesn’t have a single issue.

Shopsmith 11″ Band Saw [Shopsmith]

Grizzly’s SuperBar not only helps you align your saw blade to exactly 90 degrees, it’ll also help keep the blade parallel with the miter slot and the fence.  It runs in the miter slot, and its precision dial indicator gauge is accurate within ± .001″.

The dial gauge features a full inch of travel.  You can measure the saw blade itself or a Master Plate made by Grizzly or someone else — the gauge’ll measure other tools as well.

The SuperBar sells for $80.

SuperBar [Grizzly]