The Christmas swag starts coming a little earlier every year. It’s not even Halloween, and already St. Nicholas’s bearded face has popped up in the ad for the Smoky Mountain Knife Works Schrade Old Timer Sweepstakes.  I believe they win the Holiday Season Jump-the-Gun award this year.

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Sears, Kenmore, and Better Homes and Gardens have teamed up to offer an interesting giveaway. The jist of it:  You can win a weekend of antiquing with Eric Cohler –- he’s a super-high-end interior designer, for those of you who don’t know –- in Falls Village, Connecticut.

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If you haven’t seen it yet, Jet is running a 50th anniversary giveaway. As always, be prepared for the advertising and the possibility of spam if you sign up — but they’re giving away a good band saw this month, and the grand prize is a $10,000 shop upgrade. Next month you could win a chain hoist.

50th Anniversary Sweepstakes [Jet Tools]

Maytag is kicking off their “Decade of Dependability” promotion by offering one lucky winner free Maytag appliances for life. If you win they’ll outfit your home once and then completely upgrade the products every ten years, for as long as you’re alive to use them.

The entry deadline is June 30th, and you can enter up to five times either by snail mail or via the Sears website. Since it’s a nationwide thing the odds are stacked against you, but if lightning does happen to strike, you can put your mind at ease and not have to worry about your kitchen gear — ever. In our humble opinion, that’s worth filling out a few entry forms.

Entry Form and Giveaway Rules [Sears]

Irwin Quick-Grip is giving away $2,500 of their own products — that’s a lot of clamps — and a $7,500 gift card to Rockler — that’s a lot of lathe wax.

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This entertainment center is a great example of making an odd space a usable center piece. Most folks just stuff plants under the stairs or use to store boxes of junk. Oooboooe and hs friend Dave (pictured here) decided to make a 30 draw monster out of the unused space.

Some of the draws are combined into one but it’s still huge. The best part is the access door the guys built in the back to get at cables. Now that’s thinking.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

We love shop projects that are designed in the shop for the shop. Even if they’re not furniture-grade or constructed from exotic lumber, these sturdy structures make life in the shop better. Take these shelves posted by Flickr pool member tmib_seattle for example. They may look a little rough, but they’re also well-built and ready to go in no time.

Putting a bunch of time into making these look better or finishing them out with a bunch of frills and trim pieces would only be more work with no real payoff. But they might look better if they were sporting a new pair of gloves from your favorite tool blog, so we have some on the way!

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

This drafting table makes a big bang without wasting tons of materials or cash. The builder (and Flickr pool member) MPgalvin gives us the down-low on the construction materials:

We made the frame and all wood components out of white oak so that it will be sturdy and heavy. The cross stiles are made from 1/2 inch copper pipe with threaded rods running through them. The copper pipes sit in counter bored holes and the threaded rod is tightened to draw the legs together.

We love that MPgalvin used stylish, sturdy white oak and copper tubing that’s lightweight and attractive to boot! Great job — we can’t wait to see the next project!

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Reader Frank Townend posted this awesome modification to the Night Before Christmas poem on our Merry Christmas post. I laughed so hard, I nearly cried.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS
apologies to Clement Clarke Moore

‘Twas Christmas at Toolmonger, when all through the blog
Not a creature was building, not even a dog couch;
The tools were hung in the workshop with care,
In hopes that a craftsman soon would be there;

The boards were stacked all snug on their rails,
Had visions of hammers dancing with nails;
And dressed in my shop apron, and safe in my gloves,
Had just settled down for a late evening’s task,
When up on the screen, the RSS rose such a clatter,
I sprang from the workshop to see what was the matter.

Away to my Windows I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash.
Which added each to the “to-do” list and “get-to” cache.
Clicked on my favorites, hoped the URL wouldn’t crash,
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But a Christmas greeting in the form of a post.

Words about time off, words about family,
But words without bargains, and no mention of loose cash.
I searched the listings, none younger than a day,
And I whistled, and shouted, and called them by name;
“Now, Stanley! now, Duluth! now, Garrett Wade Tools!
On, Home Depot! on Lowe’s! on, Grizzly and Lee Valley too!
To the top of the Web page! to the top of the Hot Five!
Now cash away! cash away! cash away all!”

As Parts Express supplies us much better than the Shack,
When we meet with an obstacle, no trouble do we lack,
So on to my workbench, my projects they flew,
With a pile of One Beer Projects, my time was thus due.

… more next year…
Merry Christmas All!

Hats off and eggnog up to Frank and his quick-witted effort this holiday season. If that doesn’t deserve a pair of gloves, I don’t know what does. Thanks to Frank and to Toolmongers everywhere for making this a great year!

Merry Christmas Post [Toolmonger]

Nothing, I mean nothing, is too good for my dogs. They’re my beloved friends and family. So when I saw Toolmonger photo member mstenner’s dog couch, I felt like I’d lagged in my duty to provide my pets with the ultimate comfort.

Mstenner’s canine day bed looks beautiful, and it has a sweet step ladder for the lounging hounds to climb up and down on. This project not only gets a pair of gloves, it inspires me to build a hound dog hangout of my own.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Anyone who offers to build an entertainment center for someone else is either a true friend or completely unaware of the commitment they’re taking on.  (I speak from experience.)  So hats off and beers up to Toolmonger photo pool member djakbar56 for taking this one on and finishing it!

He built the center with 3/4″ oak plywood, 1.5″ solid oak trim, particle board base (inside only) and aluminium rails to keep all the gear in place. He then covered it in Minwax Special Walnut 224 Stain and Semi-Gloss Polyurethane finish to give it the “living room fresh” look.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Toolmonger photo pool member J.Levine posted this sweet mod to his snowblower. He tore off the old crappy crank that positions the blower’s snow spout, and he mounted a custom rig of his own design to power the chute’s movement.

Props to you, sir, both for the cut up drill motor you used to power the chute and for having the good sense to cut up a $10 Drill Master instead of something that might be good for another project. He even posted a video of his handiwork in action.

While he’s out in the yard blowing fresh piles of powder into the neighbor’s yard, we thought he might enjoy a new pair of gloves.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Though he wasn’t exactly clear what was damaged (or unsatisfactory) in the first place, we thought we’d toss a pair of gloves Karl Palutke’s way for having the guts to tear into his slightly-older iPod with nothing but hand tools and hope — and post the photos to Toolmonger’s photo pool.

Hopefully the project ended as well as it started. And Karl, if you have a moment, why not stop by and fill us in on the details in comments?

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

He says it’s not quite done yet, but anyone can see that the level of cool will definitely crank up a notch at JDWires’ place once he brings this custom storage bench inside.

For taking the time to share — and because we dig that JD already built matching small versions of this long bench and decided not to stop there — we’ll send him a pair of work gloves.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

Looking for some holiday project inspiration? Check out TM reader and photo pool member Schnaars’ home-made piano bench. From Flickr comments: “A few months ago, we inherited a piano. Unfortunately, it dodn’t come with a bench. Last weekend, I finally finished it.”

It looks great –a nice match for the piano. And congrats on making the piano usable for you and your family. My family had one when I was a kid, and it was a great influence on me.

For taking the time to share — and because we love that he took the time to build a nice, matching wood bench for his family — we’ll send Schnaars a pair of work gloves.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

There’s been a dearth of shop pictures posted to the photo pool lately. But maybe the tide is turning with BobbyMikeWalters’ post of this photo of his shop. He writes in comments: “Yes, I work here. And I make a living. Heh.”

This, by the way, is our definition of a “good” shop: one that actually sees use. A beautiful shop that stays clean because nothing ever generates sawdust, metal chips, or grinding debris within it is (by our definition) a bad shop.

Thanks for the post, Bobby. And thanks for reminding us that we need to get out and dirty up the Toolmonger shop a bit this week, too.

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]

We asked for demolition pics a while back, and TM reader and photo pool member kayacabana provided us with some. Here you can see him in the midst of tearing up flooring.

Yes, he’s not wearing the proper clothing and safety gear for the job. Yes, he’s going to catch hell in comments for it. But you have to give him props for a) getting his ass out to do the work even when it was “hot as hell in Tucson,” and b) for getting the job done with “a HF air scraper with an underpowered PC compressor.” He says the low-buck gear “worked well and made a hell of a mess.”

Nice.

By the way, Toolmonger’s photo pool is quickly approaching the 1,000 photo mark. If you haven’t taken the time to browse through ‘em — and share your own — now’s as good a time as any. There really aren’t any rules there. Just post anything a Toolmonger would enjoy seeing: unboxing pics of your new tool, photos of your latest project, or a quick pic of a funky unidentified tool you saw at the flea market. We’re game. We’re Toolmongers!

Toolmonger’s Photo Pool [Flickr]