Our old friend Harry Sawyer wrote a piece a few weeks back for Popular Mechanics imagining five (funny) fake products that could result from the Stanley/Black & Decker merger. Harry’s mashup of Black & Decker’s campiest holiday gags and Stanley’s popular products result in flights of fantasy like the AutoFat tape measure and the AlligatorVibe AntiLopper — great for yuk value.

But what if you mash up these corporate giants’ home runs? Read on past the jump for five serious results we’d like to see from the merger.

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OK, so it’s actually called the Black & Decker V-3 Million Power Series rechargeable spotlight. But after a good 10 months of carting this sucker out for late-night grilling, hooking up trailer hitches in the dark, and finding a lost hitch pin in deep grass, we just call it the “vampire light.” It’s incredibly bright. In fact, it’s so bright it has a trigger guard to keep you from blinding yourself.

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The Black & Decker Mastercart (model 17330605) is a slightly redesigned version of the Keter Mastercart that I bought several years ago at either Kmart or Walmart (mostly different colored trim: mine is gray, and the B&D’s is orange). Mine has held up well, although I have not abused it much: it mainly holds the tools, cords, wires, and so on that I use when working on computers or electronics around the house. The B&D is 18″ × 10.6″ × 24.4″ with a fold-down handle. The upper tool box, which detaches from the lower tool box, has a removable organizer on its front and two lidded compartments on its top. Both the upper and lower boxes have removable trays.

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Know what else the holidays entail? Checking out all the new gimmicky tools that magically arrive just in time to become gifts. Kidding aside, not all “stocking-stuffer-esque” tools are junk. Each year we come across a few that’ll serve a useful purpose all year long — and a few that’ll end up in the trash by Valentine’s Day.

So which bin does B&D’s new ReadyWrench fall in? First, let’s take a look at the basics.

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Why heat the outdoors? To assure you don’t, you’ll need to track down hot air leaking out of the house. You could drop megabucks to have a pro bring out a $5,000 infrared camera and perform a home energy audit. But hey — we’re talking about saving money, not spending it. Black & Decker offers a cheaper (and somewhat simpler) solution: their Thermal Leak Detector. And it’s just $40.

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I bought my first Workmate (the classic cast aluminum frame type) at a garage sale at least 15 years ago. It was in relatively good shape with a plywood top. About a year ago I bought another used Workmate of a similar vintage that had one small difference… the top was particleboard instead of plywood. I tend to leave the Workmates outside year-round for projects and found that the particleboard did not, to put it kindly, hold up. After a year of Oregon rain, notice how severely the top is delaminating/disintegrating.

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Apparently owners of the GH1000 Grasshog XP String Trimmer largely ignored the earlier recall last year: reported injuries have still gone up from people continuing to operate the units in question. So Black and Decker reissued the recall.

The notice says Black & Decker had received more than 700 reports of incidents, including 58 reports of injuries since the first recall notice and another 100 reports piled on afterwards. The cause of all the trouble is the Grasshogs spool cap (that’s the cap at the bottom of the trimmer) can come loose and hit you or anyone standing nearby. The injuries, as one might imagine, are lacerations and burns, and coming off a shaft spinning at that kind of speed will put the hurt on anyone – so it’s no joke.

Here’s the lowdown from the CPSC site on identification of faulty units.

The Black & Decker GH1000 Grasshog XP String Trimmers/Edgers are electric-powered. Trimmer/edgers with date codes 200546 through 200645 (representing manufacture dates of November 14, 2005 through November 6, 2006) are included in this recall. The date code is located on the underside of the trimmer/edger’s handle. Only trimmers with black spool caps are included in the recall. Those with orange spool caps are not included in the recall.

If you happen to own one of the 200,000 Grasshog units, Black & Decker asks you to stop using the trimmer, duh, and contact Black & Decker for a free repair kit.

Black & Decker GH1000 Grasshog XP String Trimmer Recall Notice [CPSC]

Amazon is selling these Black & Decker 3.6V Cordless Power Scissors for $9.  The small, lightweight scissors can cut cardboard, carpet, fabric, and other soft materials quickly and easily.  They come with a charger, and they’re eligible for Amazon’s free shipping if you find another $16 worth of stuff you want to buy.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Cordless Power Scissors [Black & Decker]
Street Pricing [Google]

Here’s a great way to start feeling old: the Dustbuster is 30 years old this year.  Of all the products to make it 30 years, I would not have picked the Dustbuster as one that would stand the test of time — however it has done that and more. Almost everyone has owned one at some point, and the 2009 model kicks the crap out of the old 1979 version both in power and also, thankfully, in style.

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Amazon has marked down the Black & Decker 12V Smart Select Drill to $40 — that’s a considerable drop from its original price of $155.  The drill comes with a battery, DC charger, and double-ended screwdriver bit, and Black & Decker backs it with a two-year warranty.  The drill also features the innocuous “smart select” images around the chuck, a visual representation of what each setting should be used for.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]
12V Smart Select Drill [Black & Decker]
Street Pricing [Google]

One product at the Bosch event which received close to no attention was the little SPS10 screwdriver.  It lacks the show-stopping bang of the new Full Force pneumatic line — however it’s a quiet acknowledgment that the millions of ixo’s and SmartDrivers that sold in the last couple years aren’t a fluke. Palm drivers have emerged as a well-defined class of their own, and Bosch has entered this market with the SPS10.

The box says it’s aiming at the professional cordless screwdriver market.  Having experience with three other units in the palm driver category — the Dremel Driver, the Skil ixo2, and the B&D SmartDriver — we decided to see how the SPS10 stacked up against one of its slightly older brethren.

For the head-to-head we pitted it against the only other competitor we had on hand that’s not owned in some way by Bosch –- the Black & Decker LI3000 SmartDriver.  The LI3000 also runs in the middle of the pack of palm drivers, so it’s a good horse to pace from.

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The Black & Decker JS660 variable-speed orbital jigsaw looks a little out of place when mixed in with the other corded jigs at the local big box. For starters, it’s got a huge See-N-Say-looking “Smart Select” dial that functions as the orbital and speed control and which is -– colorful.

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We’d like to assume that the funky-looking new SmartDriver is a flaming piece of plastic with little or no value to everyday life;  however that’s what we did with the original SmartDriver, and we were dead wrong. In fact, the one I got over a year ago is still in active service and going strong.

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Traditionally cordless lawn tools have been relegated to second-line duty or smaller jobs, but in the last few years Black & Decker has been trying to change that.  They’ve made a good start with their hefty 36-volt cordless string trimmer, which has more grunt behind it than many battery-powered grass-tamers we’ve seen.

Not being big on the lawn arts ourselves, we can’t say for sure how this plays in real life, but we’re guessing it’s a game of how long the charge can hold out against the fullest, hardiest growth that summer can produce.

In our experience, even gas-powered trimmers can bind on the tough weeds and high grass. A battery-powered unit may be better as far as emissions go, but if it can’t cut through the nasty bits it’s less than useless.

Of course, we could be full of bull. Has anyone actually gotten their hands on one of these trimmers and given it the business? Let us know in comments.

36V String Trimmer [Black & Decker]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

If you solder many hours a week you don’t want to scrimp on your iron, but for an entry-level price the occasional user can get some nice features and accessories with this dual-temperature iron from Black & Decker.

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Van Helsing must have wet dreams about the Black and Decker V-3 Million Power Series rechargeable spotlight.  We’re not kidding.  We shouted, “The power of Christ compels you!” every time this thing lit off the first week it was in the shop.  Yes, it really is that bright.  However, if you have no vampires to destroy, it’s also a super-handy work light.

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If you could track and tailor your home’s energy consumption to save twenty percent a month, would you spend a hundred dollars to do it?  Black and Decker hopes so.  With their recently launched “Energy” series of products they aim to help you conserve by educating you about the energy your place chews up every month.  This power monitor, the lineup’s flagship product, measures and displays your house’s overall energy consumption as well as individual appliance cost, and it sends that info to one handheld device.

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