Sears.com is selling this 2-1/4 ton floor jack and jack stand combo for $40.  To be honest I’m ashamed that I don’t already own these two tools — they’re must-have items if you’re looking to work on your car or truck.  This is a pretty sweet deal for the first-time auto mechanic.

2-1/4 Ton Floor Jack And Jack Stand Combo [Sears]
Street Pricing [Google]

My 7″ water-cooled tile saw sprays more water on me and on the ground than it does on the cutting surface, so I’m eager to step up to Craftsman’s 18” Laser Tile Saw.  The laser helps guide your cuts through ceramic, marble, or granite tile, and the saw cuts over the project, like a radial arm saw, so it’s easy to see where you’re going.  It comes with an extra saw blade and a stand with legs that fold up so you can roll the unit to your next job site.

The Craftsman 18” Laser Tile Saw sells for $300.  You can always rent one, but if your projects run as long as mine — several weeks or more — it’s cheaper to buy.

Tile Saw [Sears]
Street Pricing [Google]

Sears is advertising their Winter Woodworking Event, which as far as we can tell is a no-interest incentive to load up your Sears card with more than $300 worth of gear, plus the added come-on of a 10%  cash-back rebate.  We’re wondering if financing tools like this is such a hot idea.

I can certainly see putting a tool on a card if you’ve got to have it to get the car running the next day — or if you just about have the money to buy that new hand tool set and want to pull the trigger a month early. But is loading up a balance a good idea, even with the promise of long repayment deals and discounts? Some folks might depend on this type of deal to get what they need, but I’m willing to bet they’re in the minority.

You tell us:  Is this a great plan or more of a budgetary sucker punch?  Let us know in comments.

Winter Woodworking Event [Sears]

Craftsman’s Non-Skid Drawer Liners provide excellent grip — the extension bars don’t even roll around when I open the drawers.  And since the liners are resistant to acid, gas, oil, and solvent, they’ll keep your tools safe.

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The Craftsman Hand Impact Driver has helped me on numerous occasions to remove stuck screws and bolts. You just combine the 1/2″ driver with an impact socket or included screwdriver bit, then hit the end of the driver with a hammer to break lose the fastener.  I used mine for removing motorcycle case and tailgate fasteners.

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With this Craftsman Master Rethreader Set you can easily recondition those dirty, gummed, nicked, and just-plain-nasty old fasteners. The rethreader works slowly down the threads and cleans them, and it’ll also help correct those crossed threads, but it won’t cut new threads — you’ll need a regular cutting tap and die set for that.

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The 2009 Craftsman Club Calendar is out, but only as a program that runs on your PC or Mac. It appears that the traditional print version is now just another bit of Craftsman history.

The new calendar features a personal planner that allows you to add and print events, a conversion calculator for contractors, and several skins.  You’ll also get ads for Craftsman Club sales and general tool sales.  Mine still shows the Craftsman Club sale that ended January 10.

This year the calendar is free for both Craftsman Club members and the rest of the world.  I miss the old paper calendar with the monthly coupons.

2009 Craftsman Club Calendar [Sears]

All it takes is one hit of the hammer on your hands, and you’ll wish you’d had the Craftsman Punch and Chisel Holder.  It’ll safely hold your chisel or punch so you can concentrate on one less thing and get the job done. Make jokes all you want but this thing isn’t for sissies — it’s for smart folks who like their digits just the way they are.

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The first month this Craftsman 1/4” driver adaptor was lying around the office, I treated it more or less like a bauble — fun to toss and play around with, but it didn’t see any action. That changed last week when I had cause to use it. It’s actually pretty handy.

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If you really want to give a group of full-grown adults a hard time, give them a child’s toy. Often it’s the simple-looking puzzles that can be the biggest challenge, and this little wooden puzzle is a great deal harder to reassemble than it looks. However it’s easy to make one. We put together a little walkthrough to show you how to get it done.

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We have fun with woodworking no matter what the project is, but the most rewarding thing for us is making our own furniture.  Let’s say you wanted a solid oak bookcase but didn’t have the four to six hundred bucks a retail store would want for one. You can achieve the same effect for less than half the cost, using a bit of solid oak trim and some veneered ply.

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Everyone should own a few stubby screwdrivers; they fit into the tiny spaces your standard ‘drivers won’t. But what happens when you’re short on space but need to really crank down hard on a screw? Normally you’re screwed — unless you have one of these. Craftsman calls ‘em “Super Stubby” screwdrivers: a standard-sized handle with a stubby shaft and tip.

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Many of the project sites we look at take a Julia Childs approach to their holiday wood projects — you know, using materials you don’t have, tools you can’t afford, and plans you couldn’t draw up even if you were a rocket scientist. So to combat this effect we put together a reindeer and accompanying sleigh that you can assemble with a few simple tools and under $15 worth of lumber — in under a day.

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Strapped for cash this holiday season? Replacing an alternator can cost you several hundred bucks at the local repair shop, but it’s one of the simplest repairs you can do at home. With a few tools and about an hour you can swap it out yourself — and keep your dough in your pocket where it belongs. In this case we’re replacing an alternator on a ‘95 GMC truck, however the process is very similar for most vehicles.

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Christmas is coming early and often for me this this year — trying to get families together at the same time has resulted in at least four different Christmas gatherings.  At the first of these many gatherings I scored a Craftsman folding utility knife with rosewood handle.

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We’ve seen many kids toys modeled after real tools, but a toy welding set has to be the most obscure yet.  Whether you’re a full-time welder or just a hobbyist, if you want to get your kids interested in a skill that’ll serve them well for a lifetime, maybe put this under the tree.

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Reader Jay writes: “I recently bought a Craftsman radial-arm saw from a friend, but it came without a table top. I built my own, but after a couple of uses, I think I might have missed something. Do any of you Toolmongers have a design — or just photos — of a good radial-arm saw table top? Just FYI, my saw is probably from 1976.”

Jay, the photo above is of my father’s old Craftsman radial arm saw, but as you can see I got it without a top, too. Doh! Most of the saw tables I’ve seen have been really simple, so my gut says that you might have an issue with how you’re using it. Google, however, turns up tons of pictures. And Craftsman (one of our current sponsors) shows a table on the site for their new 10″ Laser Trac saw.

But let’s let the real experts answer. Toolmongers? What say you?