Now that smoking isn’t politically correct, most automobiles don’t come with a cigarette lighter — the manufacturers have repurposed that hole as a power port. Fill the empty port with the Auto LED flashlight from Coast. You can leave it charging in your vehicle’s power port, always ready, like the lighter it replaced.
With the Folding Pocket Wrench you can carry around an entire set of open-end wrenches in your pocket. The double-ended wrench folds down to 5″ x 2″ x 3/4″ to fit comfortably in its included nylon belt pouch. Its integrated spacer blades act as shims to adjust the wrench to the fastener size, rather than using a thumb wheel that needs constant adjustment.
Every time I see Mechanix vent gloves I think of the eighties, when guys used to wear leather driving gloves with the fingers cut off. Perhaps it’s the holes in the hand, but they always produce a chuckle.
You might ask, “Are these the same as the regular gloves, just with holes?” Yes, yes they are. Aside from sporting the “80s Awesomeness” they’re the same Mechanix gloves you might find in any shop, just with more of a perforated vibe. Down here where it’s hot eight months out of the year, you do actually see them around. White isn’t the best color in the world for ‘em, but they don’t stay that way for long.
Pricing is about the same at $18 to $20 per pair.
Vent Glove [Mechanix]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Up-North lore says a yeti is an elusive snow Wookiee that lives in the Himalayas — you know, the Abominable Snowman. And it’s pretty easy to lure one out into the open: Just steal a guy’s tools out the back of his truck, and sooner or later the yeti/owner will appear, screaming his fool head off. The guys at Trident Security Concepts want to arm you with a Yeti of your own, so you don’t have to become one. We got our hands on one of the screaming yellow security units to find out if it could actually help keep your gear safe or not. Guess what? In certain situations it could.
When you’re pulling up a hill and your truck needs more power, the transmission drops to a lower gear to compensate — a common occurrence for a vehicle, not so common for a drill. But Ridgid’s AutoShift drill driver does just that.
When you pull the trigger, it starts in high speed. If it starts to bog down, the drill downshifts to low speed for more torque. You can also lock out the AutoShift feature so the drill stays in high gear.
None of the traditional holiday email-o-grams get me, but Craftsman’s “Share a Scare” is pretty amusing. Sure, it’s also a way to capture your email, but at least it gives you something else to do at the office instead of working.
If you’re eager to make the robot deliver a very “special” Halloween message to your friends and co-workers, we hate to break it to you that this one isn’t “George Carlin”-friendly. Most of the nasty words have been disabled — ahem, or so we hear.
Share A Scare [Craftsman]
Black & Decker’s PP360 driver looks like a hopped-up Smartdriver with an additional feature or two added on. But that’s not really a bad thing — small though it was, the Smartdriver at least got the job done.
At first glance, Greenlee’s CableCaster looks like someone slapped a fishing reel on a toy dart gun — that may be exactly what they did, but the $100 list price is no joke. The CableCaster allows you to pull cable through hard-to-reach spaces, like above a suspended ceiling or through a crawlspace.
Case is celebrating the tenth anniversary of their XX Select brand by releasing a few limited-edition blades, with handles made of some of the most popular materials. Each knife features a surgical steel blade with a series-signature tang stamp and a special “XX” shield on the handle.
If your sweet ride is giving you heavy drama, you might want to consider asking it what’s wrong. Sounds stupid, but that’s basically what happens when you plug in an OBD unit like the 3110 CANOBD2 from Equus — it hooks in and reads the trouble codes in the vehicle computer. Think Star Trek, except it won’t be fixed in 45 minutes, plus commercials.
Northern Tool is offering a great deal on Empire’s Heavy-Duty Magnum Rafter Square, at $5. Rafter squares, also known as speed squares, help you lay out cuts for rafter joints and make square cuts on dimensional lumber.
Empire Heavy-Duty Magnum Rafter Square [Northern Tool]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
We’ve been fans of the sub-compact cordless power tool class since its inception a few years ago. It started with the PS20 10.8V Li-Ion and continues today with the newest PS50 Multi-X — or, as we like to call it, the little, blue, freight-train-looking Bosch. This tool can switch from cutting to grinding to sanding with a simple accessory swap.
So you’re lazy — the truck only gets a few coats of wax a year. It’s work doing it by hand, and you’re too cheap to buy a dedicated buffer. Instead of investing in a new tool, save some dough and grab Porter-Cable’s lambswool polishing pad. It comes with a hook-and-loop backer that fits the orbital sander you already own.
If you thought one adjustable jaw on a spring clamp was good, does that mean two are better? Bessey must think so because they’re introducing a spring clamp in the VarioClippix line with two adjustable jaws.
Porter-Cable just announced their new line of 18V tools. They’ve built the core of the line from a mixed bunch of lithium and Ni-cad tools — judging from Porter-Cable’s site, the combo kits only include the Ni-cad tools thus far.
In fact, the drill appears to be the only lithium tool in the launch — the recip, circ, hammer drill, and flashlight are all Ni-cad. There’s nothing wrong with that, as quite a few contractors out there prefer them. It’s just weird to see one Li-ion as the black sheep in a new line rollout with a “next generation of cordless power” vibe.
Still, the tools look nice, and the hammer drill produces 490 inch-pounds of torque, which is some serious power to have on hand, even if it is Ni-cad.
New 18V Line Of Power Tools [Porter-Cable]
On Klein’s “What’s New” page they’re featuring a new Free-Fall snip. Our question: What exactly is a Free-Fall snip? Klein’s Electrician Snips, which we’ve previously covered, seem to be almost identical except for the larger loop on the one handle. Maybe that’s the only difference — but then why is it called a Free-Fall snip?
Klein makes the new snip from high-carbon steel rather than stainless steel like their previous Free-Fall snip, so while this snip is slightly harder, it’s also their less expensive — $18 vs. $24. Both snips sport a scraper and file on the outside of the blades, and they feature serrated teeth for non-slip cutting of 19 to 23 AWG wire.
The cheaper, harder Free-Fall snip doesn’t yet seem to be available anywhere except the Klein Connection store. If you know where the name comes from, let us know in comments.
Free-Fall Snip [Klein Connection]
Why should J-rollers get all the fun? Although it looks like a toy race car, the SpeedRoller Pro from FastCap fits comfortably in your hand to roll on laminates with pressure-sensitive adhesives, such as edge-banding or veneers.
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