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Wednesday, June 27th, 2007

Remember old-school Toolmonger that was all young, dumb and full of… vigor? So do we. Check out what we were discussing a year ago this week:

Since we were tired of standing (and kneeling and squatting) around the shop – and we had a few tractor seats and broken office chairs lying around — we welded ‘em up into some quick (and awesome) shop chairs, then posted a how-to to help you do the same.
We wrote about Smithy’s 3-In-1 metalworking tools — an easy way for the garage hobbyist to give machine work a try. We’ll let you in on a secret: we have a very old Smithy in the TM shop, though it’s been so heavily modified that the manual doesn’t mean much any more. Good stuff, if used correctly!
We previewed Milwaukee’s then-new V18 cordless line, which didn’t disappoint when it hit shelves months later. In fact, we gave some V18 tools to a lucky winner who received ‘em almost before they were available publicly.
We found Big Blue Saw, a company that’ll waterjet just about anything for you from a CAD drawing. They’re still in our project Rollidex.
We first wrote about Black & Decker’s Workmate tables, a subject that’s still hot around these parts.
And we discovered the famous/infamous hot-dog-saving SawStop table saw.

Just wait ’till you see our take on this week — looking back in 2008!

Friday, June 22nd, 2007

Remember old-school Toolmonger that was all young, dumb and full of… vigor? So do we. Check out what we were discussing a year ago this week:

On TV Tonight, Discovery was still running the massive Monday-night bike block with 8 full hours of bike-building madness. Compare that to this Monday’s schedule and weep.
We featured Ryobi’s One+ system, commenting on how they offer everything but the kitchen sink, all for cheap. Of course, some readers disagreed about the system’s reliability.
We reviewed the then-new 27th edition of The Machinery’s Handbook, an awesome tome that no Toolmonger should be without.
TM readers saw us drool over the JD Squared Model 3 tubing bender, a tool we, sadly, still haven’t acquired for personal use.
We first laid our hands on Bosch’s I-Driver, complete with its unique form factor — which I still love and Sean still doesn’t. We both agree, however, that it’s a fine tool.
Sean recommended a sweet little 89-cent hardware gage, partially because it’s handy and cheap, and partially because it let him slip a Devo reference into a TM headline.
And we recommended a specialty driver set targeted at the hardware hacker crowd — you know, those who take things apart and put them back together. Toolmongers know that it pays to have the right tool, and you pay if you don’t.

Aren’t you glad you lived to see 2007?