Fans of household fall projects can get down on Ace’s sale from now until the 27th of October. They’ve marked down their Royal Interior flat paints, starting at $20 a gallon — and one can’ll cover a bunch of wall.

Just remember to grab some cheapo primer if you’re adding color.  It’ll help the good stuff coat a bunch better, and it’ll save you some cash in the long run.

Ace Hardware [Corporate Site]

Ace Hardware is selling this 20lb sledge hammer for $34.55.  While assisting with a bit of blacksmithing last night, I remembered what a handy tool the 20lb sledge hammer is for transmitting force to another object — and how frightening it is when it’s being swung at you.  While it’s not as efficient as a lighter hammer for all-day demolition, when you hit something with a 20lb sledge, it stays hit.

Shipping will likely be high, so you might want to check your local store for this one.

Jackson Sledge Hammer [Ace Hardware]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Carry Stanley’s Mitey Knife on your keychain and you’ll always have a miniature utility knife with you.  This lightweight knife weighs less than an ounce and measures 3-1/2″ inches when closed.

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Pruning the extra growth that’s happened this season can be done any number of uber expensive ways or the old school way dad did it – with a bow saw and hand trimmer. Ace has a deal on a two piece saw set for ten bucks that will get you going and not hurt the football-munchies budget.

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Toolmongers living in cities that shut down for a few inches of snow needn’t read further.  The rest of us in the snow belt know that packing an emergency shovel in your vehicle during the winter is being prepared for the worst.  Even if you don’t have much space to store a full-sized shovel, you might have room for a shovel like the Penguin collapsible emergency snow shovel.

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Denny and Kathy, who seem to run an Ace Hardware dealership, are selling the Fiskars 8511 hand drill for $10.79.  The Fiskars — a basic, small, cheap, eggbeater-style hand drill — works well for small jobs where there’s no need for a cordless drill. Of course, you can often find a vintage one on Ebay for about the same price.

Fiskars 8511 Hand Drill [Denny and Kathy's]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

ACE Hardware stores across the country are running a fall sale today and tomorrow including a number of items designed to help you prepare for the season. Our favorite: they’re offering Shop-Vac’s Mini Hang Up wet/dry vac for $30 — about $5-$10 less than most brick-and-morter shops (and many online outlets, too).

The Mini Hang Up is a handy little one-gallon one-horsepower vac that comes with a wall bracket mount that keeps it off the floor and out of the way. I’ve been meaning to pick one up, ’cause it looks a lot easier to carry than my honkin’ wet/dry when I don’t need all that umph.

Shop-Vac Mini Hang Up Wet/Dry Vac [ACE Hardware]

Ace Hardware is offering a deal on a set of six Adjustable brand clamps with 3-1/2″ opening and 2″ throat for $25.  Deep-throat clamps often provide the only solution to clamping problems involving access from only one side, large assemblies, etc.

Set of Six Deep-Throat Clamps [Ace Hardware]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

You like the look of mulch and the way it keeps out the weeds, but you’re tired of putting down cubic yards of the stuff year after year. Take a look at rubber mulch — a number of companies grind up recycled tires to make it. One such company, International Mulch, sells many different products including bedding cover, playground cover, and pavers.

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Ace Hardware offers some incredibly low prices, if you can get past the shipping costs. We found these General #888 dowel centers for only $3 — exciting stuff if you like your table legs to be straight.

Dowel centers are handy little plugs with points that you insert into drilled holes in one piece of wood, and then you can transfer the location of those holes to another piece of wood — if you’re building shelves, for instance.

#888 Dowel Centers [Ace Hardware]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

First invented for halibut fishing, then later refined to work with other long-shafted tools, Stout’s BackSaver grip allows you to grip most tools higher on the shaft, reducing the amount of bending required when shoveling, raking, sweeping, mopping, etc.  Less bending hopefully leads to less strain and fatigue.

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Your drill is a Bosch, your reciprocating saw a Milkwaukee, your router a DeWalt, and that’s just your tools — the rest of your crew also owns a widely mixed set of cordless tools. You could, and routinely do, fill a bench with chargers. With the Crew Charge from 10C Technologies you can charge up to four different-style batteries at the same time.

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The tough plastic bags of salt, fertilizer, soil, or other products can also be tough to pick up and carry — you can transport these bags more easily by attaching Grabbit’s bag handle. Not only does their bag handle carry bags, you can also use it to keep bags closed, to hang bags off the floor for storage, and even to maneuver a heavy tarp full of leaves.

If you’re interested you can grab the Grabbit bag handle for $6 to $8.

Bag Handle [Grabbit Tool]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon(B000RJXUR4) [What’s This?] [What's This?]

I remember a time before weed whackers — at least before my family had one — a time when men and women would crawl around the yard on their knees with a hand shear to trim the grass at the edge of the lawn. Whether it was a better time or just a simpler time may be up for debate, but if Fiskars’ long-handled swivel grass shears had been around, they would’ve spared us a lot of strained backs and sore knees.

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This portable job site desk hangs from two nails pounded into any stud wall. It folds up and out of the way when it’s not needed, and you can carry it off the site by the handles like a portfolio when you’re done.

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If your tin snips start feeling a little heavy, check out a pair of Wiss lightweight aluminum snips. They’ll make straight or curved cuts in light metal, flash, vinyl siding, or rubber. The 3-1/2″ rust-resistant blades will handle materials as tough as 23-gauge, low-carbon steel.

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The other day at my local hardware store, I ran across a Stanley tool I’d never seen before — the Stanley MaxDrive 15-piece Locking-Flex Ratchet System. Apparently Stanley released this tool in April 2006, but we’ve yet to cover it on Toolmonger.

With interchangeable heads you can convert the MaxDrive from a socket driver to a bit driver and back again as easily as changing sockets on a ratchet. The flexible head swings 180° and can be locked into 15 different positions. For about $25, the system comes with the flexible-head handle, a 3/8″ socket driver head, a 1/4″ bit driver head, and 12 driver bits.

The flexible head can reach places other ratchets and bit drivers can’t touch, and you can get a lot of torque on a screw by turning the driver head 90°.  So, is this the next gotta-have tool? Or would you rather carry a separate bit driver and flexible head ratchet in your toolbox? Let us know in the comments.

MaxDrive [Stanley]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What's This?]