An optical center punch can introduce a whole new level of accuracy to your projects. With the On Mark optical center punch, you can punch within .002″ of your mark, so your final hole position will be about as accurate as it gets.
Protect your ears, the ozone, and your wallet, all at the same time. Amazon is selling bulk boxes of 50 corded, reusable earplugs via Mytoolplace.com for $30, with free shipping. The earplugs feature a noise reduction rating (NNR) of 27dB.
Bulk Milwaukee Earplugs [dealnews.com]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Cable ties belong in the esteemed category of tools that includes gaffer’s tape, super glue, and locking pliers — they’re almost infinitely useful, and if you’ve got some, you’re halfway to fixing nearly anything. However, if you’ve ever spent time bundling up a bunch of cables just right, only to have to snip apart all your hard work when you notice what you did wrong, you owe yourself a big bag of releasable cable ties.
When you’re setting posts for a deck or fence, you need either an extra set of hands or some jury-rigged bracing to keep the post plumb until the concrete sets. But with Cepco’s Post-Pod, you can set up and hold posts without the extra helpers.
Your shop-vac may not be the most efficient dust collector, but you can turn it into a two-stage dust-collection system with the Mini Cyclone Separator from Woodstock International. You’ll change the bag or clean the filter less often, because larger chips will drop out into the attached five-gallon bucket.
Woodstock molds their Mini Cyclone Separator from ABS. It sits on top of a standard five-gallon bucket, where it accepts two 2-1/2″ hoses. To empty the bucket, simply lift off the separator.
Look to pay anywhere from $17 to $24 for the Mini Cyclone Separator. You’ll have to supply your own five-gallon pail. If you have 2-1/4″ hoses, you can get a reducer for about $5.
Mini Cyclone Separator [Woodstock International]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon(B0000223XZ) [What’s This?]
On average, lightning strikes kill 62 people each year in the US. You’ll probably never be struck, but if you work on a job site that’s prone to strikes, you might want a little insurance. The pager-sized StrikeAlert warns of lightning strikes within 40 miles, giving you advanced warning and extra time to get to cover.
When you need to measure the diameter of a hole or the width of a slot, reach for a taper gauge. Named for their tapered shape, taper gauges measure hole and slot sizes quickly and accurately. With the Starrett No. 267 taper gauge, you can measure hole and slot sizes from 1/16″ to 1-1/16″, to the nearest 1/64″.
Made from spring-tempered steel and measuring 1″ wide by 5-1/4″ long, the gauge features four different leafs for measuring progressively larger dimensions. Look to pay between $90 and $110.
Taper Gauge [Starrett]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon(B0006J4DSK) [What’s This?]
Remember that time you asked your algebra teacher when you’d ever need to solve for X in real life? There’s a good chance you still haven’t found a use for your higher math skills, but Toolmongers will likely encounter plenty of practical math issues during a project. This handy book’ll show you how to calculate roof pitch, lay out stairs, make sense of a scientific calculator, and lots of other stuff.
The nail gun revolutionized carpentry, but at the expense of tying the carpenter to a stationary compressor. Companies have devised some ingenious solutions to this problem — but battery-powered or battery-and-gas-powered nail guns can be heavy, awkward, and costly; and CO2-powered belt packs can only drive so many nails before you have to buy a new canister. Palmgren devised another solution: a portable, tank-less compressor that weighs just 6.6 lbs including the battery, so you can carry it easily over the shoulder or around the waist.
If you work construction or renovation, you often need to straighten a twisted stud or joist. Tools such as Stanley’s Fubar will do the trick, but what if you don’t want to carry a separate tool to get the job done? Estwing adds board-tweaking ability to a tool already in your hand: the hammer. The patented Hammertooth hammer can straighten any 2x board — just place the tooth and claw on either side of a board, and twist.
If you want to make full use of your drill press or milling machine table, Palmgren makes a kit with just about everything you’d ever need, including a steel storage rack to neatly organize all the pieces.
Here’s the complete list of what’s included:
At $140, this kit isn’t cheap, and it weighs 28 lbs, so shipping will definitely cost you — but you’ll never be lacking for ways to hold down your work. Sears sells what appears to be the identical kit, rebranded as Craftsman, for $100.
Clamping Kit [Palmgren]
Clamping Kit [Grainger]
Clamping Kit [Sears]
Via Amazon(B0007ZFK0S) [What’s This?]
To drill angled holes, you can tilt your drill press table, but sometimes it’s easier and more precise to use a cradle-style angle vise instead. The head of this particular vise from Palmgren locks at preset stops every 15° from 0° to 90°, simply by inserting an alignment pin. Set any other angle by removing the alignment pin and hand-tightening the locking mechanism.
Sensgard claims the ZEM hearing protection device dampens the loud noise of machinery yet allows you to hear people talking to you, so you don’t have to remove your hearing protection. Instead of using foam or other material to attenuate sound waves, the ZEM directs sound away from the ear.
When biscuits came out in 1956, they changed woodworkers’ approach to butt joinery. Simply by lining up two separate slots and inserting a glue-covered biscuit, you could join panels easily. Now Lamello, the company that brought us the biscuit, has come out with a new way to join wood: the Fixo biscuit.
If you’ve ever spent 20 minutes fiddling with a watch band, trying to seat the spring pin before throwing it against the wall, then check out this little watch-band spring tool. It belongs to that class of tool that’s pretty useless 99% of the time — and totally worth the few bucks you paid for it 1% of the time.
This set probably won’t replace any of your other tools, but it’s definitely worth grabbing one to keep in the trunk or on the boat. The set includes a universal ratchet driver, 12 SAE drive sockets, 12 metric drive sockets, 20 hex drive sockets, 17 slotted drive bits, seven star drive bits, four pozi drive bits, four Phillips drive bits, four square drive bits, a 42-piece picture-hanging kit, and a carrying case.
You can get it from ToolsNow, via Amazon, for $5 — add $7 for shipping and handling, for a total of $12.
130-Piece Screwdriver Set [DealNews]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
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.
www.flickr.com
|
