Malco’s “The Sider” helps you measure and mark pieces of vinyl siding quickly and accurately. Made from 18 gauge stainless steel, the Sider has precisely spaced holes staggered vertically every 1/8″. To draw or score perfect horizontal lines, stick a pencil or knife blade into a hole and slide the tool along the siding.

Malco sells five different varieties of the Sider to work with most siding styles: the 4″ double, the 5″ double, the 4-1/2″ Dutchlap, the 5″ Dutchlap, and the 3″ triple. Any of these versions of the Sider will run you somewhere between $11 and $21 before shipping or tax.

The Sider [Malco]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Sure, you can use a calculator or even your head to find the circumference of a round duct by measuring its diameter, but with the Cooper Tool Tinner’s Circumference Rule all you need to measure is the diameter — the ruler will read the circumference.

The tempered medium-weight steel rule measures in inches by 1/16″ on the top edge and circumference inches by 1/8″ on the bottom edge. The black markings are easy to read, and on the reverse side Cooper has printed relevant formulas and tables for easy reference.

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Nailing up hidden gutter hangers can be a challenge. One reason they’re called “hidden” is they are fastened to the fascia under the lip of the shingles and inside the gutter where there ain’t much room to swing a hammer. To solve this problem, Malco’s Gutter Nail Driver both holds the nail and transfers the striking surface outside the gutter where you can get a good swing. (more…)

Malco’s duct folding tool doesn’t look like much, but it allows you to evenly fold sheet metal for forming various duct parts. It’s simply two steel plates joined together at the center. You insert the sheet metal in the gap between the plates until you see it through the diamond site holes, then twist the tool to form the bend.

Malco sells five versions of the folding tool: 8″ and 12″ long folding tools that make 3/8″ and 1/2″ bends and 12″, 18″, and 24″ tools that make 3/8″ and 1″ bends. The longer the tool the more uniform the fold; the 24″ version can even be used as a mini brake for flashing and siding.

You can pick up one of these folding tools for between $10 and $15.

Folding Tool [Malco]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

A few day ago some commenters expressed concerns about how you’d load and unload the Fatmax Portable Truck Box if all 42 gallons of stage space was filled with tools. One way would be to use a lift cart like this one from Northern Tool.

This lift cart will raise 300 lbs from 8-1/4″ to 28-3/4″ by pumping a foot pedal. To lower the load there’s a handle-mounted pressure release. The platform measures 27-1/2″ by 17-3/4″ and is 1-3/8″ thick.

Northern has several inexpensive hydraulic table carts that can handle from 300 to 1000 lbs in the $200 to $300 price range. The pictured lift cart runs about $190, but it’ll cost you $75 to ship so I’d recommend going to one of Northern’s brick and mortar stores if there’s one close to you or find a different source.

Lift Cart [Northern Tools]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Little Giant’s work platform can be used with any of their ladders. It fits over any rung and folds out of the way while you’re climbing up and down the ladder. When you do need it, you can just move it into position with with your foot.

Made from aluminum, the platform will support up to 300 lbs. It runs about $40.

Work Platform [Little Giant]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

You’ve used a pole saw to trim a branch, but it’s still stuck in the tree — now what? Using a tool like Wolf Garten’s Tree Hook you can grab the branch from the ground rather than climbing into the tree to get it down. You can also use it to shake fruit tree branches or hang Christmas lights in trees.

The S-shaped hook works with any Wolf Interlocken handles, the cheapest of which run $12. The Tree Hook itself runs $16.

Branch Hook [Wolf Garten]
Via Amazon

Halloween is coming up fast; it’s time to scarify your lawn in more than one way. Fertilizing, aerating, de-thatching, and raking are some of the tasks you can do in the fall to get your lawn ready for winter. Wolf Garten’s new Scarifier Rolling Rake will at least help you de-thatch and break up the topsoil.

As you pull the rake toward you the sharp blades move in an oscillating motion. They are hardened so they don’t require resharpening. The wheels keep the rake at a consistent height while you work over a 11.8″ swath.

Pricing for the Wolf Garten Scarifier Rolling Rake starts at around $50. However it comes without a handle (that’s scary too) so you’ll need to purchase one separately.

Scarifier Roller Rake [Wolf Garten]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

While delving into some metal working sites I came across these cool-looking tools for forming sheet metal: forming stakes. The above catalog picture shows some of the many shaped heads that are available for creating different shapes.

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Do you hear the theme from Raiders of the Lost Ark when trying to navigate your workbench, shelves, or cabinets? Whether it’s the garage or shop, chances are you’re running out of storage space. An under-shelf organizer like this one from Grayline Housewares might be one way to reclaim some unused space in your otherwise-packed storage areas.

While the picture shows the basket holding towels in a closet, we envision using it to hold sheets of sandpaper, boxes of nails, or other stuff that usually clutters the top of workbenches.

This model measures 12″ long by 10″ wide by 6-1/4″ high and is made from wire coated with white vinyl. There are a ton of different sizes available from different manufacturers, both online and in brick and mortar stores starting at $6. Just watch out for the giant rolling ball when you do the installation.

Under Shelf Storage Basket [Grayline Housewares]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Why use a brass pin punch? Well, for one brass doesn’t spark, so if you ever need to drive out a pin in a flammable environment, you’d probably want one. Secondly, they are less likely to leave a mark on steel surfaces.

This brass pin punch set by Solid includes a 6″ center punch and pin punches sized 3/32″ x 4-1/4″, 1/8″ x 4-3/4″, 5/32″ x 5″, 3/16″ x 5-1/4″ and 1/4″ x 5-3/4″.  It runs about $26 shipped.

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

TM has had recent posts about both soldering and desoldering. If you’re doing either, the Edsyn FXF15 FUMINATOR can help to remove the potentially toxic fumes. You can get one in blue, green, or red from Edsyn for $27 (a 75% discount according to their website). Shipping costs seem a bit high, but maybe you can find some other things you need to rationalize the shipping. This bench-top fume extraction system draws fumes away from the operator, and comes with front and rear charcoal-impregnated filters, a 12 VDC wall transformer, a single adjustable arm, and is ESD safe. The FXF15 weighs 1.09 lbs, and is 5.5″ W × 9″ H × 5.5″ H. It appears to have a fan system similar to the Edsyn FXF11 (available from Amazon), but without the solder-peg stand and dual adjustable arm.

Instructables has several DIY alternatives (here’s a filtered version, for example).

Edsyn Fuminator FXF15 Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Qual-Craft’s ladder hooks attach to a ladder and then hook over the ridge of a roof to provide a secure foothold on steeper-pitched roofs. The pictured model also has a wheel which allows you to roll the ladder up the roof rather than slide it.

The Ladder Hook hooks around the second-to-the-top rung; a rung clip which can be tightened with a wing nut secures it to the top rung. It’s adjustable and works with wood, fiberglass, and aluminum single or extension ladders with round or D-rungs. You’ll need two of these ladder hooks per ladder.

QualCraft doesn’t recommend using their ladder hook on roofs with ridge vents. Pricing for the ladder hook with roller starts at $21 each, but remember you’re going to need two.

Ladder Hook (pdf) [Qual-Craft]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Besides shop uses like examining sharpened edges and getting a closer look at that splinter in your finger (TM 7/03/09 post), I think small handheld microscopes are just plain cool. The Celestron 44306 is a Handheld Digital and Optical Microscope, with adjustable brightness LED illumination, a 20X eyepiece for optical viewing (4X to 8X on the LOW setting; 50X on the HIGH setting) and a USB 2.0mp digital camera for snapshots and video on your computer (20X to 40X on the LOW setting; 200X on the HIGH setting). It’s 2″ × 1.25″ × 3.5″, weighs 2 oz, and includes a USB cable and ArcSoft Photo software. The user has to supply two AAA batteries for the LED.

There are lots of fun things to look at with the microscope, like fountain pen writing on an index card, a cat whisker — it fell off, honest — , coins, wood grain, random garage bugs…

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We’ve covered faucet lights that change color with water temperature before, but what’s even cooler about Sylvania’s ECOlight is that it provides both temperature indication and shower illumination without batteries or electrical wiring — water pressure provides the power for this self-contained unit.

The ECOlight has an LED that glows blue when the water is cold and red when the water gets warmer.  It uses Sylvania’s high power golden dragon LED to provide light so you don’t need to turn on any extra lights on when you’re showering. There’s an on/off switch if you don’t want to use the light.

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Sometimes the time-tested methods work best; sometimes they work even better with modern technology. A broom has no cords or hoses to catch and will reach every corner of your shop. Instead of tripping over the vacuum or dust collection hose, just connect Woodstock International’s floor sweep to your dust collection system and sweep the debris away.

The floor sweep works best when used in conjunction with a gate — that way you can just open the gate when you’re sweeping and close it when you’re done. It measures 24″ wide by 3-1/2″ high by 7″ deep and is made from 3/32″ thick plastic. It connects to any 4″ dust collection hose and can be attached to the floor using double sided tape.

Pricing for most plastic floor sweeps start at $4.

Floor Sweep [Woodstock Int]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

We’ve covered lighted pickup tools here and here, but you may not want a magnetic head sticking to every metal surface as you fish it. If you just need to shed some light on a hard-to-see place, a single purpose tool like Steelman’s 16″ Bend-A-Light might work a little better. It’s simply a high-intensity bulb with a flexible brass shaft connecting it to the battery case.

The Bend-A-Light ships with 2AA batteries and a protective cover that doubles as an extension handle.  It’ll run you about $17, but if you need a replacement bulb you’ll shell out at least another $7.

Bend-A-Light [Steelman]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]