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?]

Fein added an interesting feature to some of the angle grinders in their WS 14 line; they replaced the switch with four touch pads — two in the front and two in the rear.

You start the grinder by touching one of the font pads and one of the rear pads. The grinder will continue to operate as long as you touch one of the four pads and will slow to a stop when you release it. Just so you don’t accidentally start it, you can lock the grinder off.

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Not many people are going to need a stainless steel pipe polisher, but the tool just looks really cool.  You can use Fein’s RS 12-70 to grind pipe welds, sand pipes to a satin finish, or polish pipes to a mirror finish and anywhere in between.

The variable-speed sander can drive the belt to speeds up to 22 m/s.  The belts rides on what I’m assuming are spring-loaded arms that allow the belt to flex around the pipe so you can surface all 360° of the pipe in only two passes.

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Rockler has a small autoloader screwdriver (see TM 2006 and 2007) for $10 as an online-only special. The unit comes with 6 bits (Phillips #0, #00, #000; slotted 3/32″, 1/8″, 5/32″; all bits are 5/32″ × 1″) that are accessed by pulling back on the handle, twisting to select the desired bit, and then pushing the handle forward. A large autoloader with 6 bits (Phillips #1, #2, #3; slotted 1/8″, 3/16″, 1/4″; all bits are 1/4″ × 1″), is also on sale for $15 (online-only). Free shipping with promo code V9789. This online sale ends this Wednesday, September 30.

Small Autoloader Screwdriver [Rockler]
Large Autoloader Screwdriver [Rockler]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

There are probably 10,000 ways to control cables, but let’s look at one more: the Wrap-n-Strap.  Made by Star Tech, the Wrap-n-Strap is just a rubber strap with a bunch of holes and a plastic fastener.

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If you’re looking for a camp shovel, rather than buying the folding variety, check out this Special Forces Shovel from Cold Steel. Sure, you can use it to dig, but you can also use it as a hatchet, an axe, a cleaver, a machete, a hammer, a paddle, and if you get bored you can throw it!

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There are numerous methods for stripping paint such as shaving, scraping, applying Dr. Pepper, and heating, but if you don’t want to spend lot of time and sweat equity, paint strippers are usually the way to go. They have their disadvantages: traditional strippers can use nasty chemicals you don’t want to inhale or get anywhere near your skin, not to mention they’re messy to clean up and they bring possible disposal issues.

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The General No. 142 6-inch dial caliper does direct reading of .01″ (outer scale) and 1/64″ (inner scale) on its dial (plus mm readings on the bar scale, but — without getting into that whole metric thing — I don’t find this “feature” very convenient). It can do inside, outside, depth, and step measurements. Its fiberglass-reinforced plastic body makes it a good choice for damp/wet environments. You can pick one up for around $24.

There are many alternatives (TM has covered calipers a few times: in 2006 and 2007, for example) and some are less expensive (HF or the General 141), but I especially like this model for woodworking.

General Tools [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Wearing safety glasses with a dust mask can be a bummer. Many times you end up fogging the glasses, so you either choose to risk your eyesight by forgoing the glasses or fill your lungs with crap. There are a few safety glasses with anti-fog coatings on the market, but this set of glasses from Milwaukee goes one step further — they have a channel for ventilation between the lens and the frame that supposedly reduces fogging.

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JessEm has created a featherboard that lets you adjust its height (or width) independently of position. What’s more, while positioning the height, guides keep the featherboard parallel to the fence or table.

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CH Hanson sells two low-cost accessories to protect and enhance your marking tools: Pencil Armor and Crayon Armor. Although I find it hard to justify spending a few bucks to protect a ten-cent pencil, I’ve held the pencil armor and it does look pretty cool. Armor for crayons, on the other hand, might make more sense since they’re a bit more expensive and fragile.

CH Hanson designed the aluminum Pencil Armor to work with rectangular carpenter’s pencils. The armor only exposes as much of the pencil as you need. You advance the pencil by sticking your thumb into the slot and pressing forward. The Armor also has a clip so you can keep the pencil in you shirt pocket.

The plastic Crayon Armor securely holds one of CH Hanson’s crayons and protects it from breaking since it only exposes enough crayon for marking. There’s a thumb slot for exposing more crayon and a lanyard strap.

The Crayon Armor will cost you about $4 and the Pencil Armor will run you $2 before shipping. Before paying double the product’s worth in shipping charges, check out your local Home Depot; mine carries the Pencil Armor, so maybe yours does too.

C.H. Hanson [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Crayon Armor Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Pencil Armor Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Here’s an interesting looking tool from Trend. The Multiscribe Pro has a rotating block that can be locked in at any angle with respect to the steel blade. The blade has markings in both 3/16″ and 1/4″ increments and comes to a point on one end. The block sports a pencil sharpener, a bubble vial, and two holes for sticking a pencil through, which is useful for scribing.

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