When the work is done for the day you just want to get out on the water, but in the back of your mind you know your gear just isn’t ready in case you hook the big one. Your line’s beat up and needs to be replaced. So you start pulling it off, wrapping it around your hand, thinking there’s got to be a better way. Well there may be; three different companies make three different products that might fit the bill.

The first is the Berkley TEC line stripper. It’s an apparently battery-powered device that can strip 140 yards off a spool in less than one minute. They make some ergonomic claims, but it’s not like you’re going to be using this tool more than a few times a season. They also don’t explain what happens to the line when it’s stripped — presumably it’s just dumped on the floor.

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Permatex Flowable Silicone (item # 81730) is a low-viscosity silicone sealer that “seeks the leak.” It flows easily into little cracks and crevices, and, after a 24-hour cure, forms a clear waterproof seal. Typical applications include windshields, sunroofs, windows, headlight assemblies, RV vents, and marine glass.

I found and used it a few years ago to successfully seal a small, but annoying and persistent, leak at the top of the windshield in my trusty old pickup after an ever-so-helpful dealer said the windshield would have to be removed and a new gasket installed. I have also read about its use in sealing outdoor PVC active antenna assemblies for amateur radio.

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Moody’s miniature open-end wrenches don’t look like most wrenches. Made for smaller-sized fasteners, they have a very thin head that attaches to a narrow shaft, letting you get at fasteners in places that your standard set of combination wrenches would never fit.

Moody uses hardened steel for the blades and nickel plates the ball-end handles. The wrenches come in 5/64″, 3/32″, 7/64″, 1/8″, 5/32″, 3/16″, 1/4″, and 5/16″ English sizes and 2.5mm, 3.0mm, 3.2mm, 4.0mm, 5.0mm, 5.5mm, 6.0mm, 7.0mm Metric sizes.

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Although the Spyder Scraper blade has been out for a while, for some reason I just noticed it today.  Chuck this scraper from Simple Man Products into just about any brand recip saw and you’ll be scraping paint, wallpaper, linoleum, laminate flooring, glue, rubber backed carpet, or anything that you would use a scraper to remove, only faster.

Okay, given the amount of control you have with most recip saws, I wouldn’t recommend using it for scraping wallpaper from drywall unless you really like spackling. Also being in the throes of winter, it’s probably not a good idea to use it to scrape the 1/2″ of ice from your windshield — I can’t be the only one who has thought of not trying this.

The Spyder Scraper retails for $13, but you can find it for less if you shop around.

Spyder Scraper [Coprorate Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I had the chance to rip through a friend’s copy of this recently and found that we were both commenting that a great deal of our childhood was contained in the book. The book was intended for his 12-year-old daughter, who was excited to receive it. After looking through it a little I have to agree: boy or girl doesn’t matter. This summary tells why.

The bestselling book for every boy from eight to eighty, covering essential boyhood skills such as building tree houses, learning how to fish, finding true north and knot tying. The Dangerous Book is a guide book for dads as well as their sons, as a reminder of lore and technique that have not yet been completely lost to the digital age.

This is the kind of stuff that I wish I’d had a manual for when I was a kid. Nothing really stops kids from doing it now but perhaps it’s a nice kick-start for a youngster not into those things because they don’t know about it yet. Coupled with a parent’s assistance and enthusiasm on the activities located inside, you’ve got a good time brewing in no time flat.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Is it even worth planning that garden irrigation system if your spigot can’t produce the pressure you need? Do you need to break it into zones? There are two ways to find out — build it and discover it won’t work, or actually test it and build the system, taking the water pressure into account.

Rain Bird’s water pressure gauge hooks up to your spigot with a 3/4″ female hose thread adapter; judging from the numbers on the gauge it will read from 0 to 200PSI. If your water supply is reading 200PSI you might have an ongoing indoor watering project on your hands to take care of first.

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Wiha recently introduced their line of insulated Inomic Pliers and Cutters. The supposed ergonomic design resembles the pistol grip of the Grip-On ErgoGrip locking pliers we previously covered. The “optimal” 23° offset design supposedly reduces hand fatigue and injury risk because the pistol-style grip is a more “natural” alignment for your wrist.

The 23° offset confused me for a minute until I realized that for some reason they measured angle of the heads from a line perpendicular to the handle, rather than from where the heads should be — parallel to the handle.

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I would imagine for those poor souls still punching staples in their roofs at holiday time, the Nail Hunter is a welcome comfort. This oddly shaped pair of pliers has been around for a little while and we’ve seen it show up here and there. This new video tells us why.

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Magswitch takes two Magswitches and mounts them to a couple of right-angle plates to make their BoomerAngle Adjustable Switchable Magnetic Welding Angle. They sell two versions of the BoomerAngle: an 8″ model sporting two 30mm Magswitches with 155 lbs. of breakaway force each and a 10″ model with two 50mm Magswitches, each having a breakaway force of 550 lbs.

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Bird-B-Gone’s solar powered bird repeller has to be one of the strangest products I’ve seen, and I’ve seen my share. It’s reminiscent of a stereotypical nerd’s beanie. The repeller uses a continuously rotating “propeller” to sweep birds away from just about any flat or angled surface and keep them from shitting all over the place.

Two adjustable arms mounted to a rotor cone extend to cover up to a five-foot diameter area. The solar panels charge 3 AAA batteries so the brushless motor will rotate at a continuous 30 RPM during the day, night, or cloudy weather.

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Take a Picquic® multi-bit screwdriver, change the logo, make a few cosmetic adjustments, and — voilà — you have the “new” Stanley® Push-N-Pick™ multi-bit screwdriver (model 69-193). Like the Picquic, the Stanley has seven 3″ long CrV 1/4″ hex bits (according to Stanley’s website you get Phillips #0, #1, #2, and #3, and slotted 3/16″, 5/32″, and 1/4″; but the picture seems to show two slotted, two Phillips, and three square, or Robertson, bits) that are stored in the handle. The bit in the shaft (which has a hex bolster for additional torque) is used to push out the bit you pick from the handle. The Stanley Push-N-Pick® costs around $11.

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So you’ve got your AA-battery flashlight (maybe even TM’s #3 favorite; see 11/12/09), or your AA-battery digicam for those shop shots, or a  Minty Boost (TM 7/10/09), or any of the approximately eleventy bazillion things around the house that use AA or AAA batteries, and you’d like to use NiMH rechargeables instead of going through packs of alkalines. The Maha Energy PowerEx MH-C9000 is a charger and analyzer for NiMH and NiCd AA and AAA batteries. Its four independent slots have five modes of operation: charge (at a selected rate), discharge (at a selected rate), cycle (perform discharge/charge up to 12 times), break-in (charge at 0.1C for 16 hours, rest for one hour, discharge at 0.2C, and finally recharge at 0.1C for 16 hours; for new batteries and those stored for more than three months), and refresh & analyze (charge, rest for one hour, discharge, rest, and recharge; for batteries stored more than two weeks but less than three months, or for batteries showing poor performance; the refresh & analyze mode can also be used to select and match battery capacities). The MH-C9000’s digital display shows capacity, voltage, time, and current. The unit has many, many programming options (a bone of contention in some reviews).

The MH-C9000 costs around $50 (and some vendors, like Thomas Distributing, often have sales that include a carrying case or batteries).

MH-C9000 WizardOne Charger-Analyzer [Manufacturer's Site]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

When I first saw Eagle’s Marking Center Finder, I thought, “Cool, that works on the same principle as Rockler’s mortise-centering router baseplate.” Looking at the PVC-made jig, I figured it’d be 5 to 10 bucks tops, but then I saw $25 price tag and figured I’d tell everyone they should spend 15 minutes in the shop and make one with a with a piece of scrap wood and a section of dowel instead.

It’s simple geometry that if you build it right, drilling three evenly spaced holes on a line, the resulting jig should be pretty accurate in finding the center of a board. And if you build your own you won’t be limited to the width of a 2×4 like Eagle’s model.

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Lee Valley currently has the 7-piece Grip-Tite™ socket set for just $19.50. Labeled “A” in the picture above, it has seven sockets (3/8″, 7/16″ (11mm), 1/2″, 9/16″, 5/8″ (16mm), 11/16″, and 3/4″ (19mm)) in a molded storage case. The $19.50 introductory price is good until December 21. They also have a set (”B” in the above picture) of the three most-often-used sockets (7/16″, 9/16″, and 3/4″) for a special price of $11.90 while supplies last.

I have not used Grip-Tite™ sockets — I know, I’m falling behind in my acquisition of tools — but the reviews in Amazon are generally positive. For Toolmongers out there who have used these before — what do you think?

Grip-Tite™ Sockets [Lee Valley]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Grip-Tite™ Super Socket Sets [Manufacturer's Site]

I’ve been postponing hanging some family pictures for a while — OK, it’s been years; happy now? — but recent “suggestions” from my patient but persistent wife prompted me to actually do something. Naturally, the first thing I did — in order to procrastinate further — was to check the web to see if I had all the necessary stuff. One site (TM 11/11/07) — our favorite — had a reference to a nice tutorial. I also ran across the Hangman Products site and noticed they have several items relevant to my pending project, plus a neat motto (Hang It Level Every Time®).

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Tapping threads straight can sometimes be a challenge. A lathe, drill press, or a lot of practice help the process — or you could use a tool like Big Gator Tools’ V-Tap Guide. A series of graduated holes in the V-Tap Guide keep the tap aligned perpendicular to the surface.

Big Gator Tools makes the V-Tap Guide from nickel alloyed steel, heat treats it, grinds the bottom flat, and chrome plates it. They also cut a V-groove into the bottom, which both gives the tool its name and allows you tap perpendicular holes on corners and round stock in addition to flat surfaces.

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Speaking of multi-tools (e.g., TM 11/20/09), I just saw the Level Best2 in one of those card pack mailers — PRODUCTS FOR WOODWORKERS. RECESSION BUSTING DISCOUNT COUPONS INSIDE! — that I usually toss into the recycle bin. This “ideal portable tool” comes in 12″ and 6″ sizes, and, if you order one 12″ version now using code LB2, you will “Get One 6″ Tool FREE!” — only $19.95 plus S&H, which appears to be $4.95. If you don’t like yellow, you can get a Level Best2 in blue, violet, or pink, also. They are pretty clear on its four uses: level, plumb, square, and ruler.

Web pricing starts around $6 for the 6″ and $10 for the 12″, so, depending on S&H from other sites, the bundle from the manufacturer could be a good deal. But is this a useful tool? What do you think?

Level Best2 [Manufacturer's Site]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]