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?]

Do you know what a good pair of fabric shears costs? It surprised the heck out of me the first time I borrowed my wife’s pair. I might have to pick up a pair of Fiskar’s titanium nitride Shop Shears for my shop so I won’t have to listen to that tirade again.

When you think Fiskars you don’t immediately think shop tool, but they’ve actually sold their Shop Shear for a few years now. They match ergonomic handles to TiN coated stainless steel blades which resist wear, scratches, and chemicals. The resulting shears will cut through fabric, cardboard, rope, wire, plastic strapping, Kevlar, and thin sheet metal, to name a few.

You can pick up the 8″ in pair starting at $11 and the 9-1/2″ pair starting at $16.

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

Wobble Wedges® are small (1″ × 1 ¼” × ¼”) tapered (4°) wedges made from hard clear (there’s also a black version for photographers) polypropylene or soft white vinyl, which is easily trimmed. They have interlocking ridge teeth to prevent slipping when stacked. The manufacturer lists a myriad of uses for these shims, including plumbers, installers, cabinet makers, homeowners, and even restaurants — for leveling those tippy tables.

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Lex’s recent post on captive nuts reminded me of some other nuts I’ve been using a lot lately while doing some volunteer work on a search-and-rescue van: nylon-insert hex nuts. Depending on which big box you shop at, and whom you ask when there, they’re also called stop nuts, locknuts, or nyloks (although NYLOK® is a nylon material typically applied to bolts and screws), or nylocks. I like them because they resist vibration and loosening, they’re reusable, they don’t damage threads, and they’re readily available. McMaster-Carr has a large variety in their catalog, and many of the big boxes carry Hillman versions.

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Got a pile of bungee cords that are the wrong size or the hook at the end just doesn’t quite fit the application? The Joubert Smart Bungee System lets you connect bungee cords together, swap ends, create a three ended bungee, or create complex combinations you may’ve never imagined.

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Klein Depthfinder™ steel fish tapes have permanent laser-etched marks at 1′ increments and a polypropylene case and handle. The $10 Model 56005’s tape is 25′ long and ¼” wide (other models are available, including stainless steel, lengths up to 240′, and 1/8″ widths). When I first saw one at Home Depot, I thought “What’s the big deal with the marks? You push the fish tape through wherever you want wire to run, connect wire to the end, and pull the wire back through. Who needs marks?”

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I’ll freely admit I laughed at this recently when I saw the ad for sample 8 oz. cans of paint for just under $3 at the Depot. I should have known better; every time I scoff at something like that it winds up biting me in the rear.

What could you possibly do with that? It’s not enough to really accomplish anything. I mean it’s not as if you could try out a few colors you were having a hard time deciding between in the room you wanted to paint. Oh wait, that’s just what my other half did this weekend — and spent less than ten bucks putting actual paint on actual walls — worked pretty well on the whole.

Also, you have some touch-up paint afterwards for pesky nicks and holes to be fixed. So let me just point out: sample paint, The Depot, 8.oz — don’t laugh.

Sample Paint [The Home Depot]

There are times when I’m very glad I don’t own a gas grill. I’m sure many people use them without issue, but I’ve heard of folks’ houses burning down after faulty shutdowns and any number of other issues after a summer or so of operation. Most of that is hearsay of course, but it seems Fiesta Grills has a real tale of woe with the voluntary recall of around 88,000 of their Blue Ember Gas Grills.

Fiesta has received 161 reports of malfunctions resulting in 9 incidents that produced major burns and one case of temporary hearing loss. The recall states the cause of all this mess is that the gas hose can get too close to the firebox. Once it does, it gets bad.

The recall notice had this to say on what to do if your unit is one of the affected models.

Consumers should immediately stop using the grill and call Fiesta Gas Grills to obtain a free replacement grease pan assembly and instructions for installing the part and the gas tank. The grill should not be used until the new grease pan assembly and the gas tank have been installed correctly. Consumers should also inspect the gas burner hose and regulator, which will be replaced free of charge if there are signs of damage.

Check out the CPSC site for more info on how to identify which grills are included in the recall. And should your grill be one of the guilty parties don’t just ignore the notice and light up anyway. The way this recall reads, it’s only a matter of time.

Recall Information [CPSC.gov]

While TM has noted attic decking before, Infinite Attic is another contender in the race to make use of all that space you have in the attic. The structural aluminum Infinite Attic Saddles fit over 2×4 attic roof trusses; 2×2 rails (customer-supplied) fit in the saddles, and sections of 19/32″ plywood or OSB (customer-supplied) are attached to the rails using 6D nails or 1¼” long #8 screws. The $30 18-saddle kit will cover 32 square feet (lumber not included).

Unless your house is WAY bigger than mine, Infinite Attic is either hyperbole or a misnomer. I told them a billion times not to exaggerate.

Do you need more storage space in your attic? Or do you just need a way to prevent putting your foot through the ceiling?

Infinite Attic [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

The Fiskars Micro-Tip pruners are great for precision trimming jobs on small plants, flowers, and even vegetable gardens where a larger pruner would be unwieldy. The non-slip handles, blade cover, and blade lock also keep the sharp parts away from your soft parts. Looking at the 1-1/2″ blade, I can also imagine a host of uses in the shop where larger snips or cutters would be too big or clumsy for intricate cutting or trimming work - feel free to share your ideas in comments!

Street pricing runs about $10 from your local Home Depot.

Fiskars Micro-Tip Pruners [Home Depot]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Do you have loose outlets in your home — you know, the ones where the receptacle wiggles every time you plug or unplug a cord?  More than likely the drywall guys cut the hole too big, and the ears on the receptacle don’t land on the drywall.  In the past I’ve used small washers or nuts to space the outlet far enough out from the wall so the cover plate fits correctly, but I noticed these Caterpillar spacers from Buchanan (Ideal) the other day when I was walking through Home Depot and decided to give ‘em a try.

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BEHR has defied the convention of laying a coat of primer before a coat of paint by combining both these products in one can.  BEHR’s new Premium Plus Ultra paint supposedly cuts your painting time in half by eliminating the priming and drying stage.

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These days, a lot of manufacturers and retailers are trying to appeal to the eco-conscious consumer by selling products that make a minimal impact on the environment — it also doesn’t hurt if they save you some money. The new propane-powered string trimmer from LEHR promises to do both.

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For the very first time this weekend I had to return something to the local Home Depot.  I hate returning things to the store — the entire process depresses me.  First, for whatever reason, you realize that the item you spent precious time shopping for isn’t going to work.  Then you have to go all the way back to the same store you left not an hour ago.  And finally, after waiting for what seems like forever, you get to the cashier who interrogates you as if you’ve just smuggled something illegal into the country.  It’s a sad series of events most of the time;  however that wasn’t the case this weekend at the Depot.

Not only was there no line on a Saturday afternoon at the return counter, but I was not interrogated, and after the cashier verified that the box was indeed what it said it was, she popped a drawer, gave me my cash back, smiled, and sent me on my way.  I was shocked.  I had prepared for a battle — what I got was service.

It was like getting a scratch-off win:  You don’t really have any more money than you did five minutes ago, but you’re happy.  I’m curious if this was a fluke or a common occurrence for the tool-returning masses. What say you, consumers?  Is the Home Depot return counter a bastion of sanity, or did I just catch the rare upside of a normally Grinch-like system?  Let us know in comments.

Home Depot [Website]

Home Depot is selling this Ridgid Top-Screw Bench Chain Vise for $93.  It’ll grip 1/8″ to 2-1/2″ diameter pipe for threading, as well as odd-profile workpieces.  The vise also features posts for bending pipe — it’s worth looking for on eBay and your other used tool sources.

Ridgid Top-Screw Bench Chain Vise [Home Depot]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Recently I was shopping for a drill press, and I probably could’ve gotten away with a benchtop model if it was just for woodworking, but I also do metal fabrication so I wanted a stationary model that stands on the floor. I wound up going with this Ridgid drill press.

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In setting up a woodshop, I always thought I’d end up with the standard Norm setup — a belt/disk sander combo and a separate oscillating spindle sander — but I’ve read that the motors on the lower-end spindle units can stall out when sanding, and I can’t afford the $1,000+ high-end shop sanders.  I read the reviews of this Ridgid oscillating edge belt/spindle sander and I had doubts about the belt sander part, but I figured at worst I’d end up with an affordable oscillating spindle sander.

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