Do you trust your ladder’s feet not to slip — especially on slick surfaces like sealed concrete? To make using ladders in these situations safer, Rojak Design manufactures their ladder Stopper to provide a much larger non-slip footprint than the tiny rubber tread on the ladder’s feet.

To make the Stopper, they bond an either a 18″, 24″, 30″, or 36″ T-section of aluminum to vulcanized rubber. The large base increases the gripping power and the upright section braces both of the ladder’s feet from sliding.

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Cooper Lighting’s Might-D-Light (a.k.a. model LED130) is an 80-LED rechargeable worklight. It comes with both AC and DC chargers, folds for easy storage, and, for hands-free use, has built-in neodymium magnets and a nylon swivel hook. Fully charged, its NiMH batteries should last two hours. As you can see in the top picture above, it also has reflective strips on the back. You can pick one up for around $39.

Might-D-Light [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Anybody with kids or grandkids has gone through the childproofing stage. You find yourself crawling around on all fours, permanently damaging your nice cabinets (and maybe your knees) by installing safety latches to keep the wee ones out of unfriendly places like cleaning cupboards. Then after a few weeks you find yourself walking halfway across the house to throw something away in your bedroom rather than fuss with opening the latch to the kitchen garbage.

Kidco’s magnetic child locks could solve some of the potential pitfalls of installing child safety latches.  First they attach with adhesives, possibly saving your cabinets from damage. Second they open simply with the touch of a magnetic key in the proper location. They claim the key will release the latch through over one inch of solid wood.

The best pricing we could find was $20 shipped for a pack of three locks with one key and key holder. Now if it only had a targeting laser…

Magnetic Child Locks [Kidco]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Well-known electronics tool manufacturer Weller offers a whole mini-website aimed at promoting their Zero-Smog campaign: a plea to you to stop breathing in the nasty stuff released in the air when you’re soldering. And even a quick look at the site shows that the contaminants you smell when soldering are truly hideous health-wise.

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I always heard this saying applied to your melon when talking about, say, riding a motorcycle. In this case, it’s something almost as important: your ears. You can pick up a pack of 200 Howard Leight LL1 Laser Lite cordless earplugs at Amazon for $20. Made of expandable foam and resembling stylish red-and-yellow rocket ships (hey, it’s cool), it’s worth 20 cents a pair for long-term hearing protection.

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The National Geographic Channel’s Inside show had an episode on the Science of Armored Cars. I didn’t see it, but, if the picture above is any indication, I may have missed a good one. I did a quick search of the TM archives, but could not find if Nick had covered this in his TV Tonight posts.

The picture above is Dillon Aero’s Tactical Vehicle, a customized GMC Yukon featuring their M134D Gatling gun. Those are spent 7.62mm NATO shell casings on the roof and base of the windshield. The M134D Gatling gun can fire 3,000 rounds per minute.

Did any Toolmongers see this show? If so, what did you think?

Inside [National Geographic]
Video [National Geographic]
Dillon Aero [Manufacturer's Site]

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?]

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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Mechanix gloves are a popular topic here at Toolmonger. We like their excellent protection, improved grip, and Robocop aesthetic, but there’s an offering coming that’s more up Spiderman’s alley. The spiny knuckle ribbing and web-like hex grid over the heavy fabric of their soon-to-be-released MRT 0.5 M-Pact gloves wouldn’t be out of place on a Marvel villain’s hands, but there are some new tricks beyond looks built into these gloves.

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A worthwhile addition to your vehicle’s emergency kit and safer than incendiary flares, the small (6 oz. with batteries; 4 1/4″L × 3 7/8″W × 1″D) Lite Flare has a clear high-impact polycarbonate housing, two high-intensity red (yellow is available, also) LEDs that flash about 55 times per minute with a claimed visibility range of 1 mile at night, and uses two AA batteries that will operate for “400+ hours (alkaline type).” A 3-pack (the recommended number for “optimum” visibility) costs $33. They also make a Cone Flare version that fits in the top of a traffic cone to make it more visible.

If you don’t like the directionality of the Lite Flare, other manufacturers (e.g., PowerFlare) make LED flares that emit light in all directions.

I’m sure there are even more options out there. What do you prefer for road-side emergencies?

Lite Flare [Manufacturer's Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

Move aside, pockets, there’s a new kid in town. That’s how the people at Glove Guard would have it, anyway. Glove Guards are little two-ended clips designed to hold your gloves to a belt or belt loop, which seems silly when those same pants are likely equipped with that age-old innovation — pockets. Still, these would improve comfort — jammed into a fabric envelope and bunched up against one’s hip, gloves never seem to lie comfortably. But, as an added bonus, the clips have a breakaway portion to keep you from getting sucked into the chipper.

$5 a pop is a bit steep for such a low-grade innovation, but I can see these being the new Chip Clip. Maybe the designers had one thing in mind, but the market will probably come up with hundreds of additional uses.

Glove Guards [Glove Guard]
Glove Guards [ABC Safety Glasses]

This bandsaw push block already has one hit against it. Could you face your fellow woodworkers and tell them you recommend using a Joy-Jaw push block and expect to keep any sort of respect? Aside from the bad name, however, it may have some redeeming features.

The large molded handles and wire guards keep your hands away from the blade. While the molded plastic body is rigid, it won’t damage the blade if you accidentally cut into it. The stepped jaws, which are reminiscent of an alligator wrench, will grip many shapes and sizes of small stock.

Woodteck designed and manufacturers this product in the USA. It’ll run you $30 plus shipping.

Joy-Jaw [Woodworker's Supply]

Are you going through enough LP or oxygen that you don’t have enough safe storage space?  With an aluminum gas cylinder cabinet from SECUREALL you can save space in your shop and store gas outside.

SECUREALL constructs their LP and oxygen cylinder cabinets from 12 ga aluminum with expanded metal sides and doors. The top is solid metal and the floor is framed to prevent the cylinders from contacting the ground. All-welded construction makes the cabinets tamper-resistant and the aluminum is both spark resistant and won’t corrode even if left in the elements.

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A trained professional would use the Mighty Probe from T&T Tools to try to find buried lines without ripping up half the yard. After de-energizing the lines, they’d keep sticking the probe into the ground where they thought the line was buried until they hit it, or until they give up and get the shovels.

If a pro ever contacted an energized line, the Mighty Stick provides up to 50,000V protection from shock. That’s because six inches of high-strength reinforced composite insulates the 11″ vinyl-covered solid-steel handle from the probe.

Three different shaft types, 3/8″ round, 3/8″ hex, and 7/16″ hex for the Mighty Probe are available in many different lengths. The shafts and tip are threaded for easy replacement. The tip is special alloy steel which has been heat-treated and has tapered edges for easy penetration and withdrawal.

As stated there are many configurations for the probe, and the retailers are a little sparse on specifics, but it looks like a 48″ Mighty Probe runs about $90. But don’t get any wild ideas — go call the dig line.

Mighty Probe [T&T Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

I can’t say I’m 100% sure on how these rotating gate valve lockouts from Master Lock are intended to be used, but I’m guessing one possible use is to prevent somebody from turning the water — especially if it’s heated to steam — back on when you’re working on a plumbing project across the building. If lock-out tag-out works for electricians, why not for plumbers?

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The 21st century must be here; you can now get carbon fiber in your shoes. Not that anyone will notice, but perhaps later on they’ll start putting them on the outside like carbon fiber car hoods or something.

While not all of these new boots use carbon fiber, composite-toe safety shoes are becoming commonplace, using fiberglass or similar materials. Lighter than and just as strong as steel toes, they help to keep your dogs from barkin’ too loudly at the end of the day, without sacrificing any peace of mind. Most of the larger manufacturers such as Wolverine, Bates, and Hytest, have one or more offerings with composite toes, and they generally retail for a few dollars more than their steel-capped counterparts.

Whether a lighter shoe is worth the extra cash depends on how much value you place on comfort, but given how high the cost of good safety shoes can be, an extra $10 or $20 seems like a good trade.

Wolverine CarbonMAX boots [Wolverine]
Bates Composite-toe Boots [Bates]
Hytest Composite-toe Boots [Hytest]