Or, based on the picture, maybe this post should be titled Flashlights In Space! Now I like flashlights as much as — or probably way more than — the average Toolmonger, but the mPower Emergency Illuminator that I recently saw on Gizmodo is a bit much even for me. Porsche Studios designed it, and mPower, a wholly-owned consumer products division of mPhase Technologies, uses its parent company’s AlwaysReady Smart NanoBattery technology to produce a two-tubed flashlight with two standard CR123 batteries in one tube, and an unactivated NanoBattery in the other. The NanoBattery side has a minimum 20-year shelf life with no power dissipation until activation. It’s to debut at CES in January, and should be available in March 2010 for a mere $250–$300. For that price you do get a “high power” LED  and an accessory USB connection for charging cell phones and PDAs.

Think there might be something better in the next 20 years?

AlwaysReady Smart Nanobattery [Manufacturer's Site]

Many of Bridge City Tool Work’s tools make it into our Tool Pr0n category, but their limited edition CT-16 palm brace has got to be one of the most frivolous offerings since the $100 plumb bob.

Bridge City Tool Works crafts the brace from steel, stainless-steel, and aluminum and then chromes the outer chuck, swing handle, and knob in black, a look which they call “stunningly beautiful.”  The handle of the 8-1/2″ inch long brace swings in a 4-1/2″ circle around the bit and accepts 1/4″ hex shank bits in its chuck.

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Laser cutters and computer-aided machining got together in a shed a while back, and the net result is a neat new technology for cutting profiles in tubing of all dimensions. Among many other uses, high-budget race teams use these machines for cutting their tube frame members. They send the company a CAD rendering of the frame, and shipping containers full of pre-made tubes show up on their doorstep. Stick together, weld, and the job’s a good one.

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If James Bond ever spent a weekend in the garage, he’d use one of these beauties to lift his DBS. The above is a jack manufactured by Mittler Brothers, very light, and costing a cool $1300. Not exactly weekend-mechanic fare, but if your calling is race mechanic, this could well be your weapon of choice. Have fun justifying the cost to your boss, but if you can convince ‘em, you’ll be rewarded with a hydraulic lifting device fit for a king.

Every part is CNC-machined from aluminum. The handle swivels to make steering easy, and has a nicely-padded surface where it’s likely to bash fenders. One man with one hand can haul this thing over a wall with ease, and it has a quick-raise feature which makes me jealous. One pump will lift the pad into contact with the jacking point, no matter how large the distance between them. That’s the kind of ability I’ll have to look for when shopping for less exotic gear.

Mittler Brothers [Mittler Brothers Machine and Tool]

Even if I win the lottery and build my ideal workbench in my ultimate workshop, I’m not sure I would want to have this beautiful leg vise out there. I’d be afraid that I’d nick it with a saw or dribble paint on it. I think it would go better on my dining room table. Then I could use it at Thanksgiving to hold the turkey for carving, or perhaps at Christmas to help slice that stupid fruit cake Aunt Sally always brings. (more…)

I consider very few tools “sexy,” but this set might fit the bill: these were just a few of the tools in the space shuttle Atlantis’s multi-billion-dollar kit on its recent mission to repair the Hubble Telescope.

Astronauts packed a total of 180 tools on this mission, 116 of which were specially designed for this trip alone.  Pictured above are a CPU-powered hi-torque pistol, EVA mini work station, imaging spectrograph repair tool, and other items we’ll probably never get to see in person — still, it’s fun to dream.

The Weird And Wonderful Space Tools That Fixed The Hubble [Gizmodo]

4Dorks on Flickr posted this awesome (strobist) shot of his custom-built depth gauge, which he uses in conjunction with some of his other custom tools to build split-cane bamboo fly rods. For those of you who build fly rods, this tool helps set the v-gap in the planing forms.

Planing Form Depth Gauge [Flickr]

I could hear the Jetsons theme playing in my head while I wrote this — the future is here.  In a video on his website, Jay Leno demos a consumer-level 3D scanner, showing how it can be used in real-world applications such as automotive restoration.  He scans a broken steam valve and sends the data to a 3D printer for mock-up and to his CNC machine to mill the final part.

I was amazed that the 3D printer can even make models with moving parts.  Jay shows a wrench that was printed with perfectly moving parts already in place, just like the original metal one!

3D Printing [Jay Leno's Garage] via Fabbaloo

Ok, so it’s not really a Terminator, but someone involved with this project had to be a Terminator fan. Officially, Seco Tools machined a miniature skeleton from a 6”x12” aluminum billet to demonstrate the capabilities of their tooling. They made a 3D scan of a full-size skeleton, translated that to a solid model, then converted the solid model into the tool path for their CNC machine.

The hands-off operation can create models accurate to one thousandth of an inch — someday the technology may allow Toolmongers to machine human body parts to fit the individual recipient.  Seco raffled off this piece to one lucky visitor at the 2008 International Manufacturing Technology Show. Maybe it’ll show up on eBay.

Article About Medical Machining [American Machinist]

You could describe many of Bridge City Tool Works’ tools as “tool pr0n,” but does their limited-edition multi-square belong in that category?   Certainly — but in addition to being beautiful and expensive, this well-made tool packs a lot of features into its 4.125″ tall, .875″ wide, and .73″ thick body.  After looking at the realistic renderings of the multi-square and reading about it on their site, you’ll feel the need to hold it in your hands.

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This photo of reader txinkman’s freshly restored tool chest definitely qualifies as tool porn.  Txinkman is no stranger to restoration, but one detail here struck us as extra cool: He managed to get the faux leather not only clean but most likely looking better than when it was new.

It didn’t hurt that it was in pretty decent shape to start with, but anyone who’s tried to scrub decades of grime off one of these bad boys will tell you it’s not only time-consuming but difficult to do without ripping or wearing a hole in the material. As usual, Txinkman makes everyone else’s toolbox seem uninteresting.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Mirrors on your tools? I couldn’t resist posting about this pretty tile saw, just for the picture, but this tool’s beauty is more than skin-deep. Like Gemini Saw Company’s more mundane-looking Taurus 3, this Revolution tile saw features a cool ring-shaped blade. Whereas a normal wet saw pretty much only cuts straight lines, the ring blade allows cutting action more like a scroll saw.

Street pricing on the Revolution starts at $945 and blades run $100+.

Revolution XT Tile Saw [Gemini Saw Co.]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

You might not consider this sweet pneumatic drill “tool porn,” but given my obsession for anything tracked, I’ve elevated it to that category. Reader mbeldyk says that together with a pump this drill helped build the still-unfinished statue of Crazy Horse that’s carved into a mountainside about 17 miles from Mount Rushmore.

Though the drill and pump combo was largely unreliable, the reported reason for the statue’s incompleteness has more to do with lack of funding and the death of the original artist in 1982. It’s too bad — we’d love to see this baby back in action.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Bright red and yellow make for a very cheery machine! Though it looks like a children’s toy, this portable backhoe should prove fairly useful for a farm or small operation. The website contains hardly any information besides contact info for the manufacturer, but at least they put up some pretty pictures. This sure looks better than Red Green’s Cadillac backhoe.

Portable Backhoe [Collins Machinery]

Recently, one of the mechanics at my local shop got himself a brand new Snap-on box with a top hutch, and I got a little jealous — ok, a lot jealous. It’s big, blue, shiny, and completely lust-worthy.

The five thousand dollar buy-in is steep for most, but you’re really buying the Snap-on name and quality. A box like this will last through many moves from house to house, from shop to shop — and all the while it’ll hold a ton of tools without sagging or faltering like a few department store toolboxes might. Plus, you can always expand or adapt this versatile box to suit your circumstances.

Only the buyer can say whether the Snap-on box is worth the uber price difference. But most of us can agree, this box is mighty good looking — even with all the drool stains on it.

Rolling Toolbox And Top Hutch [Snap-on]

When NASA’s astronauts need a power tool to use in orbit, they can’t just head down to Lowe’s and pick up a DeWalt. Vacuum, radiation, and extreme temperatures make for a difficult environment, to say the least, so NASA started looking into a tool — half drill-driver, half ratcheting torque wrench — that could be used on spacewalks to maintain the Hubble Space Telescope and the International Space Station in the mid ’90s. Alliant Techsystems filled that order with the Pistol Grip Tool or PGT: it’s a self-contained, computer-controlled, and battery-operated tool that can torque down fasteners very precisely while being operated by an astronaut with the dexterity of someone wearing pressurized hockey gloves.

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Who in their right mind is going to take a $100+ plumb bob to the job site when they can bring a perfectly serviceable $10 one? If you showed up on the job site with the PB-9 plumb bob from Bridge City Tool Works, you’d either get laughed off the lot, or all work would stop while everyone came over to admire this beautiful tool.

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