Mike, a Toolmonger reader, wrote us about a tool he saw in a YouTube video (see the screen capture above). He says:

“I’ve been looking at some bicycle repair videos on YouTube and found one where this fella has this outstanding little wrench. It looks like it has two dice-shaped ends with multiple wrench sizes. I’ve looked all over online and couldn’t find one though.”

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You start digging a hole with a post hole digger but you run into something the digger just can’t hold onto, like mud or water.  Now you’re stuck, unless you pick up a tool like one of these Eastern or Western spoon shovels from Oshkosh Tools.

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Positioning tools at the right angle to sharpen them drives me crazy. I can’t stand messing with a block to hold the tool at an angle, but I know that the right angle can really affect the quality of work that I get out of my tools.  Luckily, the Sharpening Box makes it easy. Just set the angle you need, clamp in your tool, and hone away with a flat motion.

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Here’s a laser product I can really get behind — with this Carter laser you can retrofit your favorite tool! You control the precision, direction, position, mount style, and everything else, even the color. This sure beats buying a tool with a laser and finding out that the laser is crooked or off by 1/8″ — or that the stock laser line would be a lot more helpful if it extended just two more inches.

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We dig multi-talented tools whose one function can be applied in many ways. Polyacrylamide crystals can “only” absorb 400 times their weight in water, but keeping your lawn wet is just one way they can make your life better. Here’s another great application: Sew a handful of the crystals into a scarf, soak it, and let the evaporation keep you cool.

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DIY mechanics dread hearing that mysterious beep, whine, grind, ping, or squeal. Over a year ago we posted about how a simple stethoscope has saved us hours of time and significant cash outlay in the Toolmonger shop. Performance Tool (a subsidiary of Wilmar) makes an automotive stethoscope with a long probe on it, a style that reader Trevor D recommended as being far preferable to the doctors’ kind.

It could save your day by identifying just which part is making that sound you can’t quite remember being there before. Street pricing is about $9.

Automotive Stethoscope [CarParts.com]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

The Archimedes drill predates the Yankee screwdriver by a few hundred years, but it works much the same way. When you drive the handle down in a linear motion, the small chuck at the right end of the threads spins the drill.

I found the picture above on an antique site — this particular Archimedes drill was designed for jewelers, to drill tiny holes in soft metal. I’m sure the torque is nothing to speak of, and the RPM is somewhere just above a plain old screwdriver, but this actually makes it perfect for a few applications.

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As things get smaller, computers, hearing aids, heart valves, and the like all need smaller parts to function — and when the screws for these products get too small to handle, you need a smaller tool! Asta Gegeckaite and a team of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have solved at least part of the assembly nightmare created by the miniaturization trend. They created a special gripper/automatic screwdriver to assemble these tiny parts.

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Before “cordless power tools” we just burned gasoline to get the job done, and gas is still the easiest power source for remote locations where you need to draw heavy power.  For instance, a big, gas-powered wet/dry vacuum can prove indispensable for lots of applications, like prospecting, archaeology, and prairie dog eviction — but I couldn’t find a gas-powered vacuum easily! However, I did find this DIY plan for one.

You start with a gas blower and a five-gallon bucket, and you end up with a big vacuum that recharges at the pump. With gas prices going up you might prefer a cheaper alternative — but if you really need the right tool for the job there may not be a substitute.

GasVac [Minin' Gold]
Giant Sucking Sound [CNN]

To earn the title of World’s Largest Chainsaw, shouldn’t the saw in question have cut down at least one tree? We doubt that Big Gus here has had that honor, unless it fell on one — but that really isn’t the same thing.

Still, the 23-foot, V8-powered timber cutter brings a smile to our faces. The owner is scared to death of revving it up full-bore; he fears the chain’ll fly off and hit passing cars. We find this to be mighty considerate of him since we know how easy it is to slip one off the regular-sized variety. We admire his excellent self-restraint — we’d have done it already.

World’s Largest Chainsaw [Da Yoopers Tourist Trap]

In the comments section of a recent post someone asked for advice on removing a broken screw at the bottom of his pool. Though the simplest answer seemed to be a hand-cranked drill brace with a left-hand drill bit, other readers suggested a pneumatic drill or a cordless electric drill. This piqued my curiosity about the underwater tool industry, which I knew little about — so I went looking to discover what’s out there.

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Automotive engineers are updating car security every year — and every year locksmiths figure out how to defeat those same security measures, because some of us are prone to locking our keys in our cars.  High Tech Tools has compiled a catalog of security defeat instructions for every make and model of car, and they also design tools to help locksmiths collect their emergency lockout fees.  Of all the interesting specialized tools in their catalog, I thought this one was especially fun: the glow-in-the-dark long-reach tool.

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Is it still a saw if it only has one tooth? Lenox avoids the issue by calling this tool a hole cutter, and its design evidently offers some really cool advantages over normal hole saws. For one thing, the cutter works best with low torque and high speed. And it’ll cut holes that aren’t perpendicular to the workpiece!

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Whenever you use superglue or any cyanoacrylate-based adhesive you’re going to get some on you.  And after you’ve gently or not-so-gently pried your fingers apart you’re left with that peculiar sensation that you’ve just removed your fingerprints to further your cat burglary career. If you don’t mind absorbing toxic chemicals you can soften the glue with solvents like acetone — or you can try Glue-B-Gone, a soap-bar-sized porous stone that gently removes the glue and fused skin from your hands.

Street pricing is around $5.

Glue-B-Gone [Great Planes]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

After the work day is done *wink* you can head straight for the fishing hole, if you’re carrying the Packer fishing rod. It weighs eight ounces and measures less than 22 inches long, so you can make room for it even in a crowded toolbox. Check out this guy holding one — it’s really small.

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If the zombies attack and civilization ends, this Survival Radio will still serve as a flashlight. And while civilization still exists, this tool can help you return to it if you ever get lost. Say you’re hunting javelinas in South Texas, and you get separated from your buddies. Your cell phone isn’t getting any reception, and you run down the battery trying. The Survival Radio can save the day! Crank it up, and charge your phone and listen to the radio while you walk. Maybe you’ll only pick up Tejano stations, but when you finally get reception on your phone, the battery’ll be charged!

It also features a thermometer, to tell you just how hot it really is in South Texas, and a siren to scare away the javelinas.

Survival Radio With Phone Charger [Valor]
Valor [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

I’m the last guy who wants to get in a fight, but I’ve had the same idea I’m sure a lot of you have while hefting a meaty Maglite: if worse comes to worse, I could give a bad guy a good thwack with this thing. Rothco has expanded on that notion with their side handle system. It turns any C or D Maglite into a police style tonfa club, for defense or just showing off your mad flashlight-twirling skills.

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