The Diametape by Pyramid has probably become the perfect go-to tool for anyone who measures o-rings and rubber belts to any level of precision. For the average Toolmonger it just looks like an incredibly simple and useful tool — the kind that makes you want to measure o-rings and rubber belts.
This does seem a little strange, but the multi-angle drill attachment adjusts (and locks) at any angle between 180 and 90 degrees so you can drill in all sorts of odd locations. At least that’s the idea — it looks cumbersome and unwieldy to us, though.
The site says you just hook this thing to your drill like any other attachment, and off you go drilling holes at funny angles. However, even in the picture here, you clearly could’ve drilled that hole at that angle without the use of the funky contraption. Still, if you must have one, it runs about $38 from Garrett Wade. As luck would have it, they’re in stock and on sale.
Multi-Angle Drill Attachment [Garrett Wade]
If you’ve ever tried to cut heavy-pile carpet with a utility knife, you know the results aren’t so pretty. Robert’s pro-quality loop pile cutter will cut any kind of carpet without damaging that luscious shag.
The other night while half-watching a Modern Marvels episode about the Pacific Coast Highway, I happened to look up and see a worker spraying molten zinc onto the underside of a concrete bridge. Two of my favorite things, liquid metal and high voltage, combined in a way I’d never considered before! It’s moments like this that let you know you’re a tool geek.
Microlux, maker of miniature tools, has come out with a filing machine. It won’t help with your taxes, but it’ll take the tedium out of filing metal, resin, plastic, or wood.
Though filing machines are usually heavy dudes, Microlux has made one for the serious hobbyist. The tool works like an inverted jigsaw, but with a file instead of a blade. The machine cuts only on the pull stroke and only on stock up to 3/8″ thick. Just clamp it to the edge of your bench and begin filing.
Now you can drain toilets or fill a fountain with your drill — and Jabsco’s drill-powered pump. You simply attach the built-in 1/4″ diameter shaft to your portable drill, and pull the trigger. The self-priming pump does the rest. Jabsco’s pump can move 3-1/2 gallons per minute, and it even comes with 3/4″ garden hose adapters.
Although at first look this tool might seem like a Rube Goldberg design, on closer inspection you appreciate the ingenuity of its designer. I can’t attest to how well it actually works, but it definitely looks cool.
Strike the top of this 8″ tool like you would a chisel to get the narrow 5/32″ jaws underneath the nail head. When you attach your hammer to either the top or side of the puller and lever against the fulcrum, the spring loaded jaws close to grip the nail.
Add this nail puller to your collection of eccentric tools for $15.
Forged Nail Puller [Lee Valley]
If you think a chain mortiser looks like a cross between a chainsaw and a drill press, you’ve just about pegged it. These tools speed up post and beam construction, and they look bad-ass.
Instead of lugging your cooler all over hell and creation, have it lug you around. We’re not kidding: the Cruizin Cooler motorized coolers carry your beverages and you up to 15 miles before their batteries need charging.
It seems we’re humans aren’t the only Toolmongers in the animal kingdom — thanks to Researchers from the University of Oxford — who mounted tiny half-ounce cameras to the tail feathers of New Caledonian crows — we now know that these very special birds make and use their own simple tools.
The bikahtagenigan, or crooked knife, was an essential tool used by Native Americans in creating birchbark canoes, paddles and poles, brown ash split baskets, snowshoes, and clubs. The crooked knife is a drawknife made with a bent handle; the carver grasps the knife fingers-up with the blade facing him and pulls it toward himself, slicing and shaving the wood to form smooth surfaces.
Native Americans made the earliest crooked knives in the American Northeast and Atlantic Canada from beaver or porcupine incisors hafted into a wooden handle. Contact with French, English, and Scandinavian settlers brought the technology of metal blades to the Maine Indians by the early 1700s. The knives were widely made and used until around 1930, when modern manufactured goods replaced many items that were traditionally carved.
Crooked knife handles are often elaborately designed, displaying items such as the carved heads of animals, horse hooves, hands with wedding rings, snake bodies, inlaid photographs, women’s legs, and traditional deer and dove images seen in beadwork of the Iroquois. The knife pictured above shows a playing card motif.
Today, Maine Indian basketmakers and canoe builders still create and use crooked knives, and you can find a number of knives online at antique woodworking sites. And if you’ve used one before, upload your pictures — we’d love to see this traditional tool in action.
Crooked Knife Online Exhibit [Hudson Museum]
I’ll take a vodka martini shaken by a 43cc motor (but not stirred), please. Sam’s Club offers this two stroke 43cc gas powered blender exclusively to its members as an in-store pickup item. It’s not available in California, which means it’s a pollution maker. And it’s made in China, so don’t let your kids chew on the stand.
On the plus side, this beast has diamond-plated accents, a stainless steel blender cup, and variable speed throttle, so you can mix your chosen poison at your chosen RPM. Pricing: $100.
Gas Powered Blender [Sam's Club]
Street Pricing [Google Product]
Everyone wants that curb-and-gutter finished look for their driveways, but most of us are afraid to ask what it’d cost. Here’s a possibility of doing it on the cheap: you could buy Harbor Freight’s Curb Machine. The Curb Machine includes three different curb molds – flat mower style, curb style, and slant style. This 42″ x 19″ by 34″ machine runs on standard 115V power, so get out your extension cords if you have a long driveway.
Apparently, this same machine is sold nationally for $2,995, but since we’re talking Harbor Freight the price is a slightly lower $600. If you are the intrepid do-it-yourselfer, how can you pass up this deal?
Curb Machine [Harbor Freight]
Ever since I saw Mr. Wizard dump some in his Mr. Wizard sink, I’ve loved dry ice. But besides creating Halloween creepiness, there are a zillions of industrial uses for the stuff, from freezing water in valveless pipes before repairs to serving as abrasive for blast cleaning — no cleanup required! But despite dry ice’s usefulness, I can’t think of a legitimate reason for me to want a $270 dollar Frigimat Cub-Dry dry ice maker other than the fact that it’s just cool.
‘Tis the season for the ritualized evisceration’s of America’s favorite squash. That’s right: it’s punkin’ carvin’ time! The Pumpkin Gutter takes what is arguably the least fun part of doing up your pumpkin right — scraping out the guts and seeds — and turns it a great excuse to break out your favorite new cordless drill.
Ok, so it’s not meant to be deadly, but it sure looks that way to us. This drill employs microwaves to drill through concrete, stone – and even glass without breaking it. And it produces no dust or noise, either. Of course, stray microwaves can effectively cook your internal organs if you’re not paying attention, so, um, pay attention.
The stuff some people build is amazing. You’ve got to have a great imagination – like Mike Stamps from San Clemente, CA — and a sense of humor, too, to create something like this. He devised this contraption to help him with a daily task of which he’d tired: kicking ass.
The Spanish inquisitors — or at least Mel Brooks’ interpretation of them — would be proud. And he’s looking for victims volunteers to work for him and get paid to get their asses kicked. Really.
Ass-Kicking Machine from the Best of Craigslist [Craigslist]
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