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.
We’ve written about Craftsman’s bottle opener in the past, but what electrician would be caught without a Klien model? Matt writes: “Klein screwdrivers are the most common and most recognizable tools seen in electricians’ tool pouches, and now they’ve stuck their screwdriver handle on probably the most important tool you can own: a bottle opener. I especially love the product description: ‘Professionally designed and rigorously tested by an expert team to handle both foreign and domestic applications.’ How cool is that? I’ve been using mine for over three years now and it’s helped me out of some jams. They also make BBQ tools with the same cool handles!”
Our first thought when seeing this dispenser was “man, that looks like it’s cool and would work great!” It’s a pain in the ass to work that thin plastic tape to seal up boxes or to prepare packages for shipment. A sweet dispenser that fits the standard 3″ rolls and that has the weight and frame to stay put when you pull a length off – leaving the “loose end” at the ready for the next pull — would be cool.
Then we saw the price. All we can say is that we want whatever these guys are smoking. For $65 it better come with a few cases of beer or something.
The town of Montverde, Florida is selling one of their “big” firetrucks. Apparently the town of just 1,200 residents and 617 homes bought a little more firetruck than they need. From WFTV.com:
The two fire engines were bought about a year apart. In 2004, a $250,000 grant paid for one, but the town council agreed to buy the other one after a former Montverde firefighter argued that lives could be lost without it. […] But now the town is stuck with a $14,000 annual payment after putting $30,000 down. Chief Sette wants the town to buy a smaller, more mobile, far less expensive truck.”
If you’ve ever dreamed of owning a firetruck — who here hasn’t? — and happen to have $14k/mo. of disposable income, Chief Sette has a deal for you. “It’s an ‘04. It’s basically brand new,” he told WFTV.
There’s more than one way to increase horsepower on an internal-combustion engine. While the previous guy chose forced induction, this guy decided adding nitrous was the answer.
As over-the-top as the whole setup looks, the only time you can really tell anything different is happening is when he blows the vents. Hmmm… Why not do this to a rider and measure speed instead?
Phillip writes: “Only the biggest Toolmongers have a set of these.” And he’s correct. Seriously — the three piece (single place setting) set above is made of 18/10 “drop forged” stainless steel and comes in a blow-molded “heavy duty” ABS plastic box.
Hey — you could put it right next to your Craftsman bottle cap wrench.
This isn’t exactly a new idea — converting a power tool to drive a little toy car — but what makes this clip so funny is the dialogue at around the 45 second point.
Somethin’ makes me think this kid’s ass is gettin’ whooped.
This photo’s been making the rounds today. Since we’ve been covering a number of different multitools recently, we thought you’d enjoy it.
Update: Whoops. Saw this on Digg this morning, then noticed that SuperJdynamite (a relatively regular commenter here on TM) submitted it as well. Thanks SJD!
Laugh if you will, but you know damn well that this kind of thing has happened to you before. Maybe you didn’t hit yourself in the face with the drill, but how many of you haven’t whacked your hand on something because a drill bit grabbed tight? And don’t even get me started about pneumatic wrenches…
I suppose this was coming. On the game side of things, the classic Monopoly game’s been bent to cover every sort of -opoly imaginable from sports teams to food. And John Deere’s brand is quickly following Harley Davidson in terms of becoming more valuable than the product itself — to the corporation, anyway.
So here it is: John Deere Monopoly. I kid you not.
And no, I didn’t even find this in TSC or such. I found it in JC Penney’s when I was shopping for day-after-Christmas deals on lights and ornaments.
According to this column by Twin-Falls Idaho Times-News columnist Steve Crump, the vast majority of tools are simply toys. He cites a “back-to-basics, simplify-your-life nonprofit organization” (his words) that polled “home improvement experts” about the tools actually needed to maintain a typical 2,000 sq. ft. home on a quarter-acre lot.
“Technically, anything more in your significant other’s toolbox [he’s talking to women, apparently, whom he feels don’t need tools at all] has to be classified as purely recreational,” he writes. Read on past the jump to see the tools he and his “nonprofit organizations’ home improvement experts” feel you need.
A beautiful blanket of fluffy white snow over your neighborhood is just one of the perks of living up North. Thankfully we miss out on that down here in Texas, because otherwise we might need a two-stage snow thrower like the one pictured above. They’ll rid your walkway of the white stuff, but you still get blow back from the thrower all over you — and that’s almost worse than the cold itself. This snow thrower cab seems like the ticket to not freezing your extremities off.
While catching the tail end of Rides the other day the annoying TV announcer voice came on – you know, the one with the blue screen at the end saying things like “for a limited time only” and “but wait, there’s more!” He was singing the praises of yet another “once in a life time opportunity, the Flitz system.”
For some reason, we can’t stop looking at awesometools.com. Don’t assume this is a good thing; Whenever we visit the site, we feel kinda like we’re rubbernecking at a traffic accident. Their latest offering is the ThumbSaver — a device that holds a nail for you so you can’t accidentally whack your thumb.
This one set off our BS alarm, so we thought we’d post it and see if any of you have any experience with these. They’re essentially pieces of bent wire that you stick through the wall for use as picture hangers.
We can’t help but strongly doubt infomercial host Billy Mays’ claim that these pieces of bent wire’ll hold up to 150 lbs.
C’mon — throw us a bone and save us the trouble of spending $15 to order a set just to satisfy our curiosity. Have you — or someone you know — tried ‘em?
This one set off our BS alarm, so we thought we’d post it and see if any of you have any experience with these. They’re essentially pieces of bent wire that you stick through the wall for use as picture hangers.
