I made a replacement sight elevator for an air rifle the other day. It required me to undercut a groove in a tiny piece of plastic (1/4″x1/4″x1/2″). I found that I had some micro keyseat cutters (marked “Richards”) and gave them a try. Normally keyseat cutters are used to cut semicircular woodruff keyseats but they work okay for tee slotting and other slotting jobs. Read the rest of this entry »

A bit of a scare with a careless student at one of the university labs has gotten me looking for a flammables cabinet for my colossal collection of caustics and combustible consumables. At the moment, they’re in a tall bottom drawer of my roll cabinet. It’s fine for easy access, but poor protection from heat.

I was pretty surprised at how inexpensive small cabinets can be. The larger ones run north of a grand, but a 12-gallon unit retails for $270 from (and manufactured by) Global Industrial. Twelve gallons is certainly enough for home use, but even if $270 is less than expected, it’s still a nice chunk of change. There’s no doubt that they’re a sensible idea, but is the extra degree of safety worth the entry cost?

If you think so, Global Industrial and Amazon sell an identical cabinet at the same price. Shipping costs will probably be murder given the weight and bulk of these things, but they might keep your house up.

12-Gallon Flammables Cabinet Via Amazon [What’s This?]
12-Gallon Flammables Cabinet [Global Industrial]

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]

It may look like just another angle grinder, and the motor spec certainly looks similar. But this tool’s designed with one purpose in mind: cutting through masonry in a nice straight line. Fitted with a 5″ segmented diamond blade, it’ll cut up to 1-1/4″ deep — perfect for trimming up concrete, brick, or tile.

Read the rest of this entry »

(TV Tonight, Wednesday, November 18th, 2009) No new Mythbusters tonight, so there is absolutely nothing to watch.

All times are central

• Cool Tools: Lost and Found (DIY, 6:00 pm)
• MythBusters: James Bond Special (Discovery, 6:00 pm)
• Ask This Old House: Shower Valve, Recycling Batteries (DIY, 6:30 pm)
• MythBusters: Crash and Burn (Discovery, 7:00 pm)
• MythBusters: Myth Revolution (Discovery, 8:00 pm)

OK, so it’s actually called the Black & Decker V-3 Million Power Series rechargeable spotlight. But after a good 10 months of carting this sucker out for late-night grilling, hooking up trailer hitches in the dark, and finding a lost hitch pin in deep grass, we just call it the “vampire light.” It’s incredibly bright. In fact, it’s so bright it has a trigger guard to keep you from blinding yourself.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have to admit, I’m not entirely sure how these work, but they look like something from the end of Inspector Gadget’s forearm. They’re for precisely torquing large bolts in tight spaces, apparently mounting on the end of a long handle and accepting hydraulic feed and return lines. Unless I miss my guess, an internal pressure regulator determines how much torque is exerted.

If anyone’s ever used one of these, what are they like? The baddest torque tool I’ve ever used was a 3/4″-drive impact wrench, which is probably a pushover compared to these suckers.

Read the rest of this entry »

This might make the perfect gift for a brand-conscious tool friend this holiday season. This flashlight and knife kit (on sale at Costco this weekend) includes all the necessities: an aluminum barreled, xenon-bulbed two-AA light, a miniature AAA model, and an aluminum-bodied folding knife — and, of course, the Snap-on brand prominently on display.

Read the rest of this entry »

For those of you who have — or lust after (e.g., like Sean, see TM 1/29/07) — a Gerstner tool chest, you might be interested in the Gerstner PORTA-DRAWER™. It’s a flip-up handle that installs in the bottom drawer of most current and older-model Gerstner chests, and it turns the drawer into a portable tray for carrying your tools or other items.

The install-it-yourself accessory (which comes with mounting screws, a drilling template, and full instructions) stores permanently inside the drawer when in its down position, and then can hinge up to become a handle, making the drawer a tool tray. When it’s in the up position, small slots in the side brackets help to center the handle and keep the drawer level. And it’s only $29.95, which, considering the price of Gerstner chests, is a real bargain.

PORTA-DRAWER™ [Manufacturer's Site]

Amazon has a great deal on the Werner 16′ Multi-Master ladder: $164.00 with free super saver shipping.

The Multimaster is a 16′ ladder  that has multiple functions (from the Werner website): double stepladder, stepladder, stairwell ladder, multi-shelf, stand-off ladder, fully extended straight ladder, 1/2 & 3/4 length straight ladder, self-supporting scaffold, extended span scaffold, stairwell scaffold.

Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine bending the stock of your carpenter’s square so that the tongue sat flat on the workpiece while you held it square to the edge. Now imagine going to the hardware store to buy a new square because you wrecked your old one by bending it. If you had a flexible Japanese square from Lee Valley you wouldn’t be giving your imagination such a workout.

The 3-1/3 oz. stainless steel square is thick and rigid at the corner, but it quickly tapers to a thin and flexible beveled profile on the 20-1/2″ stock and 10-1/2″ tongue. Lee Valley claims it’s square to within 0.1 mm in 100 mm. One side of the square is graduated in inches and the other metric; both sides have numbers etched and filled black.

To buy the Japanese square sold at Lee Valley you’ll pay $33 before shipping. The Japan Woodworker also has a similar, but smaller, square they sell for $40.

Japanese Square [Lee Valley]
Japanese Square [Japan Wodworker]

The FISKARS® model 0232 Multi-Snip, with its stainless steel blades (serrated on one side, as shown above, to help hold items), easily cuts a variety of materials in the shop, home, and garden including cable, cloth, carpet, cardboard, leather, linoleum, branches, “and more.” I have also found it also does a great job opening those sealed !*%@# clamshell packages that enclose so many products. The joint tension is adjustable, the molded handles are spring-loaded, and the blades can lock closed until you pull the orange-tipped thumb-release lever. All in all, it’s a very handy and small-sized snip that will only cost you around $10.

Fiskars, by the way, is celebrating their 360th anniversary.

Fiskars [Corporate Site]
Fiskars Multi-Snip Via Amazon [What’s This?]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

(TV Tonight, Tuesday, November 17th, 2009) A new Dirty Jobs does hydroelectric dam maintenance, which should be entertaining and hopefully involves large wrenches.

All times are central

• Holmes on Homes: Let’s Rejoist (HGTV, 5:00 pm)
• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 pm)
• Cool Tools: In the Garage (DIY, 6:00 pm)
• Dirty Jobs: 200 Jobs Look-Back (Discovery, 6:00 pm)
• Ask This Old House: Cedar Clipboards, Chainsaw Etiquette (DIY, 6:30 pm)
• Dirty Jobs: Glass Maker (Discovery, 7:00 pm)
• Dirty Jobs: Rocky Reach Dam (Discovery, 8:00 pm) NEW

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

As I mentioned recently in my Kitchen Tool Drawer post, the Easydriver is back (”and it’s IMPROVED”). The $29.95 Easydriver gift set (shown on the left in the picture) has the Easydriver ball with three shaft lengths (3″, 5-½”, and 7″), the Mini-Easydriver ball (shown in use on the right in the above picture) with 3-¼” shaft, and six standard ¼” hex bits (two #1 Phillips, two 3/16″ slotted, one #2 Phillips, and one ¼” slotted). As with most other standard ¼” hex bit holders, I’m assuming you can use these without bits as ¼” nut drivers. Each ball is a ratchet driver that you simply flip over to reverse the action. The tools are American made and have a lifetime warranty.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Ashley Book of Knots by Clifford W. Ashley is one of the best and most well known knot reference books. The subtitle “Every Practical Knot - What it Looks Like, Who Uses it, Where it Comes From, and How to Tie It” pretty much says it all. The book contains drawings and instructions for thousands of different types of knots. It starts with the humble Sheet Bend and ends with the Crossing Knot with many useful and obscure knots along the way, as well as splicing, matting and other related subjects. Full of anecdotes and historical footnotes, this is a profoundly good read. The book is so important it even has a Wikipedia entry. There’s a limited preview on Google Books should you still be on the fence. New price is about $55.00 on Amazon (it’s a big hardback) and used prices start around $35.00.

Via Amazon [What’s This?]

(TV Tonight, Monday, November 16th, 2009) Worse than Sunday: no better night to head out to the shop.

All times are central

• Trains & Locomotives (RFD-TV, 5:00 pm)
• Ask This Old House: Kitchen Backsplash, Installing Sod (DIY, 5:30 pm)
• Cool Tools: Demolition (DIY, 6:00 pm)
• Top Gear: Season 10 Ep. 4 (BBC America, 7:00 pm)
• Top Gear: Season 10 Ep. 3 (BBC America, 8:00 pm)