Blind or “sliver” nailing is an old technique of hiding nail heads in finish carpentry. You raise a thin sliver of wood, leaving it attached; drive a nail, and set it in the depression left behind; and glue the sliver back into place — no filler needed. Lee Valley designed a modern tool to help make this antique practice a bit easier.

Made of stainless steel and brass, the specialized plane clamps a 1/4″ high-carbon steel chisel at a 15° angle. The gouge-shaped edges of the hardwood-handled chisel minimize tear-out and leave a clean shaving. To change the thickness of the shaving, just adjust how far the chisel protrudes from the sole of the plane.

Along with the non-marring plane and the chisel, the Veritas Invisible Nailing kit includes a small container of fish glue.  For only $28, this kit’ll help you lend an air of professionalism to your woodworking projects .

Note: Check out page 432 of Woodworking for Beginners: A Manual for Amateurs By Charles Gardner Wheeler at Google Books for a 100-year-old description of “sliver” nailing. While you’re at it, take a look at some of the other great woodworking techniques from 1907 that this great, public-domain book describes.

Invisible Nailing Kit [Veritas]
Invisible Nailing Kit [Lee Valley]

If you ever need to bend a piece of metal, to make a clamp, for instance, you can achieve a somewhat-functional bend with a vise and pliers — but it takes too long and looks like crap. A better solution, the Veritas metal bender slips over most bench vise jaws to create bends between 180° and 90°.

(more…)

If you want a power tool in a color other than Delta gray, Jet white, Ridgid orange, or Hitachi “aggressive” green, WoodWerks can help. They’re selling the Powermatic PM2000 cabinet saw with options that include not only custom paint, but custom knobs and a custom name plate. And the PM2000 won Fine Woodworking’s Editor’s Choice for Cabinet Saw in 2006 — so you know your saw’s beauty is more than skin-deep.

(more…)

If your tin snips start feeling a little heavy, check out a pair of Wiss lightweight aluminum snips. They’ll make straight or curved cuts in light metal, flash, vinyl siding, or rubber. The 3-1/2″ rust-resistant blades will handle materials as tough as 23-gauge, low-carbon steel.

(more…)

When I’m trying to fit bigger, wider wheels on my car, and I just need a bit more clearance, I pull this out of my bag of tricks: the Eastwood fender roller tool. Most fenders have a flange on ‘em that’s parallel to the ground, and it can potentially cut your tire.  Bolt the fender roller onto the hub, turn the handle, and that flange will be curved up flush against the outside-fender skin. Sometimes that extra 1/2″ is all you need.

Fender Roller [Eastwood Co.]

Back about six years ago, when I used to fabricate and install granite countertops, we caulked with manual guns — the fancy electronic ones weren’t available yet. During an install, we’d set the granite countertop pieces on the cabinets, align ‘em to their final position, and then lift up the pieces to caulk underneath ‘em. And the guy doing the caulking had to race to squeeze out enough caulk before my arms gave out from the insane amount of weight.

It seems that a powered caulking gun would’ve been very useful to squeeze the caulk out faster, but I’ve never used one and don’t know anyone who has. So, I’m turning to you. Do you have a battery-powered caulking gun — or maybe a pneumatic? What brand is it? Does it lay down a seriously precise bead of caulk? Or is it a heavy, cumbersome waste of money?  Let us know in comments.

Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Sears is selling these mechanic’s gloves for $10, down from $20. The machine-washable, 4-1/2 ounce gloves feature synthetic material in the palm for increased grip, and double density in the fingers and thumbs for added protection. Spandex in the top provides flexibility, and you can adjust the gloves at the cuff with a Velcro closure. The offer’s good through April 26.

Craftsman Mechanic’s Gloves [Sears]

(Thursday, April 24th, 2008) We’ve got new Foose! And American Chopper pimps for a nutritional supplement company. (Paul Sr.’s guns ain’t free, you know.) Plus there are new episodes of Cool Tools — with a pole-mounted chainsaw!

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: Hullaba-loo (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Personal Watercraft, Wine, Office Furniture, Ice Skates (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• Rides: Time Capsule (TLC, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Levels, Hot Dogs, Abrasive Grains, Sandpaper (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• Modern Marvels: Copper (History, 7:00 p.m.)
• Classic Tractor Show (RFD-TV, 7:00 p.m.)
• Overhaulin’: Brushtang (TLC, 7:00 p.m.) NEW!
• Cool Tools: Out of Reach (DIY, 8:00 p.m.) NEW
• American Chopper: BSN Bike (TLC, 8:00 p.m.) NEW
• Cool Tools: Innovators (DIY, 8:30 p.m.) NEW
• MythBusters: Alaska Special (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Ax Men: The Close Call (History, 10:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Honey, Fiber Optics, Bricks, Pipe Organs (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Curling Stones, Refrigerators, Alumnium Baseball Bats, Opalescent Glass (Discovery, 10:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Sure, you’ve got your Mag-Lites and your Surefires for your everyday and even tactical flashlight needs, but where do you turn when you’re looking for a little something extra? How about a light whose friends just call it “The Torch?” If you’re not careful, this light’ll catch newspaper on fire at close range, or it’ll cook scrambled eggs in about a minute and a half. A fully-charged battery pack lasts just about 15 minutes, so remember to keep it charged — and hide it from your kids.

(more…)

Needlenose pliers excel at precision work: those times you want to grab that small screw, bend that wire, or pick up that button from the small hole in the floor. Any old pair of needlenose will work for those tasks, but what if you need to grab wires so fine you can barely see ‘em? You don’t want some clonky pair of needlenose pliers whose jaws don’t even touch — you want the strength of pliers, plus the precision of a pair of tweezers. Xuron’s Tweezernose pliers give you just that.

(more…)

Let’s say you need to look at something in high-end detail, but it’s in a tiny corner of your car/truck/garage — and you need a light, too. Now you can accomplish this with a single tool: Moroso’s lighted magnifier. It’s a flashlight that provides 3.8X magnification.

You may laugh, but this looks to be perfect for identifying spark plug problems.

Lighted Magnifier [Moroso]

Archimedes once said, “Give me a lever long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world.” Most people don’t need to move the world, but occasionally they might need to replace their alternator. This indexable pry bar from Innovative Products makes it easier to get a lever into the ever more-packed engine compartment.

(more…)

When you don’t want to lug your entire toolbox out of the garage just to work on your neighbor’s lawnmower, you need something like the Macsimizer Utility Cart from MAC. It features a deep well up top for sockets and a tray up top that slides open for more tool access — plus three drawers, screwdriver storage, and space on the bottom for bigger items.

I loaded up my cart with screwdrivers, sockets, wrenches, my most-used air tools, and some other miscellaneous stuff — which means that anytime I want to work on something outdoors, I just wheel out the cart and get after it.

For pricing, you’ll need to visit your local MAC distributor. Or, if you don’t want to pay MAC prices, there are cheap-ass alternatives.

Macsimizer Utility Cart [Mac Tools]

Often our best tools come to us for free. This chisel was such a case — judging from its crusty condition, it lay abandoned for a long time before it was found under a porch.

Its new caretaker decided to claw it out of the dirt and clean it up a bit to see what he actually had. With the mantra “There are very few really hopeless cases,” reader ghb624 cleaned the old chisel up and prepped it for action. He didn’t remove all its character — though he certainly could have — but chose to clean off just enough of the dirt and grime so he could use it.

A great story, a newfound tool, and a bit of cash saved — this strikes us as a win all the way around.

Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

(Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008) Mythbusters promises frigid hijinks in the Arctic on an all new episode. Patent Bending, while not technically new, is new to those of us in the US, and the show has really grown on us, especially their cavalier approach to safety.

All times are central.

• Holmes on Homes: This Mould House (Home, 5:00 p.m.)
• Rock Solid: Fire Pit & Grill (DIY, 5:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Honey, Fiber Optics, Bricks, Pipe Organs (Discovery, 6:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Curling Stones, Refrigerators, Alumnium Baseball Bats, Opalescent Glass (Discovery, 6:30 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Alaska Special (Discovery, 8:00 p.m.) NEW
• Patent Bending: Helmet Bar (Science, 8:00 p.m.)
• Patent Bending: Floating Tent (Science, 8:30 p.m.)
• Master Blasters: Ballistic Couch Potatoes (Science, 9:00 p.m.)
• Some Assembly Required: Episode 1 (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Hammered With John & Jimmy DiResta: The Dining Room Table (DIY, 9:30 p.m.)
• Some Assembly Required: Episode 2 (Discovery, 9:30 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Eye Glass Lenses, Granite, Potato Chips, Microprocessors (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Magnets, Cooked Ham, Sliver-plated Teacups, Crash Test Dummies (Discovery, 10:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

Sean and I will be at Make Magazine’s 2008 Bay Area Maker Faire the weekend of May 3rd along with various other members of the Toolmonger team, and we’d love to meet you and talk tools. And for that matter, maybe spend some time working with you, too.

We’re assembling a giant wooden dinosaur to serve as a backdrop for some dino-related kids activities, and we could use some help. If you’re interested in helping out on Friday or Saturday, email Sean at sohara@toolmonger.com. Or just look for the big dino and stop by to say hello at some point during the weekend.

Gates open at the San Mateo Fairgrounds at 10 a.m. on Saturday and 11 a.m. on Sunday. We hope to see you there.

Maker Faire 2008 [Make]

Although Innovative Products of America designed this tool especially for oil drain plugs, you’ll find plenty of uses for the eight sockets sized from 12mm to 19mm on the Multi-Wrench — especially after you pay about $35 for the tool.

To fit eight sockets on the Multi-Wrench, IPA designed the tool with a rotating head sporting four sockets on each end of the wrench. The laser-etched sockets click into place as you rotate the heads.

Made from drop-forged steel and finished with chrome, the Multi-Wrench also features a built-in rare-earth magnet with 11-lbs of holding force that allows you to stick the Multi-Wrench to your oil pan and accidentally leave it there.

Multi-Wrench [IPA]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon(B000Q6RZSS) [What’s This?] [What's This?]