Friday, November 07, 2008
The Week in Tools: Toolmonger Top 5
Toolmonger: "It’s been a busy week here at Toolmonger. If you’ve been spending time in the shop — you should! — and you haven’t had a chance to keep up with Toolmonger this week, we suggest you start with these posts, which our readers helped to select"
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5 comments:
Woohoo new mechanix gloves.... Yay for overly expensive crap.
But seriously the c-wrench that turns into a pipe wrench is actually quite cool. That and the fold open Wrench i would actually be interested in buying. I own an adjustable ratchet (not a gator socket) and I have actually found that darn thing handy more often times then not when i can't find that one dam socket i need.
The rest of the stuff on the page is kinda blah... The laser on the festool in the shop was alot better in my opinion because it showed a dotted line @ the center of the cut and a solid beam on either side of the blade, not just a beam for everything. And it was mounted separate from the blade i believe as well.
The combo adjustable wrench and pipe wrench is really cool. It allows you to carry one heavy tool instead of two. The only disadvantage is that if you lost part or all of it. You're doubly screwed. The folding pocket wrench is also useful, and again allows you to carry less tools in your bag, but again has the same problem of losing one is losing all.
I always worry a lot about how sturdy devices that transform or have a double end to them actually are. There are some tools I don't care as strongly about this, but in the case of wrenches, I prefer them to be as sturdy as possible. While I can imagine that the transforming c-wrench is pretty sturdy, its after all just a part that twists off and spins. The pocket wrench just looks, well, flimsy and potentially really easy to break. I can imagine the center point that the wrench folds around could be very prone to breaking. Maybe it works really well, but given that I can buy normal, tested and true, c-wrenches for not that much, I don't really see a reason to ever really upgrade from existing tools.
laser sights on saws aren't as difficult as toolmonger makes them out to be. you can take an arbor mounted on and just tilt the beam until it's in the right place. throw a lens in front and you can widen it to show the kerf it's taking off as well.
The laserkerf seems pretty cool and useful in the shop. One of the most time consuming activities for me, is lining up boards to the saw, just so i get that precise cut. Other than that, cutting is fairly quick. The other useful tool is the flashlight. This seems like a total "be prepared" type item for any occasion.
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