Saturday, September 26, 2009
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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They decided to repeat the bending board this week...nothing new here. The new batteries are pretty interesting. I have never seen batteries that incorporate fans into their design and from what the article says, it increases battery life so I wonder how well this will work. The portable battery charger is pretty much overkill. Granted it may have it's uses, but I would rather have a generator and charger separate so there could be more uses.
I enjoy learning about new up and coming tools, and gadgets. The MRT 0.5 M-Pact gloves really caught my attention because I generally dislike using gloves at all, and only use them when I absolutely have to. But these seemed really cool because of the TPR I feel like I would be more comfortable using these gloves, if only for the fact that everything would be more secure.
The new and improved gloves are pretty interesting. They look like something that one of our Salt Peanuts Superheroes might wear. They do offer a wide range of motion, so you would be able to have almost normal use of your hands, while not worrying about tearing them to shreads. I'm not exactly sure what the specialized finger protection offers in comparison to other standard gloves, but it sounds pretty spiffy, and it sounds like a glove that would be helpful not just in the shop, but also on the fly system.
Another item that caught my eye was the bit about creating curves. Everytime I'm in a shop, getting assigned a new project, I dread curves. It's probably a mixture of skill and comfort level in the shop, but it is something that I just dread. I can usually manage to complete the project, but not without many questions being asked and trying several different approaches. The KerfKore sounds like it would greatly assist in my ability to produce all sorts of items with curves. It would definitely be an interesting material to test out sometime in the future.
For some reason I've always found Dewalt batteries to either be too heavy, or not heavy enough to properly balance out the rest of the drill. The new bateries with the built in fan worry me since the battery itself looks bulkier, which probably means it leans more to the over weight side of my issue, with Dewalt. In project that longevity of a battery is a real concern I tend to try and use a corded tool, so I'm finding the larger and longer lasting 24v to be interesting, but not something I'd ever buy. Also, is it too much to ask for mechanic gloves to stop being made in day glow colors?
I am particularly interested in the fan cooled battery packs. While it is intriguing that this keeps the battery cool, does it do anything positive for battery life. In my opinion, all I think it would do was run battery life down. I'm not sure how I feel about the usefulness of all that. Additionally, I have found that it is the drill itself, not the battery that gets heated. Would this fan cool the drill?
I enjoy looking at these tool articles and although many of them I see little or no practical purpose to, the ones that I would actually want to look into are generally improvements on already existing tools.
The one that caught my interest this week was the MRT 0.5 M-Pact gloves. As I am one who has large stubby hands, finding gloves that work is a task. I have tried similar gloves in this family and they have been the closest to practical. The problem always is if they are too small, they restrict motion, but if they are too large, grip is an issue (especially if the finger tips are too long). With these new materials, I am looking forward to a better fitting, better gripping glove (hopefully!).
Sounds expensive, although Setwear gloves are usually just as expensive as these are. Also, kinda looks like they ripped the glove style from a motocross glove. Sometimes I think we'd all be better off wearing motocross or MTB gloves as they inherently are built to withstand impact. Plus, we'd look a lot cooler doing it.
Granted, the gloves do seem like they'd have their place on a strike or sometime where shrapnel might come flying at your hands...
The fan cooled battery packs while cool, don't seem to be very useful unless the fans prolong the life of the battery. It does not mention however, how much more expensive these fan cooled batteries are than regular batteries. Is the extra cost worth the extra battery life? Chances are this product is much better in idea than in practice.
The new batteries look pretty interest. And the gas powered battery charger would be a great thing to have in locations away from traditional power sources. I think its not exactly relevent to conventional theatre, but there are many venues outside that are very distant from electrical sources. This device can help productions that are going up in secluded places from thier reliance on a generator to power thier tools. Also, the new gloves look really amazing.
i dont know why they would repeat a tool but they did they repeated the bending board. the battery packs the are more efficient at cooling is a thing that would like to see and work with i have experienced battery packs getting hot and then they dont work as well and then that is frustrating. also it better for the battery to stay cool then to get hot. also the gas powered battery charger that seems pretty cool. the spark plug thing is some thing that i world not uses ever.
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