During an engine swap or rebuild the shop floor frequently gets littered with liquid gifts from the old block.  No matter how well you think it’s sealed — or how empty you swear it is — that old block is the gift that keeps on giving.  So why fight it?  Let it drop fluid everywhere and produce gunk all it wants!  Just keep it contained with an engine drip tray. 

A drip tray is a shallow hard plastic tray designed to fit over the bottom frame of your three or four wheeled engine stand.  It rests below the engine and catches all the gunky madness emanating from the iron heart of your ride.

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At first glance these pliers look like they were mangled in a tragic farming accident, but they’re that way on purpose.  They’re offset handle pliers, and they’re pretty damn handy.

For instance working on the Yukon project I managed to drop a bolt down into the exhaust “y” pipe.  Luckily it didn’t go too far down, but the trick was getting it without pushing it further down the pipe.  That’s where the offset pliers would have come in handy. 

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Grab a beer and learn how to fix holes in drywall - and regain domestic harmony - in under 10 minutes. (Podcast Download)

MikeC wrote us regarding a funny commercial he saw on TV — think “Sunday, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!” — regarding DR’s new wood splitter.  Though they do have a reputation for somewhat a somewhat excessive TV sales pitch, they also make some pretty nice gear, including the wood splitter.

Their electric splitter — most are gas powered — handles logs up to 16″ thick via a motor-powered hydraulic ram that drives the wood against a fixed wedge.  (The site has a great animated graphic to explain it, assuming you haven’t seen a splitter in operation already.

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Roscoe writes: “This lightweight scaffolding folds up flat and is light enough for one man to carry.  We just bought one and already wish we had two.  It’s perfect for work at ceiling height.  Perhaps it’s best feature is how light it is – not much heavier than a fiberglass ladder.”

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Everything from trash bags to drill bits flex these days.  While drooling on some tool catalogs recently, we came across this flex-head adjustable wrench and thought, “Why not?” All the other hand tools out now flex — why not a good ‘ole fashioned adjustable?

Really the only thing that makes a “flex” head tool different from anything else is the hinge on the neck that allows whatever head is on the other end to pivot.  Sure, an flex adjustable will be a bit hard to keep on the fastener, but it falls into the classic “when you need one, you need one” category as far as we’re concerned.

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(Wednesday, January 31st, 2007) No new Mythbusters? Nothing else new either.

All times are central.

• Ultimate Factories: Harley-Davidson (National Geographic, 5:00 p.m.)
• Ultimate Factories: Budweiser (National Geographic, 6:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Cell Phones on Planes (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: Killer Whirlpool (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• Unique Whips: Southern Dis-Comfort (Speed, 9:00 p.m.)
• Junk Brothers: The TV and the Couch (HGTV, 10:00 p.m.)
• MythBusters: More Myths Revisited (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Unique Whips: Yankee/Envy (Speed, 10:00 p.m.)
• I Love Toy Trains (RFD-TV, 11:30 p.m.)

Enjoy.

If you’re not lucky enough to have a football-stadium-sized shop, then you know — as we do — what it’s like to contend with having more tools than you have space.  In a perfect world you’d havea a place for everything with workflow taken successfully into account, but in reality you’re probably going to have to put things away to use others — even large (and normally stationary) power tools. 

Manufacturers, of course, expect you to leave them put, so they don’t include wheels.  Thankfully, you can add them yourself.

Shop Fox adjustable mobile bases are designed to give users a stable platform upon which to mount machinery and equipment.  They’re adjustable to a variety of base sizes and tool weights.

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We’ve written about Crescent’s RapidRrench before, but we’d like to know what you think about it.  Cooper Tools claims this’ll “accommodate up to 38 different bolt/nut sizes,” but will it round ‘em off?

More to the point, even if you wouldn’t give up correctly-sized wrenches, would this make sense in a situation where you’d sacrifice the perfect tool for an OK tool that’s smaller (and cheaper), like maybe homeowner’s toolkit?  Or a car emergency kit?

And most significantly — do any of you own one of these?

Let us know in comments.

It may seem a bit lot trivial, but the first thing most people gripe about after getting their finely tuned ride back after from trip to the local wrench jockey (read: you) is that they have to re-program the radio.  Be calm.  The first thing you need to do is refrain from choking them on the spot.  The next thing you need to do is find a code maintainer that will skirt the whole issue next time. 

A code maintainer keeps all the user programmed selections in stasis while the battery is disconnected — which happens quite a bit around the Toolmonger shop.  The procedure isn’t difficult.  Just connect battery clips to a 12 volt battery and plug the cigarette plug into the vehicles cigarette socket before you disconnect the battery in the vehicle.

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We’re putting together some upcoming groups of test tools, and we’d like your input.  Last year we saw the widespread acceptance of lithium-ion as well as some crazy new hand tool designs.  What’s on the docket for 2007 in your opinion?

More specifically, we know that a lot of your are pros in one or more tool-related fields.  What do you imagine will be the next big thing in your field this year?

We’ve got some of our own ideas, but we can’t wait to hear yours.

Porter-Cable’s dropping news today about this oil-free pancake-style air compressor — complete with 13-piece hose and accessory kit — that’s supposed to hit shelves in a few weeks.  Operating at 150 psi, it’ll cram a good bit of air in that small tank, and its low-amp-draw motor should go easy on your long extension cord.

The accessory kit includes a 1/4″ air hose with quick-connect coupler, a tire gauge, a tire chuck, a blow gun, and a 5-piece OSHA safety nozzle with inflator adapters.  The whole thing weighs 34 lbs., which should be pretty easy to carry.

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Face it: Sometimes when you’re working on your car you need someone else to sit in the seat and push a pedal or hold the wheel straight.  And sometimes you need your getaway car to drive off the cliff — without you in it.

It’s usually at this point that you go and find someone else from your family — personal or crime – who’s, um, less than fully interested in the task at hand and waylay them into doing the job. 

Why not just save yourself the whole hassle and pick up a steering wheel holder and pedal depressor kit?  And even if you have ample help around the shop, it’s pretty much impossible to do your own alignments without one.

As the clever naming might suggest, the kit consists of a steering wheel holder to hold the steering wheel for toe-in/toe-out work and centering the steering wheel , and a pedal depressor for use in tune-ups, brake jobs, clutch work, engine diagnosis, setting RPM speed, air conditioning work, and cylinder balance tests.

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This photo is just one of half a dozen or so on the linked site showing some of the incredibly stupid and crazy crap people do with ladders.  Some of my favorites — other than this one, of course — are using power tools on a ladder in the middle of a swimming pool and building your own 60′ high ladder out of scrap lumber to change a street lamp bulb.

Check it out.  Then remember it the next time you think, “I could just reach it if…”

Safety Above Everything Else [Knuttz.net, Warning: This page is SFW, but the site isn't always]

Phillip writes: “This is a really cool ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ tool.  It’s available from Summit Racing.  Looks like it would be useful for many applications besides racing.”

These are used most often by drag racers, who manipulate tire pressure in miniscule amounts to control traction.  Of course, since they don’t turn — at least not on purpose – they definitely want both tires with equal pressure.  These are used by road racers from time to time as well, but not by circle track guys.

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Mark writes: “This is a credit-card-sized tool that fits in your shirt/coat pocket or in your wallet.  I’m a police officer and I own two.  I keep one in my shirt pocket while working, and I also have one in my glove box.  During a camping trip last summer, I used it constantly – especially the bottle opener and mini light.  It’s a great value for the price.”

One caveat: Don’t forget and leave it in your wallet when you go to the airport.

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(Tuesday, January 30th, 2007) Tonight we’ve got a full night of TV – some new, some old.

All times are central.

• Machinery of the Past (RFD-TV, 5:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 7 (Discovery, 7:00 p.m.)
• Motorcycle Mania (TLC, 7:00 p.m.)
• How It’s Made: Episode 8 (Discovery, 7:30 p.m.)
• V-Twin TV: Covington & Sons (Speed, 8:00 p.m.)
• Overhaulin’: Motley Cruiser (TLC, 8:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Well Digger (Discovery, 9:00 p.m.)
• American Chopper: Senior vs. Junior 2 (TLC, 9:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: Gore - Tex (Travel, 9:00 p.m.)
• John Ratzenberger’s Made in America: E-One Firetrucks (Travel, 9:30 p.m.)
• Unique Whips: TKO (Speed, 10:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Alpaca Shearer (Discovery, 10:00 p.m.)
• Dirty Jobs: Worm Dung Farmer (Discovery, 11:00 p.m.)

Enjoy.