Doh! Tie down your load, know the length, know the height! Obviously this story happened in 2006, but breaking S#!$ is cool any time. Check out more photos of this whoopsie on Snopes.com.

While we’re on the subject of bridges, when was the last time you watched a video of the Tacoma Narrows bridge collapse? Structural failures, machinery failures, tool failures — Toolmongers usually arrive on the site before anyone else, either containing or cleaning up the mess.  And sometimes a Toolmonger pulls a Tim “The Toolman” Taylor stunt.

Let us know in comments about the failures and mistakes you’ve seen.

Hoe Down [Snopes]

When I think of tire-inflation testing, my mind boggles with scenes of massive blowouts — breaking S#!$ is so much fun! I’m sure the tire-retreading industry keeps spectacular failures to a minimum, but the shielding on the machine tells me they’re not impossible.

Here you’re looking at the car-tire-inflation tester — the truck-tire version is a bit *heftier*. Despite my love of destruction, I find it reassuring to think that retread tires might actually be tested before they get reused on the highway, driving alongside my car.

Tire-Inflation Tester [Matteuzzi]

When it’s time to remove a bolt or nut like this, you usually start by introducing it to the business end of a recip saw or a wire wheel — and then the real work starts. I’ve heard that the easiest approach is to weld on a nut or sawed-off bolt so that the remaining part of the bolt can be backed out, but I don’t have enough welding experience to know what alloy to use.  According to some welders I’ve talked with, Messer Welding MG 600 will do the trick if the metals involved are steel; it provides the high tensile strength necessary to twist out a bolt that’s rusted stuck.

What would you use? Let us know in comments.

Photo from cheetah100 posted on Flickr.

MG 600 [Messer Welding]
Toolmonger Photo Pool [Flickr]

Strip a screw head or break a bolt, and life gets tougher. If you’re using soft screws in wood, you may need something that looks like an apple corer, but for regular steel screws, these old standby reverse-thread screw removers might just save the day. Although many will swear by these ToolMonger specials, they actually reduce swearing in most cases. So if your dad breaks screws, this might be the Father’s Day tool for him.

Street pricing runs about $15.

X-Out [Alden]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What's This?]

Dasco added this Target Guard to their mason chisel, concrete chisel, and brick set, to keep us from mashing our hands with large hammers.  Now, a professional probably isn’t going to miss the mark unless he’s got  a massive hangover, so I’m guessing they’re marketing this to the DIYers.  Street pricing starts at $10 for the concrete chisel.  It looks like a good idea to me, but it also looks bulky — the space and shape could be awkward.

Does anybody out there use one of these tools all the time? Is this a waste of space or a nice feature? Let us know in comments.

Mason’s Chisel With Target Guard [Lowe's]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

For $15,000, you too can own a bulldozer! Every boy I know dreamed of driving a bulldozer, and although this one isn’t the huge general contractor variety you see at the highway work sites, you might find it handy for back yard applications. You could artfully arrange the dirt in the back yard into tasteful and trendy landscaping piles in the front yard, or knock down the neighbor’s garden gnomes, or even pull stumps on the south forty.

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Have you heard of BlendTec’s (in)famous tests where they blend unusual items to show the strength of their industrial blender’s tines? For shock value, they’ve pureed items like an iPhone, a Guitar Hero controller, a Chuck Norris action figure, and a copy of Halo 3. The idea’s that if the BlendTec can handle this crap, it can certainly churn up a ‘rita or two.

But you’re not chefs. You’re Toolmongers. And no one breaks s#!$ like Toolmongers. So here’s our challenge: If you had a $500 budget, what would you buy/assemble/build to destroy tech items efficiently (and entertainingly) — something that’d make the BlendTec look tame? You know, fill in the blank: “He brought a BlendTec to a (blank) fight.”

Let us know in comments, and just to make it fun, we’ll send a Stanley stud finder to the reader who posts our favorite solution.

PS: Please don’t sue us Mr. Norris. Or BlendTec. Your name and likeness is wholly used here as satire. Really.

Blending S#!$ [BlendTec]