If you’re looking for a camp shovel, rather than buying the folding variety, check out this Special Forces Shovel from Cold Steel. Sure, you can use it to dig, but you can also use it as a hatchet, an axe, a cleaver, a machete, a hammer, a paddle, and if you get bored you can throw it!

Modeled after the Soviet Spetznaz shovel, Cold Steel forges the head and socket from medium carbon steel, then heat treats it to make it stronger. They sharpen the edges so it can be used as an axe, but if you want to use it as a cleaver, you’ll have to hone it yourself. The handle is made from hardwood.

An optional cordura sheath protects the shovel head when not in use, and it has a loop to carry the shovel on your belt. Pricing for the shovel start at $15, and you can find the sheath for as little as $4.

Special Forces Shovel [Cold Steel]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

J.W. Done makes an interesting tool for deburring internal cross holes: the Orbitool. As you may know, when two holes are drilled into one another there’s usually a nasty burr that can be very hard to remove. The common solution is steel or abrasive brushes; however, those can negatively affect bore finish and diameter.

The tool is a half round bur with the largest diameter at the end of the tool and a polished collar around the periphery. In use it’s inserted into the hole and pressed against the wall of the hole. When it reaches the cross hole the machine revolves the tool (or the part is revolved around the tool) filing away the burr at the intersection of the holes. They show both manual and automatic usage in their YouTube videos. They also offer carbide and abrasive-headed tools that operate on the same principle. There’s a detailed test report (.pdf) that shows the results obtained in a range tests.

Has anyone out there had the opportunity to use this tool? Looks like a great way to deal with a common problem in all sorts of manufacturing and hobby metalwork.

Orbitool [J.W. Done]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

If you need to take some quick tree core samples to determine the rate of growth last year, one tool you could use is this Swedish-made increment hammer from Haglof. To take a sample, all you do is strike the tree perpendicular to the trunk and and pull the hammer out. You then eject the core with the steel plunger.

Made from high-quality hardened Swedish steel, the 11-1/2″ hammer takes a 0.157″ (4mm) diameter by 3/4″ long sample from either hard or soft wood trees. A 2″ graduated scale on the shaft of the hammer is graduated in increments in 1/20″ or in millimeters for taking a quick reading in the field.

With an investment of $80 you can start taking some core samples. The ejector and the hollowed tip are replaceable if you damage them and cost $18 and $20 respectively.

Increment Hammer [Haglof]
Increment Hammer [EJ Motiwalla]
Increment Hammer [BenMeadows.com]

We’re hard-pressed to see why anybody would pay $75 for the Professional Bigslider Utility Mover.  It seems to be a beefed-up version of those roll-up slides that you hated when you were a kid.  In the interest of fairness we’ll give you the spiel before we ask your opinion.

You place the Bigslider underneath heavy objects up to 500lbs to slide them around on just about any surface including grass, concrete, carpet, and tile. The 2′ x 5′ x 1/16″ thick flexible plastic sheet weighs 3 pounds.  You can also roll the Bigslider into a cylinder and insert it into your trash bags to keep ‘em open while filling them.

Brush off and clean the Bigslider with water and mild soap as needed.  Obviously the Bigslider is easy to store — you can hang it, put it on a shelf, or place it behind the bench like you’d store that giant piece of cardboard you put under the car when changing the oil — but just don’t store it in direct sunlight.

So would you pay $75 for this product if you needed to slide around some heavy objects, or would you pass?  Is the Bigslider Hot or Not?  Let us know in the comments.

Professional Bigslider [Official Site]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

I hate running around and trying to find tools when I’m working on a project, so whenever possible I like a tool that can combine the functionality of two tools into one — like the Sod Buster here.  It combines a small sledge and a cutting edge.  It could help out if you’re doing concrete forms around roots, for instance, where you could be pounding stakes and cutting roots all at the same time.

I’m not quite sure who makes it, but I found this one with a heavy-duty fiberglass handle online for $20.

Sod Buster Tool [Buckeye Trap]

Rob Todd must have gotten a little frustrated working in his garden and not having both spade and fork available at the same time. So he went into his shop and Frankensteined up this combo between a fork and a spade.

According to Todd’s site, the Spork performs many of the tasks that a spade and a fork can, along with some things a shovel can do, including “digging, cutting roots, forking up weeds, surface skimming, cutting turf, and breaking down the soil surface into a seed bed.”  The Spork comes in a mini version and in other varieties as well.

It looks like the site is based in England, so a D-handled Spork will run you 60 GBP or $84.

D-Handled Spork [Manufacturer's Site]

]]> http://www-test.toolmonger.com/2009/03/19/the-spork-and-not-the-kind-you-eat-with/feed/ 3 http://www-test.toolmonger.com/2009/03/13/tool-pr0n-planing-form-depth-gauge/ http://www-test.toolmonger.com/2009/03/13/tool-pr0n-planing-form-depth-gauge/#comments Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:04:06 +0000 Jordan Ross http://toolmonger.com/?p=21510

4Dorks on Flickr posted this awesome (strobist) shot of his custom-built depth gauge, which he uses in conjunction with some of his other custom tools to build split-cane bamboo fly rods. For those of you who build fly rods, this tool helps set the v-gap in the planing forms.

Planing Form Depth Gauge [Flickr]

The thing about the world’s largest anything is that there can only be one.  Each of these things is in a class all by itself, and we tend to give them a healthy respect — especially when, as is the case with the Creusot steam hammer, it can flatten us like a pancake.

This huge-ass steam hammer was built in 1877 by Schneider and Co. in the French town of Le Creusot. Its big selling point was the unholy ability to deliver a blow with up to 100 tons of force. We’re guessing it made a little noise, too.

The funny part is that the forge work it was responsible for is now done in a different manner — so a steam-powered machine that was built over a hundred years ago is still king of all hammers.

World’s Largest Hammer [New York Times]

If you’re a pyro at heart, Flame Engineering’s Weed Dragon should get you fired up.  Fed by a standard 20-pound propane cylinder, the Weed Dragon blasts out a roaring 100,000 BTUs — with that kind of heat you can kill weeds, melt ice, thaw pipes, sterilize animal pens, or remove paint.

You can drag the propane tank behind you, carry it in a backpack, or lighten the load with the help of a hand cart.  Flame Engineering offers twelve different models or kits that include the previously mentioned carrying accessories and different heads and trigger assemblies.

The Weed Dragon starts at about $50 — seeing how much I spent on chemicals for my fence line last year, this might be a better option.

Weed Dragon [Flame Engineering]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Before you jam a potato into that broken bulb, take a look at the Bulb Base-Out tool — you insert it in the broken bulb base, twist the base of the tool, and then twist the bulb out.  I never had any luck with that old potato anyways.

The Bulb Base-Out’s magic is in the fingers at the end — they expand when you twist the base so they can grab the inside of the broken light bulb. Strategic Insight makes the tool from non-conductive plastic so the danger from shock is minimized.

You can get the Bulb Base-Out directly from Strategic Insight for $5 — any tool at this price is worth giving a shot.

Bulb Base-Out [Strategic Insight]

Snow and ice dams can cause major headaches for homeowners. At least once every winter the news will show someone on their roof with a snowblower — neither Toolmonger nor the manufacturers recommend this.  Instead, you can clear that snow off your roof simply and safely with the Avalanche series of snow removal tools.

Avalanche offers snow removal tools in two varieties.  The “Original” and the “Drift Buster” work by pushing the tools from the bottom of the roof — the tool cuts the bottom layer of the snow, and then the snow slides down a plastic slide off of your roof. The two “SnowRake” versions work by pulling the snow. Most models feature rollers to protect your roof.

Street pricing starts at $40 and goes up to $130.

Avalanche! [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

This looks like a unicycle gone bad, but it’s actually a snow-shoveling innovation called the Wovel. The Wovel simplifies your snow-removal tasks by harnessing the powers of the lever and wheel.  It’ll also help save your back since the Wovel primarily uses your arms and legs to move the snow.

With the large handle you can push the machine with both hands, and you can adjust the handle’s height and length to suit different users’ heights.  The large wheel absorbs most bumps along your way, and then a quick downward push will flick the snow off the shovel’s wide blade. To store the Wovel you can remove the front wheel and fold it into a compact package.

You can add a chipper blade to break ice, wheels for gravel driveways, and replacement wear strips.

The Wovel sells for about $115.

Wovel [Corporate Site]
Street Pricing [Google]
Via Amazon [What’s This?]

Incorrect torque on a small screw may not lead to a life-ending event on the highway, but on precision machines and carefully calibrated devices, small screws require careful handling.  If you don’t care to keep up with the digital age, an “old-fashioned” torque driver will do — but if you’re interested in the tools of the new millennium, check out this digital torque driver.

PB Swiss makes this digital torque driver in three ranges, starting at .89 inch pounds and ranging up to 3.69 foot pounds (10 cNm – 5 Nm).  It accepts PB Swiss’s interchangeable blades, and the magnetic adapter looks like it’ll also accept standard hex bits.  You’ll pay to keep up with the digital age, though — each of the three differently ranged handles runs $174.

Digital Torque Driver [PB Tools]

Randomly searching the web, we found this patent for a combined hammer and wrench from 1902.  What’s interesting about this particular design:  The claw of the hammer doubles as the fixed jaw of the adjustable wrench.  The inventor wanted a functional hammer — not just some tool with a flat striking surface, like many multi-tools that have come and gone.

Charles J. Maggard designed the wrench so it didn’t interfere with the hammer function, yet he also made the sliding jaw to be completely removable if you found it did interfere.  Though there’s little information about the intended use of the wrench, he mentions that a variation on the design could feature teeth for fitting pipes.

We’re not sure if this tool was ever manufactured, or if it was just somebody’s million-dollar idea that never reached fruition, but it’s another fine example of American ingenuity.  For some more interesting wrenches that actually were produced, click the Meeker’s antique wrench archive link at the bottom of the post.

Combined Hammer And Wrench [Google Patent Search]
Antique Wrenches [Meeker's Patented Antiques]

How would you choose to finish a giant slab of concrete — by hand with conventional tools, or with Bartell Morrison’s ride-on power trowel?  I think if you visit Toolmonger on a regular basis, you know which method we’d pick.

You pilot the ride-on trowels with a twin-stick, multi-directional steering system that lets you maneuver the machine precisely where you need it.  Power trowels come standard with heavy-duty gearboxes, precision-machined spider plates, U-joint couplings, adjustable operators seat, and lights.

Bartell Morrison sells eight models of ride-on power trowels that vary in path width from 65″ to 97″.  Some models feature overlapping trowels while others come with non-overlapping trowels.   You’d use an overlapping machine for finishing and a non-overlapping machine for floating or panning.

From what we can find, prices run from $8,000 to $16,000 depending on the model you choose.

Ride-On Power Trowel [Bartell Morrison]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

IDL Tools might save you a little space — they’ve fit three levels into the space of one. This tool also offers the advantage that when you pick it up, you already have three levels in your hand, and you most likely won’t have to reach for another. (Can you think of a project that needs four levels at the same time?) That “not having to reach” is a great feature.

Good idea, but how’s the execution? Well, each of the levels contains three vials which function independently. The 24″ and 10″ levels are magnetic, and the 48″ level/frame features a V-shaped base which, along with the rubberized end caps, should help with balancing the thing on pipes — you know you do it, too!

I’d love to get my hands on one to test it out, even though the drop testing would take 300 stair steps and probably some “assembled” drops as well. If the quality holds up, this one could be a real winner!

Street pricing only came up at Sears — it looks like the $45 that IDL sells it for might be solid.

Modular 3-in-1 Level [IDL Tools]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

Mike, a Toolmonger reader, wrote us about a tool he saw in a YouTube video (see the screen capture above). He says:

“I’ve been looking at some bicycle repair videos on YouTube and found one where this fella has this outstanding little wrench. It looks like it has two dice-shaped ends with multiple wrench sizes. I’ve looked all over online and couldn’t find one though.”

I managed to find the tool through some creative Internet mumbo-jumbo searching (read: sifting through a bunch of Google Images) and it appears that the little multi-spanner/wrench is called a Tool Bone Bicycle Wrench, at least by some. Even with this name, though, I’m only getting a few hits in searches. The good news: It appears for $3 on Amazon.

Do any Toolmongers out there know a more common name for this tool? Let us know in comments.

Folding Bicycle [YouTube]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

You start digging a hole with a post hole digger but you run into something the digger just can’t hold onto, like mud or water.  Now you’re stuck, unless you pick up a tool like one of these Eastern or Western spoon shovels from Oshkosh Tools.

Oshkosh designed the Eastern-pattern spoon shovels for lighter sandier soils and the Western-pattern spoon shovels for harder, more clay-laden soils, but the high-carbon steel blades both feature scoop shapes. For easily measuring hole depth, they also mark the handles every foot.

Available with 7′, 8′, 9′, 10′, and 12′ handles made from ash or maple, if you can find one it’s going to cost you $90 to $150.

Spoon Shovels [Oshkosh Tools]
Spoon Shovels [Aerial Service Company]

Positioning tools at the right angle to sharpen them drives me crazy. I can’t stand messing with a block to hold the tool at an angle, but I know that the right angle can really affect the quality of work that I get out of my tools.  Luckily, the Sharpening Box makes it easy. Just set the angle you need, clamp in your tool, and hone away with a flat motion.

Since the box provides a flat surface, you don’t need a humongous stone to slide your knife across.  Gary Blum demonstrates the technique in this video on his site.

The only problem: The Sharpening Box runs $150.

Sharpening Box [Blum Tools]

Here’s a laser product I can really get behind — with this Carter laser you can retrofit your favorite tool! You control the precision, direction, position, mount style, and everything else, even the color. This sure beats buying a tool with a laser and finding out that the laser is crooked or off by 1/8″ — or that the stock laser line would be a lot more helpful if it extended just two more inches.

Unfortunately, I only see red and green lasers. Carter Products offers several options, from battery-powered all the way up to 24V models that wire directly into your tool — finally, a laser on my vacuum!

Laser Alignment Systems [Carter Products]

We dig multi-talented tools whose one function can be applied in many ways. Polyacrylamide crystals can “only” absorb 400 times their weight in water, but keeping your lawn wet is just one way they can make your life better. Here’s another great application: Sew a handful of the crystals into a scarf, soak it, and let the evaporation keep you cool.

Even under less-than-ideal conditions — say the crystals only absorb ten times their weight — an ounce of the crystals would absorb ten ounces of water, for a fair amount of cooling evaporation. Kafka Design makes Kool Ties in a huge variety of patterns, for $10 apiece.  A “disposable” version runs $3 — for nasty-dirty environments?

Kool Ties [Kafka Design]
Street Pricing [Google Products]

DIY mechanics dread hearing that mysterious beep, whine, grind, ping, or squeal. Over a year ago we posted about how a simple stethoscope has saved us hours of time and significant cash outlay in the Toolmonger shop. Performance Tool (a subsidiary of Wilmar) makes an automotive stethoscope with a long probe on it, a style that reader Trevor D recommended as being far preferable to the doctors’ kind.

It could save your day by identifying just which part is making that sound you can’t quite remember being there before. Street pricing is about $9.

Automotive Stethoscope [CarParts.com]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Via Amazon [What’s This?] [What's This?]

The Archimedes drill predates the Yankee screwdriver by a few hundred years, but it works much the same way. When you drive the handle down in a linear motion, the small chuck at the right end of the threads spins the drill.

I found the picture above on an antique site — this particular Archimedes drill was designed for jewelers, to drill tiny holes in soft metal. I’m sure the torque is nothing to speak of, and the RPM is somewhere just above a plain old screwdriver, but this actually makes it perfect for a few applications.

The drill below, sold by Garrett Wade, accepts bits smaller than 1/16″. Though tiny bits are easy to break, with a drill like this you’ve got way more control and will probably see the flex in the bit before you break it.

The fact that you can buy this tool new makes the antique even cooler — because somebody is still using these.

Antique Jeweler’s Drill [Go Antiques]
Archimedes Screw Drills [Garrett Wade]

As things get smaller, computers, hearing aids, heart valves, and the like all need smaller parts to function — and when the screws for these products get too small to handle, you need a smaller tool! Asta Gegeckaite and a team of researchers at the Technical University of Denmark have solved at least part of the assembly nightmare created by the miniaturization trend. They created a special gripper/automatic screwdriver to assemble these tiny parts.

The article brings up some interesting points in micro-tool design, points that were even more interesting after I looked them up to find out what the heck they meant. This sentence, for instance, definitely benefited from a dictionary: “These parts are so small that gravity becomes less dominant than other forces, such as van der Waals forces, surface tension, and electrostatic energy.”

To understand the problem these people deal with, just imagine if that magnetic charge on your screwdriver picked up ALL the screws.

Quote and Photo [Assembly Magazine]

Before “cordless power tools” we just burned gasoline to get the job done, and gas is still the easiest power source for remote locations where you need to draw heavy power.  For instance, a big, gas-powered wet/dry vacuum can prove indispensable for lots of applications, like prospecting, archaeology, and prairie dog eviction — but I couldn’t find a gas-powered vacuum easily! However, I did find this DIY plan for one.

You start with a gas blower and a five-gallon bucket, and you end up with a big vacuum that recharges at the pump. With gas prices going up you might prefer a cheaper alternative — but if you really need the right tool for the job there may not be a substitute.

GasVac [Minin' Gold]
Giant Sucking Sound [CNN]