AltusLumen PAD-L Flashlight - Review

The AltusLumen PAD-L Flashlight is one that is built with the company's ecologically-friendly mission fully in mind. AltusLumen states that it is the first "sustainable portable LED," that "the main housing is made of recycled and recyclable aluminum and polycarbonate," and finally that the light "is over 75% recyclable at the end of its useful life." This is all fine and good, but if the flashlight doesn't work that well, we're not really going to need to know what parts of it we can recycle, because we simply won't be buying the thing in the first place. That said, when we tested out the AltusLumen it was to see just that: is this a light worth buying? Does it work? Is there anything that sets it above the thousands of other flashlights on the market?

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Yaeger Aftermarket Blades for the Fein MultiMaster - Review

UPDATE: Yaeger Blades is now Liberate Blades. More info here.

The Achilles heel of the Fein MultiMaster (our review here) is, without question, price. The full set-up of the tool, a handful of blades, and the dust collection system is going to run you close to $400. Although the MultiMaster is one of our favorite tools and we think that the cost is worth it, given what the tool is capable of, we're bargain hunters just like anyone else. Which is where the Yaeger Aftermarket Blades come in.

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Fine Woodworking - April 2009

Way back when we started the site, we used to review all of the woodworking/construction magazines we got. It was sort of a tedious affair and after we solicited your opinion on the matter, we discovered that you enjoyed reading them about as much as we enjoyed writing them. But still, when we get something we're impressed with, we like to let you know about it. And this month's Fine Woodworking is just such an issue.

A lot of the content of Fine Woodworking lands way above our heads. We don't have the time to spend a day tuning up a block plane or the patience to make a massive table saw jig for just one cut (for a piece of furniture that we don't have the skill to make). But this latest issue, while filled with a lot of expert-level ideas and procedures, also has a number of great articles for anyone interested in tinkering around in the garage or basement shop.

The issue includes...

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Roofing Protractor - Review

Roof framing is tough. Building anything beyond even the most basic of shed roofs can get very complicated very fast. There are quite a few measuring tools available to help out the roofer. The newest of which comes out of Australia and is the invention of a fellow named Derek Pater. It is called the Roofing Protractor and Pater was kind enough to send us one, all the way from another continent, so we could take a look at it.

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Expedition Tools HK1 Hydrokinetic Wrench - Review

The HK1 Hydrokinetic Wrench is one of the more innovative items we've come across in quite a while. It's one of those tools where it seems like the manufacturer rethought the whole concept from the ground up. In it's most simple terms, the HK1 is an adjustable box-end wrench. But when you think through the idea a bit deeper, this little guy is capable of replacing a good chunk of your metric wrench set (7 to 19mm) as well as your SAE set (1/4 to 3/4").

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Bosch Edge Reciprocating Saw Blade - Review

We think of recip saw blades the same way we think about tissues; one, two, if you're lucky three uses and it's in the trash. Or rather, they should be in the trash, but if you're like us, you've got a tool case filled with bent, toothless, stripped-out blades that you're convinced you can get just one more go out of (note: tissues, we throw out; recip saw blades, we tend to keep around).

Bosch has recently released a new blade called the Edge, specifically made for heavy metal cutting. According to the company, the Edge's teeth stay sharper longer, the blade is more resistant to heat, it cuts 20% faster, and it has a thicker body to make straighter cuts. We got a sample of the toughest of the three different Edge blades and were happy to put it to the test against its competitors.

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Spout Popper - Review

It's our policy to review everything that gets sent our way; big, small, new, old, normal, or strange, it doesn't matter. Once we get an item, we test it out and try to have something posted up about it within a couple weeks depending on the complexity of the item. We're pretty consistent on this, but every once in a while something slips through the cracks and, thus far, the most egregious of these 'slippings' has been the Spout Popper. We got the Spout Popper over a year ago and since then, we've tested it out plenty, but for some reason, we never gave it an official review (although we did a posting on it before it arrived, here). Well we're happy to say to all you caulking tube fanatics out there, that we've finally gotten around to it and here, with no more delay, is a review of the famed Spout Popper....

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Craftsman NexTec Auto-Hammer - Review

This little fella hit the stores just before the holidays as part of Craftsman new NexTec line ("next technology?"). We got our hands on one a few weeks ago and have been testing it in a variety of situations and here's what we thought...

If we had to classify the Auto Hammer, we'd say that it's a battery-powered palm nailer. The functionality is the same; the piston within the sleeve that pounds the nail with a series of hits, in this case, up to 3600 impacts per minute, which is actually more than most, if not all, palm nailers. The Auto Hammer also has a magnetic head that can hold any nail up to 7/16" wide. There's also a little LED that lights up the work piece. The tools in the NexTec line are all powered by a little 12-volt li-ion battery. Now, on to how the tool actually performed...

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Gorilla Super Glue - Review

We have this great old ceramic Buddha that belonged to our grandfather. It sits on the bookshelf by the tv. Or, rather, it did until Marlowe decided it would look better on the floor in about 12 pieces. We were pretty bummed about the event, and decided that we should at least try to fix it. We had heard that Gorilla had added a super glue to their line of amazing adhesive products, so we got our hands on a tube of it and tried our best to repair the big old Buddha.

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Rockwell Jawhorse - Review

Man's two most ancient needs are the need for shelter and the need for food. It's a little known fact that the third item on the list is the need to crush things; whether it be an ant, a beer can, or the annoying kid who lives next door. Anyway, this is where the Rockwell Jawhorse comes in, and why it is an essential tool for every single person on the planet. But the fun doesn't stop with crushing things, in fact, the Jawhorse is about as multi-purpose as a tool gets.

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