3M TEKK Painter's Gloves - Review

Our go-to on painting gloves are those latex ones that you can get in a box of 100. They're great as far as keeping your hands clean, but it's pretty wasteful to be constantly throwing them away (once they come off the hands, they ain't going back on). Recently, we were staring down the barrel of a complex staining/dyeing/shellacking/poly-ing process and we wanted to use a glove that would be a little more durable in the long run. Then we remembered that a couple months ago 3M sent us a pair of their TEKK painter gloves. So we gave them a shot. Here's what we thought....

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Wagner EZ Tilt

Small paint sprayers definitely have their place (particularly picket fences and railing systems), but they do have technological drawbacks; one of the biggest being the inability to point one up or down.

Looks like Wagner has thought this problem through and the result in their EZ Tilt sprayer. Basically the straw that sits in the paint (and moves it through the sprayer) is flexible enough to follow gravity as the sprayer is moved around, meaning you can now spray up and down and not worry about the spray putterring out.

There are three models available, each with more features. The smallest of the these is going to cost about $100 and is at Home Depot.

We reviewed some other small Wagner sprayers here if you're interested.

More information at wagnereztilt.com

Festool Rotex RO 90 DX - Review

Festool has just released the RO 90 DX Rotex Sander, a tool capable of sanding, grinding, polishing, and dealing with inside corners. It's a crazy tool and we were just entering the sanding phase of a large shelving project when Festool sent one our way to test out.

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Porter-Cable PC1500HG Heat Gun - Review

A heat gun is one of those tools that you're probably not going to carry around with you in your truck, but when you need one, man o man are they ever handy. Recently, Porter-Cable sent us their new model to test out and review. We only used it a few times in the fall, but now that it's winter we're finding all kinds of things to do with it. We also did a few head to head lab tests against our old Kawasaki heat gun (reviewed here). Read on to see what we thought...

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Green Toad Pivoting Paint Brush

Redesigning the paint brush is an ambitious project. It's sort of like coming up with a new design for the steering wheel. When the original look is so ingrained in the way we do things, how do you present a new idea and not come off looking like a crazy person screaming at the sun? Green Toad's advantage is that holding a paintbrush for more than an hour usually involves muscle cramping and an unnatural-looking frozen hook hand.

The system is based around a pistol grip handle. Add to that a variety of different brush sizes or roller heads that fit the handle with a rotating stem piece and you've got the gist of the whole thing.

What do we think? Well, we're not sure. It actually looks to us like it would be pretty awkward to use, or it would at the very least take some serious 'gettin' used to.' Availability could be an issue as well. Even though we try our best to preserve our paintbrushes, sometimes it gets so late and we get so lazy that we end up just throwing them out. Our guess is that we wouldn't be able to hop out to the local hardware store to pick up another Green Toad brush.

Getting going with the Green Toad System is going to cost anywhere from $5 to $40 depending on how many brush/roller heads you want.

At Green Toad

Win a $15,000 Room Makeover from ScotchBlue

ScotchBlue has teamed up with DIY Network's Sweat Equity on a new promotion. Much like the Sears Ugliest Room contest, they are asking for photos and videos of a room in your house that needs a facelift.

We were stunned and outraged with the winners of the Sears contest and we truly hope that ScotchBlue is a better judge of what really constitutes an ugly room than the judges at Sears (follow our indignation here and then here). Our guess is that the rigged voting of the Sears contest (we're conspiracy theorists) won't happen here because this contest is in a whole different league. Not only will the winner get an appearance on Sweat Equity with Amy Matthews (pictured), but they'll also get a $15,000 room makeover. That's a lot of money for one room. We're not talking a few coats of paint here, we're talking demo and rebuild.

To enter or for more information, go to ScotchBlueandyou.com

Press release with more information is after the jump.

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DAP EnergySaver High Performance Air Leak & Gap Sealant - Review

A while back, DAP sent us a tube of their new EnergySaver Air Leak & Gap Sealant. It's been sitting on the desk for a while because, well, who cares about sealing their house in the middle of July? Not us, we've got mowing to do. But the seasons do change and here we are. So last week we cut open the tube, prepped a few window casings, and checked out the label to see if there are any specific instructions that go along with the product. Which is exactly where problems started...

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Hyde 10-in-1 Multi-Tool

We agree with our pal Mark Clement that the 5-in-1 (or 6-in-1) is one of the most useful tools that a guy can own. When we're on a site, ours spends a lot of time in our back pocket and does duty as a scraper, a pry bar, a chisel, a blade, a little hammer, and whatever else we need done. We also like that it looks like a Klingon weapon.

So we just stumbled across the Hyde 10-in-1, which has apparently been out for a couple years, and adds some functionality to the fantastic little tool. The big trick of the new 10-in-1 is that it comes with four screwdriver bits that can click into the rear of the handle. You're probably reading this thinking, 'who cares, I'll just use my regular screwdriver." But to a painter doing prep, this could be a real time saver, especially for removing switch plates and outlet covers.

It looks like there is some kind of on-board bit storage that flips out of the handle. Otherwise it's the same old 5-in-1.

The 10-in-1 costs $6, which is strange because Hyde's 6-in-1 goes for $8-$10. Huh?

At Amazon.com

SallyeAnder Hogwash! Soap - Review

Because there are now so many tool blogs out there, we've decided to shift focus away from tools and towards things like soaps and facial scrubs. The first foray into this territory is SallyeAnder's Hogwash! Soap.

Actually the truth is that we were contacted by SallyeAnder, who thought that their multi-purpose soap would be a good match for all of you, our readers. Being the tool-using types, you're also probably the greasy, grimy, muddy pants types. If you've ever heard, "don't even think that shirt is going in the laundry with my blouse' then we can relate. You probably have a bar of Lava sitting on your basement slop sink.

And that's sort of where Hogwash! fits in. It's basically an all-natural Lava. It's made with an olive oil and soy base and doesn't have any artificial dyes. It has some cornmeal in it which gives it that pumice vibe, good for scrubbing glue off your fingers. It comes in a 6 oz. bar which is basically a 1-1/2" by 2-1/2" by 3" cube.

So on to the whole, 'does it work?' part of the review. Since our samples arrived from SallyeAnder over a month ago, we've been using Hogwash! on a daily basis and its size has hardly diminished at all. In fact the only wear is that the crisp edges of the brick are a little rounded over. This bar of soap is going to be around for a long, long time whether we like it or not.

And thankfully, we like it. We might even name it. It works great on everyday filth and SallyeAnder also claims that it works on grass stains and blood stains. We ended up testing both of these conditions (you'll have to wait until tomorrow's post to find out where the blood came from), and the soap does indeed work. Our stained rag was nice and clean in no time.

If you're concerned with the 'naturalness' of the products that you buy, it appears that all of the soaps that SallyeAnder makes are edible. We cut a small chunk off of our Hogwash! and gave it a go. It tasted terrible and it took about two hours before our mouth returned to normal, but if you're stranded on an island, at least it's something.

We also wanted to mention that SallyeAnder also sells a soap (and lotion) called No-Bite-Me which is a bug repellent in addition to a soap. We tried out a sample of this and it works great. There are also shave soaps and other similar things available. They're neat products with some really great packaging and we're happy that they took the initiative to introduce themselves to us. It's nice knowing that funky little companies like this are out there.

At SallyeAnder

Wagner Power Painter Plus and Wagner Project Sprayer - Review

Wagner SprayTech has recently released a number of hand held paint sprayers and they were nice enough to send two of them our way for review purposes. That was months ago. Since that time, we've used every available excuse to not get around to reviewing the items...but they're going to be really messy....it's going to take a long time to figure out how to use them....there's going to be paint everywhere....it'll take three hours just to clean everything...and so on. About a week ago, we'd had enough procrastinating and carved out an afternoon to investigate the Power Painter Plus and the Project Sprayer. And at this point, we now feel we owe Wagner a huge apology for thinking that their little sprayers were going to be a hassle. They weren't. In fact they're pretty easy to deal with.

Both of the items have the same look and feel. Sort of like a screw gun with a big plastic udder hanging off it. The basics of operating them includes filling up the canister and, after plugging the sprayer in, pulling the trigger. That's really all there is to it. You can toggle between a vertical spray or a horizontal one by moving the nozzle to the appropriate position.

Using the sprayers takes a little getting used to, but not as much as we had thought. We're not used to sprayers, so if you're in the same boat, we suggest getting a sheet of 1/4" ply wood and painting it until you feel confident with the sprayer. After about 20 minutes of this, we got good at laying down a nice, even spray.

Of the two models, the Power Painter Plus is the more feature-laden and thus has more versatility. In addition to the plastic canister, the Power Painter Plus also comes with a hose, which allows you to siphon paint right out of a can. This is good for a few reasons. One, you don't have to worry about continually refilling the canister during larger jobs and two, you're now free to tilt the sprayer up at something. While using the canister, from time to time, we would tilt the gun to paint the underside of something which would cause the paint level to go below the siphon and thus leave the gun literally spitting out paint, which was not good for the paint job. To ensure that this doesn't happen using the hose method, Wagner has supplied a little clip that holds the hose in the paint can, so it stays in place. There is also a backpack assembly, sold separately, so ladder work is possible with a larger volume of paint.

It's worth noting that the Power Painter Plus also comes with a carrying case.

Setting up and using the guns is easy enough, but how about clean-up, the bane of any painting project? It's actually not too bad. The process involves pretty much taking the tool apart and making sure that every little piece gets 100% cleaned. The Power Painter Plus comes with a special canister cover that allows you to place all the small pieces in the canister and then connect a hose up to it in order to cycle water through. We tried it out, but discovered that two 5-gallon buckets were just as good for us. We tested the sprayers out with a latex paint, so clean-up was all done with soap and water. Oil paint, on the other hand, involves thinner which would likely complicate matters to the point where we would probably end up throwing everything away at the end of day one.

So, in the end, are they worth it? Well, it depends on what you're painting and how much patience you have to handle things like the spraying learning curve and the clean-up process. If you're going to be doing some interior walls, you're insane to consider using a sprayer (check out Wagner's TurboRoll instead - our review here). But if you need to deal with things like shutters, lawn furniture, or a picket fence, then definitely consider one of these sprayers.

The Project Sprayer runs for $60 while the Power Painter plus will set you back $85.

Project Sprayer at Amazon.com
Power Painter Plus at Amazon.com

Gator Drywall Sanding Head & Zip Sand Block - Review

Over the years, we've learned that there are a few secrets to making nice drywall joints. The first is to not be shy with the joint compound; for a while we would try to use as little as possible which would leave us with a little ridge along the tape line which would easily telegraph through our usually rushed paint job. Since you want to blend in the joint with the wall, the more width on the compound joint, the better (duh). It also helps if you use a large knife when applying putty so your patch will be as even as possible. Along these lines is the second trick, which is to use a large sanding block. This way, the sanding is also even and smooth (again, duh).

Gator has just released a new Drywall Sanding Head that's great for this application. In addition to being a solid 4" by 10", the Gator sanding head is smaller than the paper that's made for it which softens the edge for sanding, which is nice and leads to a very smooth finish. The sanding head is also available with an adapter for a broom handle so you can hit the ceiling with no problem.

Gator has also released a new sanding block that uses adhered sandpaper as opposed to putting the grit directly into the sponge. This leads to a longer lasting grit and less 'gumming up.' We were skeptical about rinsing out the new sponge, but we did it a number of times and it appeared to have no negative effect on the grit. It's also compatible with the Gator Sponge Holder (our review here). This is all good, but we found one major oversight in the design and that is the lack of a gritty surface on the sides of the sponge. We tend to use sponges to sand all kinds of uneven shapes and usually this includes utilizing the corners, faces, and sides, but here with only the two large sides of the item usable, this is quite a bit more difficult.

The sanding head is available on its own or as a part of a nice looking drywall sanding kit which is at Amazon.com

More information on both items at ZipSander.com

DAP PRO Caulk 4-Piece Caulking Tool Kit - Review

One of the first articles on Tool Snob was about the Caulk Buddy, a little caulking tool that comes with one of the Newborn caulking guns. We liked it because it was something, other than our finger, that could make a nice caulk bead. With this in mind, we were particularly interested in testing out the DAP PRO Caulk Tool Kit (As seen on TV!). What it is is a series of little tools that have different radiuses, ranging from standard to 90 degree to a variety of mm sizes (5 to 16). There's even a little nub on one tool that is meant for grouting tile joints.

To test out these items, we banged together two pieces of 3/4" ply at a 90 degree angle and dropped a ragged bead of caulk along the joint. First, we took the standard corner and ran it down the bead. The results were nice and about what we're used to using the finger and rag method. Although this time, our finger stayed clean and there was no rag needed. We were also once again reminded of how much caulk can be wasted by seeing the amount left on the tool. Then, satisfied that the PRO Caulk tools could at least measure up to the old way of doing things, we pumped out a huge line of caulk in order to test out the larger size beads. This time, the results were something that we wouldn't be able to do with a finger and a rag. We started with the 10mm size and got a perfectly even bead with one quick pass of the tool. We then tested the smaller sizes by running them over the same bead, making it smaller and smaller. All of the other sizes we tested had an equal amount of success. As always, click on the image for a larger pic.

And that's the real glory of these little tools. You can make very consistent beads of 'non-finger' sized caulk joints. Sure, you can make a nice standard bead and it's less messy than using a finger and a rag, but you can also play around with different sizes depending on your aesthetic tastes as well as the functional needs at hand. We think these tools are really successful at what they do.

The kit also comes with a caulk removal tool that has all sorts of edges and angles to get in and under crusty old caulk beads. It would be a good item to have if you're redoing the seal on your kitchen sink or something. There is also a mini-tool with all of the smaller sizes. All of the tools are plastic and thus easy to clean off and DAP guarantees them for five years.

These are good tools to have and perfect for that milk crate in your garage marked, "painting and caulking." As a carpenter, we're going to toss ours in the box of finish tools that we carry around. Not only are they a quick and easy way to make your caulk beads look good but they also give a much wider repertoire of making consistently sized caulk beads. The tools are available with a small tube of caulking and run about $18, which we think is a little on the high side (we were hoping for the $10-$12 range), but they are quite useful.

The kit of tools is available with a small tube of caulking at Amazon.com

Gator Zip Sand-BLOCK

Gator, a company intent on advancing every single aspect of the sanding world, has released yet another grit-tastic innovation (our reviews of the Zip Sander, Micro Zip Sander, and Sanding Sponge Holder). Their new Sand-Block seems to take the best characteristics of sandpaper and sanding sponges and combine them into one single mighty sanding warhorse. Sounds good to us, but from the picture it looks like the edges don't have any grit on them, which is too bad seeing as we use sponge edges to sand little molding profiles and things like that. But still the longevity of sandpaper compared to sanding sponges makes us likely to go out and pick up a few of these.

Click through to read ye old presse release:

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Wagner TurboRoll - Review

The Wagner TurboRoll isn't the first self-feed paint roller, but it's the first (we've seen, at least) that uses the same vacuum system found in a syringe to both store and release paint. It's an interesting idea and one we looked forward to testing out. Is it effective? It is more trouble than it's worth? Is it a gimmick? We gave it a good run it out in order to answer these questions.

The TurboRoll consists of a roller, a little fill port, a long tube which is the stem of the tool, the handle, and the plunger. The handle has a forward and reverse on it which feeds the plunger through the tube forcing paint to the roller. The TurboRoll also has a manual override, so if the automation is for any reason not practical, you can toggle back to 'old school.'

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