For such an ingenious tool, the Nail Kicker is based on a very simple concept. What if you could use a nail gun instead of a hammer to pound a nail back through a board? All you would need is a nailer without a magazine, right? That's the idea behind the Nail Kicker.
The largest, most powerful routers you can buy are in the 3- to 3-1/4-hp class. If the motors were any larger, you couldn't run them on standard residential circuits. The most versatile of these machines are plunge routers. Their ability to plunge a bit into wood while the tool's base stays safely...
I remember riding some pretty wild ups and downs during my 20-plus years of building, though nothing like we're seeing now. Each time things got tight I learned more about survival, which made my business stronger when the economy turned around.
The NailOut is an air-powered cat's-paw designed to work just like a manual cat's-paw but without the hammer swing. Essentially, this tool is an adaptation of a pneumatic tool called a scaler that's used in the metal fabrication industry. A scaler's simple reciprocating action–or stroke–is similar...
Tile contractors spend a lot of time standing over a 5-gallon bucket mixing various setting materials, and most just use a 1/2-inch drill for the job. That's not an ideal approach, because the tool isn't purpose-built for the application. Always on the lookout for something better, we found the...
If you look beyond Randall Coe's titles at Bosch, first as director of product development and now as vice president of marketing, you'll find a complex, energetic ToolHound. Coe's leadership and rebellious streak have produced paradigm-shifting tools–stuff you use every day–and a business culture...
No one in our industry has been immune to the deep economic downturn, including tool and accessory manufacturers. They're being forced to make the same tough business decisions as the rest of us. But judging from the steady stream of innovative products that continues to flow from their development...
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Spring 2009 Focus: Work Gear
Universal Workbench / Scraper Accessory
With home building at a near standstill and the government promising financial stimulus for energy-producing and conservation initiatives, a number of industry, private, and government cooperative programs have emerged to help builders and tradespeople get back to work.
Tools of the Trade magazine presented its first Lifetime Achievement Award to living legend Marshall Burns at the JLC Live Show in Providence, R.I., in March. Burns started working with his father in 1937 making saw blades, often traveling to remote sawmills in the Maine woods to set up the...
The Walko Workbench is a smartly engineered portable workstation invented and sold in Europe and now available here.
The Spyder Scraper from Simple Man Products is about as basic as a tool gets.
This is the first time we've given an Editors' Choice Award to an industry association.
Subcompact cordless tools are a fast-growing trend and no brand has taken them further than Milwaukee's M12 line.
For years woodworkers everywhere have looked to the Delta Unisaw as the standard-bearer for stationary table saws, with good reason.
This ingenious tool may not replace your utility knife, but if you work with drywall it should become part of your arsenal, especially for radius cuts.
Free-thinking Festool sets out to build new tools independent of the conventions of particular product categories, and the Kapex miter saw is no exception.