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Toolmonger (4 unread)

WTF Can’t We Have Utes In The U.S.?

Posted: July 29th, 2011, 2:32pm MDT by Chuck Cage

As Sean mentioned last week, with the coming demise of the Ranger, we’re about to be screwed in terms of small trucks in the U.S. He suggested the Mexican-distributed Chevy Tornado as a possible niche-filler, but readers offered an even better idea: Tap the Australian market and give us a “ute.”

About a month ago a friend visited me in Texas from her home in Australia, and about halfway back from the airport her first comment was “Wow, I don’t recognize almost any of these cars.” Throughout the week we discovered that Australian and American culture are pretty close cousins — but the vehicle market is another story altogether. Though Ford and others manufacture vehicles for both countries, their offerings differ dramatically.

Take, for example, the ute. Common in AU, the ute fills much the same role as the Ranger does — did — here in the U.S. Utes are essentially small cars with a truck bed. Think Subaru Brat and you’re in the general vicinity. Toolmonger reader Mark points out one in particular (pictured above), the Falcon Ute Styleside Box.

As you can see in the inset, it’s also available with a rear tray, so it’s clearly a work vehicle, but with a sport compact twist: Under the hood you’ll find a 4.0l six-cylinder with a six-speed manual transmission. Hotchkiss rear suspension keeps it driveable, and those are 16″ steel wheels with 215/60 R16 tyres (gotta stay Aussie with the spelling, right?). Inside you’ll find a whole digital suite of infotainment gear, including an iPod interface and an MP3-capable disc player.

The bad news: While this thing would make a kick-ass tow vehicle for, say, a weekend Formula Ford racer — you’d be king racer geek showing up in this at the crap diner at your fave out-of-the-way SCCA tack — it’s not really what Sean and I are looking for to replace the Ranger. We’d rather leave the six-speeds and high-output sixes to the kids. Why? They’re expensive. The “base model” Falcon Ute checks in at a whopping $30k US (about $28k AUD). Its simple little large-displacement four-banger and decades-old suspension will run you less than half that.

Then again, if sporty is your thing, you could just give in and grab the XR6 Turbo, which adds sweet aluminum wheels, forced induction, leather, and a ZF 6-speed automatic tranny with sequential shift. Boo frakkin’ yah.

Anyway, as cool as this sucker is, we’re still looking. Hopefully you’ll keep sending in the recommendations. Maybe if we hammer away hard enough on this, Detroit will get the idea and offer something going forward that’ll let us get the job done on the cheap.

Falcon Ute [Ford Australia]
Aisle Walk: San Diego Target

Posted: July 29th, 2011, 10:51am MDT by Chuck Cage

You’re a Toolmonger, which means you likely know exactly where to buy the specific tools you desire. But what about all those “norms” out there who don’t? Here’s what I found walking through the “tool aisle” in a random Target in San Diego.

Hand Tools

Much like in Wal-Mart, Stanley Black & Decker pretty much dominates the tool selection. In terms of hand tools, Target selected the basics. They carry Stanley’s Lever Lock tapes in 25′, 15′, and 12′. These tapes stay locked when extended, then retract when you push the lever on the base in order to simplify single-person measurements — exactly the kind of thing you’re likely to do around the house, like measuring furniture or locating a spot to hang a picture. I also saw one standard-style-lock Max tape in 25′, probably targeted at people taking on small home woodworking projects. The cushion-grip screwdrivers look nice for home use as well, with padded grips — a problem if you’re going to really crank down on ‘em, but quite nice when you’re not. Target offered an eight-piece set as well as a single mid-sized standard and Phillips pack.

Though I saw a small Stanley bullet level, Target again went the home route offering the Black & Decker branded Accu-Mark 36″ level. The Accu-Mark incorporates movable “targets” which simplify hanging pictures: Hold the level to the back of your picture first and align the targets to your hangers. Then place the level on the wall — its “gecko grip” pads are supposed to hold it in place without marring the wall — align it to level, and mark your fastener points through the center of the targets. (There’s a “tour” video available on the linked page.)

I also noticed a pretty decent selection of pliers as well, including basic needle-nose, slip joint, locking, miniature, and of course standard. Though Target stocks the gadgety Autowrench and Ready Wrench, I also saw a standard Stanley adjustable, which would probably be a consumer’s best bet for “I just need to unbolt it” situations; to score true wrenches they’d have to buy one of the mechanic’s tool sets or the Black & Decker home project kit [What’s This?].

Tool Kits

Interestingly, Target chose to fill their mechanic’s tool set SKU slots with Durabuilt — a shame since (look for our reviews soon) we’re actually pretty impressed with Stanley’s new super-low-priced mechanic’s kits as found at Wal-Mart. We can certainly see how stores would push Stanley tapes — the product for which Stanley is most famous these days — but if Target’s dealing with SKU limitations, I’d personally rather see cheaper junk tapes and higher quality mechanic’s tools. Assuming one is actually going to do a little car work, I think one would appreciate the quality more in that environment.

One complaint: Enough with the damn pink tools. Other than outside the U.S. in places where pink has other meanings, I haven’t run into anyone, male or female, who wants to buy pink tools. Though I’m sure there are exceptions, most women I’ve met don’t like the pandering feel they get from “for women” tool kits, believing instead that women can use the same tools as men. And though I can’t speak to the specific Apollo set I saw at Target, in many cases these “for women” tools aren’t of the same quality as other sets.

Power Tools

Power tools are all Black & Decker: a 14.4v drill/driver in the project kit, and 9.6v, 14.4v, and 18v drill/drivers sold separately as well as a single corded model (probably the best bet, by the way). You’ll also find B&D’s Handysaw and multiple cordless screwdrivers as well as lots of accessories.

Conclusion

You can peruse the pictures to get an idea of the rest, but my verdict: It’s nothin’ fancy, but you could actually do quite a bit with what you’d find at this particular Target. Sure, I’d probably choose different stuff (at least for some of it) if I indeed had a choice. But if I stumbled in here while visiting a friend and wanted to, say, do some work around the house or fix something simple with the car, I could probably get it done. Pricing doesn’t seem that far out of line with what I found poking around online, either.

Any interesting finds in the aisles of your local shops? Drop us a line either in comments or via our contact form.
M-Power R1 Tape

Posted: July 29th, 2011, 9:58am MDT by Sean O'Hara

We’re always fascinated when we see assumptions about tools being challenged — like tape measure markings. M-power suggests that the current markings on tapes we all use aren’t accurate because you’re most likely right-handed.

90% of the population are right handed yet most are using left-handed tape measures when marking – why? M.POWER’s R1 tape measure is the right way round. Hold it in your left hand and mark the measurement with your right hand, saving time and improving accuracy on the job. Look at any other tape measure and you’ll see what we mean. (the measurements will be printed upside down)

We find this pretty entertaining. Not only have we never had any issue scribing a mark, our tape increment lines on the tapes we use in the shop run the width of the tape itself so there’s no trouble, you know, at all. Also, 50 percent of the people in our shop are left-handed so there’s that.

It’s not a bad idea, but how many folks really need a tape with inverted numbers and markings? Are we off in left field on this one?

R1 Tape [M Power]
Street Pricing [Google Products]
Cutter/Grinder Combo Removes Caulk in One Step

Posted: July 29th, 2011, 9:48am MDT by Chuck Cage

Know how your driveway cracks? That’s why builders add expansion joints to big concrete walls and floors, filling those joints with a flexible caulk that can absorb changes in size due to temperature and humidity. But what happens when it’s time to refurbish those joints? Hint: It’s generally a pain in the ass. First you have to cut out the existing caulk, then you have to go back and clean up the messy surfaces with a grinder so they’re reusable. Arbortech announced a blade this week, though, that combines both those steps into a single process.

The idea: Instead of grabbing a pipe knife or cutting machine to cut down each side of the join individually and then reaching for a grinder to remove the remaining crap from the edges, the new blade cuts both sides and grinds the surface clean all in one pass. They designed the blade specifically for their AS170 brick and mortar saw which, they say, applies ”a unique orbital cutting motion with two forward facing blades that combine to perform both a hammering and a cutting action that allows the user to have lear visibility and the ability to accurately cut square and deep.”

The blades will be available in 1/2″, 1″, and 2″ sizing, though each blade can flex to accommodate joins up to 1/2″ smaller than their published size. Bonus: That flex allows them to follow the changes in variable-sized joins (read: just about all of them), too. Pricing isn’t available yet, but they’re likely not cheap. The AS170 streets for just under a grand. Then again, how much is your time worth?

Caulking Blades/AS170 [Arbortech] (Warning: PDF)