Finally. I say it's about damn time we fit our hamsters with little jackets that harness all the energy they're wasting when running incessantly in their little wheels. Also, we're harnessing the power of the wheel too, right? To harness hamster power, the scientists sewed electricity-generating thr...

We’d like to assume that the funky-looking new SmartDriver is a flaming piece of plastic with little or no value to everyday life;  however that’s what we did with the original SmartDriver, and we were dead wrong. In fact, the one I got over a year ago is still in active service and going stro...

With the Spectrum 625 X-treme, Miller is rapidly approaching what would’ve been considered science fiction about twelve years ago.  We can forgive the overused “X-tremeâ€� moniker because this 40-amp plasma cutter is literally smaller than a shoebox. Miller has managed to cram the tiny box ...

Makita’s compact driver set includes a two-speed drill driver, an impact driver, two lithium-ion batteries, and a 50-minute charger, all packed in a hard case.  The impact driver can deliver 800 inch-pounds of torque at up to 3,000 impacts per minute, and the two-speed drill driver spins up to 35...

Delta’s Unisaw has been kicking around longer than most tool guys out there today.  Over the years they’ve changed it to fit the times and added a few things here and there that make it a little more pleasant to deal with — this March Delta’s re-launching the latest incarnat...

RTFA: http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/graphics/0… DO YOU EVER want to change the way you see the world? Wouldn’t it be fun to hallucinate on your lunch break? Although we typically associate such phenomena with powerful drugs like LSD or mescaline, it’s easy to fling open t...

Milwaukee put out one of the coolest tools we’ve seen in 2008, the M12 Hackzall — even in the list of our favorites, this is the spoiled youngest child of the bunch. Ever since the fateful day we had to cut apart my power steering pump with one, it has claimed a place of honor in the shop. B...

In response to our recent router post, reader Eli posted another great example of powerful tools wreaking havoc in shop class, and he points us to an excellent article containing safety tips for burgeoning woodworkers. My shop teacher (Mr. Green, had all his fingers) showed us the effects of table-s...

If you really want to give a group of full-grown adults a hard time, give them a child’s toy. Often it’s the simple-looking puzzles that can be the biggest challenge, and this little wooden puzzle is a great deal harder to reassemble than it looks. However it’s easy to make one. We put tog...

As you can see from this mangled piece of trim, I recently had a router mishap. Thankfully I wasn’t injured — the only casualty was the oak trim — but it was exciting for a few minutes there, and the incident brought to mind a few things I thought I’d share. When I was ‘round a...