Oh! Gizmo

By Evan Ackerman

Looks like we’re beginning to catch up to the futuristic technology of the long time ago and far far away Star Wars galaxy, now that ThinkGeek has started selling the Hydrokinetic Adjustable Wrench, aka hydrospanner. The key feature of the hydrospanner (besides that in Star Wars it’s actually a powered driver, but never mind that) is that it uses hydraulics to fit to all kinds of different nuts and bolts without changing any bits. Inside the wrench is a fluid, which you compress through a valve to tighten the wrench. Close the valve and the wrench is perfectly sized. Opening the valve releases the fluid pressure, and the wrench comes off.

The Hydrokinetic Adjustable Wrench fits 23 different nuts and bolts in both standard and metric, is 7.5″ long, and costs $25. BTW, Han, you’d better be careful. That toolbox looks pretty precarious, and if something were to hit the ship…

[ ThinkGeek ]

By Evan Ackerman

The little magnetic light looks just like an underwater contact mine, except that it’s far less dangerous unless you stuff it full of high explosives, in which case it will only be moderately less dangerous. It’s a pretty neat idea, though: each one of those twelve “spikes” has a neodymium magnet at the tip, and you can use them to stick the light to any metallic surface and orient it just the way you want it. The wide-angle white LED looks like it provides plenty of illumination, and although it’s hard to tell from this picture, the light is tiny, about the size of a golf ball. It takes three watch batteries, but it doesn’t seem to say how long they power the light for or whether or not they are replaceable. My guess is “a while” and “yes,” but I don’t know for sure.

The Striker Magnetic Light Mine costs all of $8 on the Striker website.

[ Striker ] VIA [ Lifehacker ]

By Luke Anderson

I’ll be the first to admit that I suck at soldering. I can usually get the job done, but it never looks pretty, and takes several attempts. Yes, that’s a skill that I should really put some effort into, as it comes in handy when working with electronics. However, it would seem that there is a different solution for the lazy modder, Wire Glue.

There’s not much to tell about this stuff. It’s a paste-like substance that can be used to glue wires together, allowing electricity to flow freely between them. It uses microcarbon technology to pull off this amazing feat. Just $4 gets you a small container of the stuff. Sure, it’s not going to replace soldering in many situations, but it will definitely come in handy.

[ ThinkGeek ] VIA [ RGS ]

By Evan Ackerman

With all of the nuclear power plants in the US pushing 25 years old or more, the obvious solution to keep them from disintegrating into piles of radioactive dust is duct tape. But not just any duct tape: 3M’s Performance Plus Nuclear Grade Duct Tape. It doesn’t appear to be particularly radiation resistant, but it does feature clean removal indoors and outdoors after up to 6 months. It’s waterproof and you can write on it, but most notably it works at temperatures up to 200°F, which was always the achilles heel of duct tape and the reason why it’s so bad at taping ducts.

You can find 3M Nuclear Grade Duct Tape in slate blue or red on Amazon for about $14 a roll.

[ 3M ] VIA [ Toolmonger ]

By Luke Anderson

I think it is almost universally agreed that duct tape is nearly the most useful tool on the planet. At the very least, it is by far the most useful tape out there. However, I’ve discovered another very useful adhesive that will have a permanent place in my toolbox. Yes, I do sound like I’m getting worked up over tape, but you have to admit that Self-Adhesive Magnetic Tape is rather appealing.

The concept is rather simple; just cut off a strip of tape, stick it to the wall, another piece goes on the item you’re hanging. Now just slap the two things together and it stays. This is rather handy for items that you might need to take off the wall and hang back up again. Sure, you could buy velcro strips and get a similar effect, but those wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Not to mention at $16 for a 5-meter roll, this stuff is probably a lot cheaper.

[ Pro-Idee ] VIA [ RedFerret ]

By Luke Anderson

When I’m working on a project that requires measuring, cutting, drilling and hammering, I tend to be very precise about what I do. My grandfather always drilled  the phrase “measure twice, cut once” into my head, and it’s good advice. One annoying thing about tape measures is that it’s not always easy to mark in the exact spot that you want. The line on the tape measure itself is usually a good quarter-inch above the object you need to mark, which can leave your measurements off, albeit only slightly. Not to mention that you don’t always have a free hand to mark with. Well here’s a tape measure that will do the marking for you.

The Irwin Straight-Line Tape Measure looks just like any other. However, at the point where the tape exits the roll, there is a handy marker on the underside. Just set it down (you might need to rub it on the object a little) and you’re all set. This $14 gadget could very well save you a lot of hassle in the future.

[ Amazon ] VIA [ Book of Joe ]

By Andrew Liszewski

If you thought Swiss Army knives were only good for opening boxes, filing your nails or uncorking a wine bottle, you’d only be partly right. There’s a host of other tools and accessories you can get that I’ve quite frankly never found a use for, like say… a digital altimeter. A small LCD integrated into the side of the knife shows your current altitude from -300 feet to +15,000 feet. And if you’re curious as to how cold it gets at those altitudes, the knife’s also got a digital thermometer with a less impressive temperature range of 0 to 100 fahrenheit.

The Swiss Army Altimeter is available from the Swiss Outpost, with all of the features you see sticking out, for $115.

[ Swiss Army Altimeter ] VIA [ 7Gadgets ]

By Luke Anderson

I’m sure that everyone has used their hand or fingers to try and make a rough measurement of something. If you do it enough, you might actually get pretty good at it, but I’ve found that I’m usually way off. Well if you’re trying to measure something in the cold, these Measurement Work Gloves are the perfect tool.

The pair of gloves is covered with all sorts of measurements for those times when you just don’t feel like getting out the tape measure. Heck, they even threw in a protractor. Granted, everyone’s hand is different, so I wouldn’t rely on these figures to be exact. These handy (get it? handy!) gloves can be yours for right around $20 a pair. (Unfortunately they are out of stock at the time of writing)

[ UpToYouToronto ] VIA [ FashionablyGeek ]

By Andrew Liszewski

It might seem odd for a company like Victorinox to exhibit at CES, I mean you’d expect to see them at the local Gun n’ Knife show instead, but their line of SwissFlash knives have evolved from simply a flash drive embedded into a pocket knife, to a full-blown office-friendly tool. And their latest model, the Presentation Pro, comes with a flash drive up to 32GB in size that’s now protected by a biometric fingerprint sensor for keeping your confidential documents private.

But it’s also designed to serve as a handy presentation remote, since it comes with bluetooth and a set of emulated left and right mouse buttons. So the knife you probably already carry in your pocket for opening plastic blister packs can now control your exciting PowerPoint slideshows as well. And for pointing out specific items, they’ve even crammed a laser pointer in there too. At the moment the SwissFlash Presentation Pro doesn’t appear to be listed on the Victorinox website, probably because it isn’t for sale just yet, but prices range from $164.95 for the 8GB model up to $329.95 for the 32GB.

[ Victorinox ]