While working on the house I noticed that Ispent a significant amount of time searching for tools every day. Ihad no problems finding the big power tools. It was the tapemeasure, my pencils, and my framing square, which seemed to wanderoff into the far corners of the house. The pros know about thisproblem all too well. Their solution is the tool belt. The beltkeeps all frequently used hand tools on the person at all times. Atool belt was what I needed.

I looked around for a good option and landed on the

During the prep work for a new wood floor Idiscover a sharp ridge in the subfloor of one area of my house.About 1//4" of material had to be removed over a large area toflatten the subfloor. The prefect, and probably only, tool for thisjob is a power plane. After doing some research I decided to getthe Bosch PL1682, a powerful and affordable power plane. Let's takea look at how well it performed.

Build quality

The PL1682 arrived at my house in perfect working order. Itested the sole of the tool with a straightedge

I have been looking for the perfect bathroomtimer for while now. My old wind-up timer won't stay on anymore.Enter the

I recently had a chance to work with a

A few months ago I found myself angrily shoppingfor an inline air regulator. The one that came with my spray gunlasted all but 2 hours. The glass of pressure gauge split in half.Apparently it was too cold in my shop (not really). Browsing theweb I found that it is littered with cheap sub-par pressureregulators. I had no confidence that any one of them would last anylonger than the one that just broke. Where are the good ones? Aftersome research I settled on the

Here in Seattle the nights are long. It's darkby the time I get home from work. The outdoor lights on my home areoff, unless I leave them on all day.

A friend turned me on to the

Measuring flooring layouts is not an easy task.It's very easy to lose accuracy because of the distances involved.If you are not careful, it's possible to be 0.5-1" off on the otherend of that 25ft hallway. Naturally I tried to find a better way.Enter the

Laser intensity falloff

If you plan on setting the level on the floor and seeingcontinuous beams for 20ft+ you will be disappointed. Not because ofthe Stanley S2, but because of your floor and walls. In most casesthe laser beam will be interrupted by unevenness in your floor

The digital revolution is upon us woodworkers.Our tried and true tools are becoming smart. Everything seems tohave a chip inside these days. After having great success with theWixey digital table saw fence, I decided to try out Bosch's newdigital tape measure, the

Modes

The Bosch DLR130K was made for construction and finishcarpentry. Measuring a wall is snap. I get accurate measurements inseconds. On walls longer than 4ft I have no doubt that the resultis more accurate than what I produce with my tape measure. The easewith w

If you think about it, we buy and use tools toget things done. Every tool in your tool chest represents acapability. Some make holes; others make things shorter. The toolswe own define of what we can get done.

One capability that was missing from my tool chest is theability to make plunge cuts in just about any material. That's whata multi-tool is for. It was time get one. Enter the Bosch Multi-Maxmulti-tool.

Why a multi-tool?

Multi-tools offer a unique cut that no other power tools arecapable of

When I first installed my compressed air systemin my shop I installed budget air couplers. I regretted itimmediately. A couple of the female fittings leaked air. Worst ofall, some released the hose when I tugged on the tool end a bit tovigorously. That got annoying very fast. I needed new couplers.Enter the Legacy Color Connex line of air couplers. Performancemixed with a bit of showmanship was just the thing my shopneeded.

Legacy Color Connex Coupler

I purchased the Legacy couplers for two reasons: they areattractiv