As a kid, you probably came up with a lot of terrible ideas your parents wisely stopped you from carrying out; that’s why you’re alive today. But once grownup, you’re free to try anything that pops into your mind, like upgrading a toddler-sized tricycle so that it’s powered by an old chainsaw.
There’s always one annoying dude at the table screaming, “no spinning!” whenever you’re playing foosball. But when you replace the game’s handles with high-speed electric drills, frantic spinning is the only real gameplay strategy you have at your disposal.
This is a really neat woodworking project from Matthias Wandel: turning a single piece of wood into a chain just by using power tools. It takes very careful planning and specific carving to transform the block of wood into links on a chain, but Wandel shows us his entire process in detail. The end result is really…
The garage door opener is one of those forgotten devices in your home that’s only ever noticed when it breaks. But Ryobi wants it to be the focal point of your garage workshop with modular upgrades that vastly expand its limited functionality.
The worst thing about working with handheld power tools is the constant and intense vibrations from oscillating parts that leave your hands and arms shaking, and make it harder to do detailed precision work. So researchers developed a handheld oscillator with 70 percent less vibration and half the noise.
We've known for months now that Bosch would be the first power tool company to offer inductive batteries and wireless charging technology. Well, now it's actually up for offer. The first of Bosch's wireless chargers and batteries are finally for sale online. And more are on the way!
The new Troy-Bilt Flex modular outdoor power equipment system is kind of like a Transformer for your yard. In just two seconds, you can turn a lawnmower into a snow thrower or a pressure washer or a leaf blower. And more options are on the way.
Slingshot psycho Joerg Sprave has done some of his best work with rubber, but there's more to slingin' than elastic. All it takes is a powerful drill and centrifugal force to whip up a whole different breed of slinger.
You'd be unlikely to see many Amish folks at CES or MWC or any other technology expo—because, for a start, many of them don't use electricity. But don't feel sorry for them, because they have a trade show all of their own.
You can take great pride in your vehicle even if you don't have a clue how to fix it. And if you do know what you're doing under the hood, that intimate bond borders on spiritual.
To create the new iMac, Apple's thinnest desktop yet, the designers used friction-stir welding to join the aluminum body. Unlike arc welding, the more standard way to fuse metal plates, a friction stir just needs a good rubbing—and a few thousand pounds of pressure—to stick together.
Zip Disks were at one time a tiny miracle. In 1996, 100 MB of storage sounded endless. Well, the name is back, but the spelling is different and the purpose is nearly unrecognizable.
No kitchen drawer should go without a little power screwdriver. any of the four in our recent test will do. But even those tiny drills were pretty serious workhorses, and for around-the-house tasks like tightening a loose cabinet pull, they're more than you need.
There's a lot to like about shopping for power tools online—good deals, 24/7 convenience, copious reviews, and the ability to quickly compare prices. But there are downsides, too. You can't handle a tool before you buy it, and any used tools you buy might have lived in a truck bed for the past few years. Here are nine…
It usually takes a pretty hefty tool to knock out a brick wall, demolish a concrete staircase, or pulverize a tile shower stall during a bathroom renovation. It's a job for the pounding chisel tip of a demolition hammer or a jackhammer—a tool big enough to require its operator, as The Far Side once suggested, to "let…
When cordless power tools started getting good, back around 2006, manufacturers always said a cordless random-orbital sander was out of the question. Too much continuous power draw, they said. The batteries couldn't handle it. The closest you could come to a 5-inch tool—the type pro woodworkers and jobsite carpenters…
When the first MakerBot appeared in 2009, the idea of 3D printing was a bit foreign to all but the most advanced fabricators. Company founder and CEO Bre Pettis says he used to get asked: "So what, do you have to wear special glasses to see it?"
The guys at Re-Char, a small startup that makes carbon-negative products, were faced with a problem. They wanted to ship products to Kenya, but the options available were wasteful, costly, and not nearly as efficient as simply manufacturing near to the customers. To do it, in a place with little industry or…
You want to give the handyman/woman thing a shot, but you don't want to invest in an entire toolbox worth of gear in case it turns out you're inept. Try Black & Decker's new Modular Matrix system—it fits most of a workshop in one relatively affordable handheld tool.
A cordless drill used to be a poor choice as a power tool—too heavy to take up a ladder and too weak to do the job. Then batteries got better, drills got smaller, and everything got cheaper. Cordless went from just a decent alternate to a viable replacement.
