The woodworking show travels around the country each winter and has become a very popular destination for live educational seminars with some of the bigger names in woodworking. It has also become synonymous with some really great deals. Ohio Power Tool will again be at the show with Bosch, Rotozip and Dremel featuring some of the most aggressive deals we have honestly ever seen. No joke, not a sales pitch, they are weird.

On top of the Ohio Power Tool already low internet prices the show also brings instant rebates on most woodworking related tools ranging from $10-75 off instantly. For accessories the instant savings is $5 off for every $30 spent at the show. In addition several “Door Buster” tools have been selected with even better deals, for the Columbus Show there will be a limited number of each of these: 12v drill/driver PS31-2A $85 – 18v drill & impact kit CLPK232-181 $175 + Mail-in Rebate for Free 3^rd fatpack battery or cordless jigsaw – Variable Speed Colt Router PR20EVSK $89 – Oscillating Tool Kit MX25EK-33 $129 – Router Combo Kit MRC23EVSK $259.

We recently saw DeWalt’s new HEPA vacuum and some of their new concrete attachments at the STAFDA trade show last November. Among those attachments was a pretty innovative dust collection unit for drilling which is why we were pleasantly surprised to see this new drill attachment.

There have been several new accessories designed to better improve the performance of drop-in anchors. Bosch launched the Stop Bit last summer which is designed to provide the perfect drill depth for setting each size drop-in (1/4", 3/8", 1/2"). They do a terrific job but serve only the one function and don’t address dust collection. Powers Fasteners have also created a Smart Bit which is very similar to the Bosch but works in conjunction with their Smart Setting Tool to more securely hammer the bits into place. They have also redesigned their Smart Drop-in system to visually indicate when the anchor has been set properly which will work with any of the Bosch, DeWalt or Powers systems. Clearly Drop-In Anchors are on the minds of many manufacturers.    

Sometimes you wake up in the morning the birds are singing, sun is shining, you catch all the traffic lights, everything is going great and you think how could the day get any better then you check your morning news feed to find “The Dolphinator” Flyboard in this BBC article! Please put us on the very top of the waitlist!

Well known around the world for their high quality rotary hammers, Bosch is serious when it comes to all their concrete tool and accessories. The 2012 show is not exception with full outdoor hands on set up which allows spectators to go through the full process or concrete manipulation from form to finish. Stations include using tools to find rebar, cut, grind, break up and anchor in concrete.

The World of Concrete show is one of the largest annual trade shows that hits Las Vegas each year and it is quite a site to see. Home to some very special events including the SpecMix Brickyard 500 brick laying championships, heavy equipment racing, as well as some amazing talent in the decorative concrete competitions (see WOC 2010 album). We are hoping to keep up with some innovative new products that are getting launched at this year’s event over the next week. Check back soon! Also check out twitter @WorldofConcrete #WOC2012 #WorldConcrete #WorldofConcrete ... apparently 60,000 people can't agree on a hash tag.
    

There are plenty of miter saw stands out there and if you are looking for a new saw it’s easy to match it up. If you already have a good miter saw however how do you make sure it’s going to fit a new stand. What about if you want to put a different machine on the stand, say a planer or router table? The DeWalt Miter Saw Stand DWX726 solves these problems by allowing for complete customized positioning both on the X & Y axis with 6 positioning spots to bolt down.

When we first got a look at this new 30 degree pivoting head bit holder 48-32-2301 ($21, Ohio Power Tool) we have to admit we were not overly excited. It is a very simple design and only has the single offset position unlike the Milwaukee Right Angle attachment 48-22-8510 ($49, Ohio Power Tool) which does all kinds of funky positioning.

We are all familiar with the 500w halogen work lights around that are the standard in lighting any unfinished space. These things are cheap, a heavy duty grade version goes for around $12 at Ohio Power Tool and certainly they can drop well below that for the lower quality units. The problem is these things get knocked around, become wobbly and quickly unsafe. Not to mention the flaming hot bulb inside that can start a fire within seconds of contact to anything flammable. Couple that with the bulbs that break if you sneeze too hard around them and it seems to be a pretty inefficient light source but cheap no question so we put up with it. The new Voltec 180 LED Worklight 08-00703 ($79, Ohio Power Tool) does offer some serious improvements over the status quo.

As kids I always remember the handmade stackable saw horses we had in our garage that were built from a couple of 2x4s and scrap plywood. They weighed a ton, took up all kinds of space, were shaky as hell, had various types of paint on them and the tops had been run over a few hundred times with the circular saw. It is hard to imagine nowadays loading those in the truck every time you went to a jobsite. Fast forward a few years and the DeWalt DWX725 ($129, Amazon) could not be farther away from those old work stands.

We spotted this article in the Tools of the Trade blog yesterday and we very intrigued about turning an old contractor’s table saw into a new fully functional stationary table saw. By taking the old table saw mechanism apart and repurposing it along with pouring a solid concrete countertop and several 28” drawer slides it really comes together nice and on a budget.

We recently had a few days with this thermal imaging camera and learned a fair amount about its functionality and our own home in the process. We originally got to see the unit at Milwaukee’s headquarters (see original post here). Given a little more time with it the Milwaukee M12 2260-21 ($2500, Ohio Power Tool) really is an amazing piece of technology you need to get your hands on.

The problem we were faced with was how to make a clean cut in a tight space on a desktop computer stand. The space was too small to fit a jig saw or reciprocating saw and needed to be a clean cut to sand down and touch up with paint. The solution came in the form of a Dremel MultiMax MM40 ($139 Ohio Power Tool) which would be able to make the cut and sand the piece down using only one tool.