We’ve got a ton of members that use Gladiator products in their garage. I personally love their benches and I know more than a few guys that are pretty high on their cabinets as well. It’s all pretty solid stuff for residential use… And priced fairly as well.

Today, however, I was researching for another project and found a little piece of brilliance on the Gladiator web site. It’s the Gladiator Claw.

Check it out.

We are often asked about carriage house doors. The great thing about swinging doors is that you don’t sacrifice any ceiling height with clumsy closers and they often look wonderful from both the inside and out. “Real Carriage Doors” has a great gallery of gorgeous examples and they have really inspired me to look for a carriage door solution to my upcoming garage addition. The only issue? I really want a single 16′ opening and that’s a bit of a stretch for most swinging solutions. Anyone have any creative ideas?

So I got this press release the other day. In it was the description of a “different kind of tool company” along with a gorgeously designed catalog. I fell in love with their marketing instantly… and as a marketing guy, I couldn’t resist showing off just one of the ways Graham Tool is making a splash. This isn’t a commercial - I don’t know these guys at all and they haven’t paid me a dime.

Introducing the Lead Hammer. You cast it yourself and when the hammer becomes abused and mis-shaped, you just melt it down and cast it again. It might not be practical, but it is friggin’ brilliant.

Get yours here.

So I’ve been tackling a lot of maintenance projects out in the shop lately. For the most part, they are all projects that take a weekend or more to finish and I’ve caught myself more than once thinking that I had an organization problem. An example is in order… This past week, I replaced the clutch in my ‘38 Ford. Because of the exotic nature of the performance clutch and motor, the project took about three days as I worked on and off and waited for machine shops to do their thing, etc… During that time, I had tools spread all across the garage. On one hand, I didn’t want to put them back in the box as I knew I was gonna need them as soon as I started working again. On the other, I couldn’t find any thing because all of my tools were spread about.

The obvious solution is a tool cart. Or is it? What do you guys do for project organization?

Under no circumstances can you call yourself a proper car guy unless you know the story of Harry Miller. What’s that? You mean to tell me you don’t know? Take time fellas… Read… Here are a few pieces to get you started: 1, 2, 3. That out of the way, I recently stumbled upon the above shot of Harry standing behind one of his Miller-Gulf Sixes. Behind him is his tool wall stocked with wrenches and specialty tools. It made me think of a Miller quote:

“Adjustable wrenches are an abomination. I will not allow them in my shop.”

Come to think of it, neither will I…