Reviews & Features

The Tool Swing

Our forums get hit all the time by people trying to sneak in promotions. Sometimes it’s a company pretending to be just another guy who “stumbled onto” a miracle product, other times it’s a YouTuber begging for clicks and likes. It only takes a second to ban them, but the constant parade of it gets old fast. I’ve always believed that if you make something worth a damn, you don’t need to shove it down people’s throats. Good work speaks for itself and word of mouth travels faster and hits harder than spam on a little forum like ours ever …
Featured Spaces

Shop Life On Kauai

The other day, I watched from the beach as Steve took my daughter out to Waiohai for a surf session. The swell was coming in heavy, the chop was relentless, and most folks out there were fighting for their lives. Not Steve. He’d spring up on his self-shaped board, plant his feet closer together than any surf coach would recommend, and lean back like he was rolling a lowrider down Whittier Boulevard without a care in the world. When the wave closed out, he’d step off clean… no leash, no drama, just style. Steve’s my closest friend on the island …
Projects

An APO Update

About five years ago, I cobbled together a little shop setup on the island of Kauai. One of my biggest concerns back then was the salt air – how it creeps into everything and turns tools into rust sculptures. To fight back, I built a system using Milwaukee Packouts paired with desiccant packs. Five years later, here’s how that strategy has held up. To see how I put these together, check out this video. To see how I assembled the ”Packout Work Bench,” peep this.
Reviews & Features

Ear Protection: Air Pods Pro 2

This is probably terrible advice—hell, borderline irresponsible. Do your own research, trust your instincts, question everything. But I’ll tell you this: my favorite ear protection in the shop? Apple AirPods. Yeah, I know. But if they fit your ears right and your brain doesn’t rebel against the noise-canceling voodoo, they just disappear. No pressure, no bulk, just quiet and clarity while the chaos rages around you. But here’s the catch—you need the Pro model for proper noise canceling, and they’re not exactly built for shop abuse. Dust, metal shavings, and random acts of violence tend to chew up dainty tech …
Reviews & Features

Innova 5610

Most of my time in the shop is spent buried in ancient steel—real cars, not these wheezing modern things laced with silicon and shame. I hot rod, goddammit. I take something that works, rip out the compromises, and replace them with speed and danger. And I do it all with tools, not a laptop. So when Innova emailed me asking if I’d like to review one of their OBD2 scanners, I laughed. Out loud. “Wrong guy,” I told them. I don’t own anything new enough to need one. My shop is where computers go to die. They sent it anyway. …