John from the Bridge City Tool Works Blog has an interesting article detailing some pretty unbelievable things he discovered when he payed a visit to an OEM Chinese factory some 10 years ago. You might be shocked at what he found out, but after the recent Chinese drywall issue and all of the lead painted toys, can we really be shocked at what comes out of China?

...I walked into the factory section that made twist drill bits. Here they were making, for the AMERICAN MARKET, those 59, 89, 119 pc drill sets found at the box stores and other discount joints for $19.95. Again, there were rows of women who were dipping the bits in what looked like Easter egg dye.

I asked the interpreter what they were doing. He replied, "They are making all the bits the same color as these four." The four bits he pointed out were the 1/8", 1/4", 3/8" and the 1/2".

I asked why.

I learned that those four bits were properly hardened. The remaining 115 bits were made with what I call pot metal. The reason?

"Because those are the only four hole sizes that Americans use."

$20 for 4 proper drill bits, while the rest were basically there to complete a set. Are you one of the unlucky owners of one of these sets? Do you find that some bits work better then others? It is one thing for these kind of shenanigans to take place with simple tools like drill bits, but if you head on over to Johns blog you can read about some more Chinese corner cutting with actual electric tools.

Source: Johns Blog - Bridge City Tool Works

If you are a fan of the Systainer stackable storage system, you will probably be happy to know that Tanos has given the Systainer a much needed update. The new T-Loc Systainer not only ditches the old bland look for something much more stylish, but the hardware sees a huge change with a completely re-engineered latch system. What once required 4 latches to mount one box to another, now only requires one. The T-Loc makes use of two hooks to keep the back of the boxes together, and a single locking knob to latch the front. The T-Loc is even able to attach with the older style boxes as long as the old boxes are placed at the bottom of the stack. Another big improvement the T-Loc brings, is the ability to open lower boxes in a stack without have to remove the boxes above.

As of now Festool USA does not list the T-Loc Systainer on their website, but I have seen photos with the Festool name on the new T-Loc, so it is probably just a matter of time. Also not yet seen are T-Loc versions of the Sortainer. You can get the Tanos Systainers in Blue or Dark Grey online today. The best news of all is the T-Loc boxes cost a few bucks less.

Tanos

Up for review today is the Ratcheting ReadyWrench that was provided without cost by Black & Decker. The Ratcheting ReadyWrench is a dog-bone style wrench that features selectable sockets on both ends of the tool. Each end consists of four universal sockets that are capable of fitting both Metric and SAE nuts and bolts. This feature gives the wrench a total of 16 sockets in one tool.

The main selling point of the Ratcheting ReadyWrench is the 16-in-1 design coupled with a new ratcheting system. Offering a total of 16 wrenches in one small package sounds very enticing, but all-in-one tools always have to compromise on something. In the case of the ReadyWrench, the compromise is the lack of a perfect fit on some bolt size. Because both Metric and SAE bolts share sockets on the Ratcheting ReadyWrench, some bolts will fit more snugly then others. I knew this would be one of the flaws with the ReadyWrench even before I set my hands one it, but was I was pleased to find that the supposed issue was hardly noticeable. This is by no means a tool to build airplanes with, but it should be fine to handle your DIY needs.

If you didn't get your fill watching pumpkins flying through the air over the Thanksgiving weekend, Bosch is just in time with their second Bosch Beatdown Crew video that might satisfy your need for potential destruction. In their first video, Bosch put bat to radio in the stands of Wrigley Field to show us that their Power Box 360 radio can handle a beating. In this second video they go a little more extreme by launching one of their radios over 150 feet using some good old medieval weaponry. This test is a little harder then their typical drop test, but the end results were the same; they started with a working radio, and ended with one.

[:cicn:] Bosch PB360 - Amazon