A year or two ago I was given a Makita BCL180ZW 18-volt cordless vacuum cleaner, which I normally use around the house for small clean-ups. The other day I glanced over at it and a thought popped into my head—"I wonder if that will fit onto my circular saw?" Only one way to find out.

Here at Tool-Rank we often come across great tools that do their jobs well; but only every once in a while do we come across a tool that we absolutely love. Those products deserve some extra recognition and are given the Tool-Rank Pick badge, an award that tells the world they are special. Today the award goes to the Coast Rapid Response Knife.

72-Hour Kit Build

It has been a couple of months since I started my 72-Hour kit build, which uses the Bosch Click & Go L-BOXX system to store and organize all of my survival supplies. It was a bit of work in getting all of the supplies together, getting everything organized and publishing the content here on Tool-Rank, but in the end I feel better prepared to handle a disaster of any kind.

I have covered some of the most important things you should have in a 72-hour disaster kit, but there are still some items that you should probably have around to make your disaster experience go a bit smoother. In the Bosch L-BOXX-2 I put together some of the items that you would use daily, things like cooking utensils, soap, toothpaste and more. I am sure there are a lot more items that I could have added, but I am trying to balance what I really need versus the weight of everything.

Let us pretend that you have just survived a natural disaster but you can no longer use your house the way you used it just a few days before. The power is out, you have no running water, and you have no heating. This sounds a lot like what has happened, and is still happening, on the East Coast. For these reasons and more, it is a good idea to have a small tool kit that you can use to help you survive until you can rebuild.

We all need to eat, so having enough food on hand incase of a natural disaster is key. The East Coast is currently being hit by hurricane Sandy and the days leading up to the storm led to crowded stores full of the unprepared looking to stock up on food. Building a disaster kit ahead of time could have saved these people a lot of stress.

One thing you should always have, whether you are prepping for a natural disaster or not, is a good first aid kit. In the first part of my 72-hour emergency kit build I make use of the dividers that are included in the model L-BOXX1A, which is part of the Bosch Click & Go modular storage system.

Are you prepared to handle the aftermath of a natural disaster? The Red Cross, FEMA, and a countless number of other groups and agencies say that you should have at least a 3-day (72-hour) supply of food, water, and other supplies you might need to help you get through a disaster.

Bosch, a name synonymous with professional grade tools and accessories, has recently concluded their 2012 press event. There, in addition to seeing their latest products, I got to meet some of the folks responsible for getting these great products into the hands of great professionals--like you.  Informing our group, president and CEO of Bosch Power Tools, Terry Horan, mentioned that while other tool companies tout innovation, Bosch has their focus on invention, and that tweaking an existing tool to make it their own is not the way things are done at Bosch. I was reminded that Bosch is the largest power tool company on earth with over 4100 patents last year alone on tools deemed "intended for life".