[Music] welcome to our 32nd edition of cool tools we only do a handful of these videos a year and they're always a lot of fun because i get to show you some of the awesome tools that i work with here in my shop today i want to show you some of the really cheap and some of the more expensive ones that i've been playing with lately i highly recommend you sit back and relax and watch this all the way to the end you're going to see some surprises not all here on the bench as always any sponsors are disclosed at the beginning of the video and in the links below don't forget to use those links to learn more about any of these cool tools or to check out the current pricing that's what they're there for so let's get started rasps are essential tools for shaping project parts most of us have used rasps at one time or another but if you ever use a hand stitched rasp hand stitching means a person created all the little barbs one at a time the old fashioned way with a hammer and a special chisel this adds irregularities to the pattern and the size of the barbs which is widely believed to produce a far superior surface compared to machine stitched rasps hand stitching also makes it possible to texture all the way to the very sharp edges on the tool which gives it added function so for years i've heard people talking about these but i'd never tried one because as you'd expect from anything that's laboriously handmade they aren't cheap but i've long admired the value of narex's machine made rasps so i decided to give their handmade versions a try how do they perform well keep in mind that the regular rasps only come in coarse grit and coarse rasps of any kind don't leave behind a fine surface however comparing a coarse hand stitched one to the machine one i immediately noted that the handmade rasp was significantly more aggressive and faster cutting than the coarse machine made rasp faster stock removal was a pleasant surprise i didn't really expect the machine made rasp did its job well i've never had any complaints with naric's rasps they cut well and they stay sharp a long time but you can see how it leaves visible striations in the surface of the wood the hand-stitched teeth in the other version leave far less noticeable patterns in fact if you look at the surface left by the medium grit handmade rasp which i think is more comparable to the machine made rasp in terms of aggressiveness there's no visible pattern there at all of course that doesn't matter much when you're aggressively removing stock but it does become a factor when you want a smoother surface that requires less sanding and as you can see the fine grit hand stitched rasp leaves a surprisingly smooth sandpaper ready surface now keep in mind that these tests were done across the grain which obviously tears the wood fibers when i turn the handmade rasp and begin working more angular to the grain crossing from both directions the resulting surface is remarkably smooth for such an aggressive tool really both types of rasps are extremely efficient stock removal tools for cabinet and furniture making for wood carving for shaping tool handles some people even incorporate them into wood turning i think most of you will be satisfied with the machine made versions for your coursework but in my opinion the handmade versions do excel in a couple of key ways for one thing they cut more quickly especially the coarse grit and they leave behind a finer surface especially the fine grit so check them out the link below this video and see for yourself when i was a kid we used to have a dixie cup dispenser in the bathroom for mouthwash now i chug straight from the bottle like a grown up but i found dixie cups to be very useful here in the workshop i use them for spreading glue and for mixing epoxy the little three ounce versions are my favorite not only because they're just the right size but also because they cost less than eight cents each so it doesn't hurt to just toss them in the trash when you're done with them no cleanup is always a good thing a box of 200 lasts for years i also highly recommend a dispenser so you always have them handy when you need them you'll be surprised how much you like using these little things it's one of those secrets that i wish i had thought of 20 years ago i'll link to both the cups and the dispenser below another little secret i learned a while back was to keep a roll of hockey stick tape in the shop not for hockey but for your hands i wrap it around some of my tool handles to help me get a better grip seriously it's amazing how comfortable this stuff is it's not padding it just makes it easier to hold the handle so you don't have to squeeze as hard another tip that i learned from rob cosman is to wrap the tool handle at its base then stretch the tape out about a foot give the roll a spin to create a cord and then wrap that around the handle and finally cover it with more tape now you have a nice ergonomic grip for things like mallets and saw handles i'll link to some tape that i use below this video it's regular hockey tape but it's at a good price you really should grab a roll and try it out for yourself the mpower sbs sharpening station is an idea that was four years in the making designed to provide everything you need right in one place so you can sharpen and strop your tools quickly and get right back to work it begins with three diamond plates there's 300 600 and 1200 grit after sharpening you pop back on the magnetic stropping plates which are color coded to accept three levels of honing compound including eighteen hundred twenty five hundred and five thousand when your tools razor sharp everything including the compound sticks the lapping fluid it all goes back in the case you can even add a little honing jig in there if you wanted to it's really a great idea i like the simplicity of it no more hunting around the shop for what you need it is all in one place in fact i think it'll be just the thing to take with me when i travel i like to carve when i'm on the road i've made plenty of videos about diamond stones in the past there are a lot of good diamond systems out there and i'm not saying you should toss the ones that i've recommended before and buy this one but if you're looking for a new system or a second one for working outside the shop the mpower sbs system is something you should at least take a look at i'll link to it below this video there are a lot of uses for hot melt glue around the workshop i'll make a video about all the ways i use it down the road but i'll tell you right now you won't get much use from it if you have to get out and plug in one of those regular corded glue guns they're just too much of a hassle so a while back i picked up a cordless glue gun from ryobi and it has changed the way i work because it's so convenient to just grab it and use it first of all it's very comfortable the weight of the battery on the bottom balances well with the rest of the tool i 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