I spent the last 90 days testing 11 different magnifying lamps on real console tear-downs: PS5 HDMI port replacements, Nintendo Switch Joy-Con board swaps, and Xbox Series X thermal paste reseats. I wanted to know which best magnifying lamps for console repair work actually deliver when you’re staring at an SMD component smaller than a … Read more
I have been testing circular saws on job sites for over 12 years, and Makita keeps earning its place on my truck. When contractors ask me which brand I trust most for daily framing cuts, the answer is almost always Makita. That is why I pulled together this roundup of the best Makita circular saws … Read more
I broke three micro drill bits in my first hour of jewelry making. That experience sent me down a rabbit hole of testing 8 different micro drill bit sets over six weeks. I drilled through resin, soft metal, PCB boards, walnut, plastic, and bone to see which ones actually held up. Some sets snapped within … Read more
I have spent the last three months cutting through hundreds of bricks and concrete blocks in my own backyard projects, and I can tell you firsthand that choosing the right masonry saw changes everything. The wrong tool leaves chipped edges, clouds of silica dust, and sore arms. The right one gives you clean cuts, controlled … Read more
Last weekend, my neighbor asked me to help swap out his brake pads. We pulled out his old toolbox, and I watched him dig through a tangled mess of mismatched sockets, hunting for a single 14mm wrench. It took us 20 minutes just to find the right size. That moment reminded me why the best … Read more
I’ve spent years grinding, cutting, and polishing metal with every brand under the sun, and the best Metabo grinders keep ending up back in my hands. The German engineering, brushless motors, and safety features put them in a league of their own for serious metalwork. In this guide, I’ll walk you through ten Metabo angle … Read more
I spent the last three months testing cold cut chop saws in my workshop, running everything from thin-wall tubing to 1/2-inch steel plate through each model. The difference between a good metal cold cut chop saw and a mediocre one comes down to cut quality, blade life, and how much heat ends up in your … Read more
Last year, I helped a friend set up a two-man machine shop in his garage, and the single piece of equipment that changed his workflow was the metal cutting bandsaw. Before the bandsaw, every piece of steel was getting torched, hacked with a portable cutoff saw, or shipped out for waterjet cutting. Six months in, … Read more
If you have ever wrestled an angle grinder through a thick piece of steel or measured twice only to get a crooked cut with a torch, you already know why the best metal cutting chop saws belong in every serious shop. I spent the last two months running 14-inch and 15-inch saws through rebar, square … Read more
When I first started welding in my garage, I had no idea what I was doing. I burned through three cheap flux-core welders before I realized the problem wasn’t me. It was buying the wrong machine. The best MIG welders for beginners and home shop use aren’t always the cheapest ones. They are the ones … Read more