During this Week In Review Boston Dynamics Robots are taking over job sites, Walker_werks builds a VW Minibike that has Sarah considering compact transportation, and TTI launches its NEW line of Tools and Battery platform from HART that will exclusively be sold in Walmart!
No one likes snow. If you think you DO, you’re wrong. So we were put on edge this week by a review posted by Mark Thomas on Instagram, where he not only wishes for more snow but asks the community to back him up on it. But I can understand why. Mark recently acquired a shiny new Cub Cadet 2X 30in 357 cc EFI Snow Blower. And the poor guy just wants to use it. He was surprised how easy it was to start and push down the street with no snow and really wants to try it out on some serious powder. So do me a favor. If you’re going to help him wish for snow, please focus it all on Michigan. You can watch his video at Mark Thomas Builder on Instagram.
Next we’ll ignore our inner safety manager and head back into the Tool Review Zone, where Clint decided to look for the BEST power tool beginners kit, despite his inability to pronounce Ryobi. He admits these tools are not designed for the rigors of daily life on the Jobsite, but still insists on putting them to the test. I don’t care if you’re in the market for a starter kit or not, head over to The Tool Review Zone on Youtube.
Thanksgiving is next week, which means it’s time to get the Christmas tree lights up and start spending that Christmas bonus on an electrical bill. Lowes, (They’re a huge DIY store if you’ve never heard of them) posted a How to hang your Christmas tree lights video this week, and I was entirely ready to ignore it with the yawns of a thousand tigers… but… and I can NOT figure out why I watched all 10 minutes of this video and loved it. I wanted to hate this lady for being so happy about doing something so painful as hanging lights, but she sincerely made it look fun, offered tips that are genuinely useful, and made me go buy lights. SCREW YOU LOWES. Also, thank you. You can find their excellent guide to outdoor Christmas merriment, at lowes home improvement on youtube.
As we mentioned at the beginning of the show, Rob and I were just in Brooklyn New York this week for the unveiling of an all-new line of tools and a battery platform from HART, that will exclusively be available in Walmart. Have you been to a Walmart tool department recently? This is what ours looks like. It’s hard to see, but there’s a Skil corded recip in there that still says Robert Bosch on the bottom. TTI, the company you know for their tool brands such as Ryobi, Rigid and Milwaukee are the ones behind this new line of HART tools, which includes your woodworking basics, a ton of accessories, a full line of outdoor power equipment and even some very decent hand tools for your garage. I’ll be honest, I was NOT expecting much from this trip, but Rob and I were both pleasantly surprised to see TTI send some of their big guns to not just drop in a bunch of rebadged products and assume Walmart customers would buy it, but instead they were genuinely excited about not only building a proper tool section in Walmart but using the relationship to see what else they can do with a battery platform, in a store that sells everything. Be sure to watch our channel this coming week where we’ll give you an in-depth look at the event, and the new Hart coming to Walmart.
Wilkerson is continuing her never-ending mission to solve everyday problems with a creative, made from scratch solutions! This week she built a dog food dispenser that carefully ejects the exact amount of food needed for every serving, without you having to think about it. It’s a beautiful handmade piece of art that is also very useful. If you have a dog, you need to make one of these. You can find her video at April Wilkerson on YouTube.
I’ve always been a huge fan of huge vehicles. I like driving trucks and big SUV’s with no intention of driving compact anything. Well, that was until I found these little Volkswagen Mini Bikes! Seriously, these are so cool. Brent from Walter_werks has been perfecting the Volkspod over the last couple of months and his latest version has me convinced. Look how fun they are. To check them out for yourself you can find Walter_Werks on Instagram!
Are you sick of your kids saying they are bored and have nothing to do? Me TOO! You need to take a chapter out of the Matthias Parenting guide for genius’ and make your kid a plastic bottle cap shooter like this! Mr.Wandel goes into great detail about how he made the original shooter, and all of the updates to make it even better. You can find it at Matthias Wandel on Youtube. If you guys have a favorite maker that posts something this week that you want me to put on the show send it to me at projects at coptool.com
It’s time again for Industry News courtesy of Construction Junkie. First up the Robot overlords at Boston Dynamics recently started selling Spot, their robot dog, and Holo Builder is one of the first to equip him with a 360-degree camera for automated Jobsite visual documentation. Their new software called Spot Walk, allows their customers to either manually drive the dog with their mobile phone, or plan a path and let the dog take care of business on its own. November 19th, 2019. The day the robots began managing US. It’s currently doing its doggie thing at their 1.2 billion dollar San Francisco Airport project.
A couple of weeks ago I experienced my very first GroundBreak event with Shane from Construction Junkie where we interviewed a ton of construction software and hardware companies to find out what advancements are coming to the world of construction, and we found quite a bit. This week Shane posted articles and videos covering several of those interviews including eBacon, a payroll compliance company, and Riskcast who offers a better platform for documentation on the Jobsite. If you’re looking to improve your workflow on the Jobsite or in the office, be sure to visit construction junkie dot com.