Heat Shrink! This week, for my one-minute tool review brought to you by the Cools Tools blog at cool-tools.org, I’m going to show off this $6 assortment of color coded heat shrink tubing I found on Amazon.

This is the FastCap Babe-Bot (Amazon link). It is a 4-oz. bottle made for glue. I’ve got mine filled with wood glue. They also make a bigger 16oz. version but I find this one a little more handy.

Today I’m going to show off what you can do with a pair of dirt cheap digital calipers (Amazon link). These come in a plastic case. Mine even had an extra battery included. On the front here you have a power button, a zero button to zero out the measurement, and a toggle between inches and mm.

This is the Hakko FX-901 portable soldering iron (available on Amazon: http://amzn.to/2sh7g0t). It runs off 4 AA batteries that you can swap out really fast with this removable cartridge design. I use rechargeables in mine and I get over an hour of use out of it before I notice the temperature drops. Alkaline batteries will run hotter, but not last as long.

I learned about the Robert Larson 800-2875 Plastic Center Finder (Amazon link) from maker Ben Light, who uses it to drill out the center in the tin can robots he builds. Online, I see a lot of videos of jewelry designers using these. Woodworkers use them on finding centers on dowels or centering up work to chuck into a lathe.

These are Knipex High Leverage Cutters (Amazon link). They cost around $35-40 on Amazon, which isn’t cheap for a pair of clippers, but they seem indestructible. They’re drop forged, so they’re extremely tough. They’re rated for cutting through Piano Wire, which is essentially tempered spring steel and easily damages most cutters.

This Rothco G.I. type mechanics tool bag is around $16 on Amazon. Russel Brooks wrote a review of this bag for Cool Tools saying that these are similar to bags he was issued when he was in the Air Force in the ’70s. They’re made of a thick canvas with a heavy brass zipper, pockets on both sides, and small pockets lining the inside.

This Bernz-O-Matic Micro Flame Torch kit sells for $30 (here it is on Amazon), which isn’t cheap for a butane torch, but let me show you why this one is special.

These are plastic razor blades made by Scraperite. They come with a little holder. And what these are good for is any task where you need to delicately scrape something off of a surface that you don’t want to scratch up with conventional razor or palette knife.

This week on Maker Update, a servo robot puppet, Raspbian moves to Stretch, a YouTube Live camera, giant gold bricks, trauma shears, and pouring your own knobs. This week’s Cool Tool is a pair of Fluoride Coated Medical Shears.