Striker, makers of the original magnetic light mine, have now come up with a more massive suped-up professional model. The Pro version features 11 Neodymium magnets which can also be used as freestanding feet, 4 electronic power levels and light functions, 8 Lumen TechTM high output wide angle white lens LEDs and 4 red rear LEDs.

Striker describes the Pro light mine as about the size of a baseball, and claims it to be 8 times brighter and with 4 times the runtime compared to their original golf ball-sized version. The Light Mine Pro is powered by 3 AAA batteries.

We learned about the Stiker Pro LED Mine via ToolSnob, who also put up a rather amusing maketing video by “product tester” Terri, who says things like the engineers at Striker must have been messing with steroids because look at what they have come up with now.

Striker Light Mine Professional via Amazon
Original Striker Light Mine via Amazon
Product Info via Striker

Hot on the heels of their recent SquidBrite work light, Stanley has released a new heavy duty clamping flashlight. The head of the lamp can rotate 350° and tilt 120° to ensure that it can focus light in any direction you need it to, and with its large floodlight bulb the flashlight can illuminate large work surfaces.

The flashlight’s non-marring clamp has a 4″ jaw capacity, allowing it to be secured to joists, beams, worktables, and similar fixtures. From the looks of it, the clamp also provides a nicely sized hand grip when in its closed position.

The flashlight can be powered by either 2 or 4 C cell batteries. This may seem strange at first, but it makes sense after you think about it. Four cells allow the flashlight to run for a longer time, but what if your batteries are dead and you need to find replacements FAST? It may be easier to find or swap two batteries than it would be to find four.

According to Amazon, the clamping jaw opens to 3-1/2″ (Stanley claims 4″), the bulb outputs 80 lumens of light, and the batteries last for 15 or 30 hours, depending on whether you use 2 or 4 cells.

You can pick up a Stanley 95-891 heavy duty clamp light for about $30. We’re intrigued by the flashlight, although we have seen clamping lamp styles that we like a bit better. We imagine that this light would be much better than the very weak AC clamping lamps that we frequently use, although it also costs more than four times as much.

Stanley Heavy Duty Clamping Light via Amazon
More Product Info via Stanley Tools

A few weeks ago we mentioned Snap-on’s “cordless” work light that started to appear at various retail stores. Well, we sent an email to Snap-on’s customer service about how and why a cordless lamp requires a power cord, and their reply was rather amusing.

Our question:

I’ve seen the Snap-on 75W drop-light (92161) offered for sale by a few stores and online distributors. This lamp is advertised as being “cordless” but it requires an extension cord for power. I fail to comprehend how this lamp is cordless and was hoping that you could shed some light on the situation (pun not intended).

The response by Snap-on’s customer service department:

You are very right, that is poor use or [sic] words!!

Normally, drop lights have a cord attached to them, this one is ‘cordless’ because it doesnt have a cord, you just use an extension cord…

Well, there you have it… it’s “cordless” because it doesn’t come with the cord!

Snap-on “Cordless” Work Light via Amazon

The Strait-Line Grip Light is a rather unique fluorescent work light that can be positioned in almost any way one could imagine. One of the most unique and useful features of this light is its sliding hook. Depending on how you adjust this hook, the light can be clamped to an object, hung off of door panels and similar structures, or even held manually by a contoured handle! If these configurations don’t work for you, there is also a sturdy kick-stand that supports the light upright.

The light has two 13W bulbs, the clamp has a 10″ capacity, and there is even an additional power outlet. For some reason, information about the length of the power cord is omitted from the light’s product description. Althoguh Straight-Line posted the light’s instruction manual on their website the cord’s length is not mentioned there either. In the worst case scenario of a short cord, a 14 gauge or thicker extension cord can be used.

Unfortunately, since I could only find one retailer that has this innovative light in-stock, it was probably discontinued. On the brightside, Woodcraft is selling the Grip-Light for $15, with free shipping. Note that experience suggests that one should not hesitate when they see 50% discounts and clearance designations, and that it is always best to be prepared for the occasional “insufficient stock” order cancellation.

Strait-Line Grip Light Product Information
Buy it via Woodcraft