It’s the end of the year, the transitional period between peak holiday deals and regular content seasons.
There are still plenty of tool deals, but the “WOW, that’s a great bargain” ones either ended or sold out, and you probably don’t need to be reminded about the best of the rest.
I spend some time this part of the year recovering and doing some ToolGuyd housecleaning – literally and figuratively.
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The image above is of the Husky Pro mobile workbench I reviewed a few years ago. You can still buy it from Home Depot, but only in black.
META HELP?
Before we get into things, Does anyone know someone at META that can potentially help a friend? Their business Facebook page was taken over by scammers, and every round of support has led to “we don’t see a problem.” It looks like their Instagram page is also now compromised.
The impact has been devastating, and my friend is considering shuttering their business.
It seems like a hopeless situation, but maybe we can get the attention of someone who can help get this resolved. Please?
2026 Planning
As usual, I am starting to recover from the chaotic November-long Black Friday build-up. It’s always a lot of fun, but also exhausting, and I get tired of all the deal posts.
Things are slow this time of year, and so I usually take the opportunity to plan out 2026.
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I’m still working on a site redesign. Even before that, you might see some experimentation with post formats, styles, and maybe limited page navigation tests. I don’t have much updates there.
The goal right now is to get in more workshop time, but that still allows for some content, review, and project planning.
Tool Review Suggestions & Requests?
I still have some test sample funds leftover – do you have any tool review suggestions or requests?
More 3D printing content or reviews? I have a bunch of offers for review samples, and also have test sample funds for trying other options.
A lot of 3D printing content topics (e.g. how to get started, why to get one, etc.) are saturated, and so it didn’t make sense to add more of the same to the mix. That said, we can explore requested topics.
The same goes for most other types of tools. I can’t accommodate everything, but I can try to work in as many reader requests as possible.
Project Content Plans
Once I’ve made more progress with ToolGuyd’s site redesign, I intend to relaunch an adjacent site for maker-type projects that I have been putting off for a very long time.
For example, there’s a robotic/mechatronic project I have wanted to work on. I can make a small panning and tilting platform. I can mount a light payload to it. I can program it for wired control, maybe even wireless. Scale it up and switch to autonomous control? That’ll require a lot of small skill-building projects I still haven’t gotten around to.
My goal is to increase the amount of time I give to projects like that, and hopefully a place to occasionally share progress will help ensure steady progress. It makes sense to host that content separately, there could potentially be a lot of it over time.
I used to do freelance work for magazines, but that’s no longer viable. So, I’ll create project logs outside of ToolGuyd, and potentially expand upon different topics as needed. Since most projects will involve tools, I can put relevant tool content here and expand upon the project or parts aspects there.
There are other places to host content (such as Instructables), but I’d rather be in full control of my content.
Even though some of my project content will go outside of ToolGuyd, there’s a reason I bring this up.
Off-Topic Reviews?
And that’s because I’m also thinking about more off-topic content here.
A company reached out and invited me to review their gaming chair. Wow, a free gaming chair! meh. Other tool reviewers featured their products, but I do NOT intend to and declined.
From a business sense, maybe I could have found use for a new chair. Maybe it could have been a paid sponsorship opportunity. But the chair looked generic and a review sounded boring, and that’s why I declined.
If I find it boring, so will you.
A mattress company wanted to partner with me over the summer – that was also a hard “no.”
A company sent me an invite for a makeup sample package. I asked them why they thought that ToolGuyd would be a good fit, and they never responded. So I filled out the form and am curious if they’ll actually send it. No, that wasn’t the strangest “collab” opportunity pitched to me.
An idea did come up over the weekend – something I saw sparked my curiosity about European-style stand mixers where the motor is on the bottom.
I tried finding info online, and so many of the reviews were of the “look at ME” type of shallow time-wasting influencer content. 10 minutes later and I didn’t actually learn anything useful.
So, I spoke to my boss and convinced them that “kitchen tools” are still tools, and that this one might be worth exploring. They green-lighted the sample purchase.
Thus, you’re probably going to see a review on that at some point, maybe as a “weekend review” that doesn’t take away from regular content.
I do veer off-topic on occasion – see I’m Trying out an Oxo Nylon Grill Brush.
Are there any off-topics you’d like to see explored or reviewed, potentially as part of a regular roundup post?
Any Other Ideas, Suggestions, Requests, Feedback?
I can’t promise I can accommodate everything, but I consider all feedback and requests.
Questions?
Ryan
Is there a reason why you want to put the maker stuff on another site? I guess depending upon what it is, it may fit here.
IMO, there’s a lack of information regarding the practical uses of 3D printing. There’s a good thread on GarageJournal with people’s practical 3D printer
projects, but the bulk of content is something along the lines of “here’s a file you can download and print” and “I’m printing a Star Wars head.”
For me, the 3D printer is another tool. I believe there to be a market for content catered towards people who believe similarly.
As for non-tool reviews, YMMV. I’m only one person and I only speak for myself, but there’s nothing more annoying than a tool site/channel that starts “reviewing” random Chinese junk that’s not tool related. See: Den of Tools and the power banks, chairs, etc. l
Stuart
For here, I might only feature a summary of the final result. On a separate site, I can go into more granular details.
One thing I’ve wanted to do is automate a nerf blaster. One particular newer style features a spring and piston pump, and I can’t find examples of how it operates internally. So, a breakdown might help with that, and be in its own post, kind of in lieu of a lab or project notebook.
That’s not exactly suitable for a ToolGuyd post.
A skill-building project required sourcing retaining compound for some of the bearings. That was appropriate for here (https://toolguyd.com/retaining-compound-selection/ ).
For 3D printing, my biggest challenge is designing, going from concept to result. I always seem to find a lot of content where someone goes through steps A1, A2, and A3, and then all of a sudden they’re done with step Z. I’ll be exploring that more, as I have a lot to learn, but it’s also not strictly tool content.
Content creation is difficult these days, and messy. It can be a challenge to balance “what the audience wants,” “what the algorithms will show to more people,” and “what I’m interested in.”
Frankly speaking, posting about no-name and cheap tools on Amazon, Walmart, or other marketplaces gets a lot of interest and affiliate clicks. Thus, *not* posting about such leaves money on the table.
More people are searching for cheap tools, cheap machines, cheap lifestyle tech and accessories, and so there’s potentially a lot of money to be made there.
Vevor? They offer a lot to reviewers. I never accepted because I don’t see it as good stuff. They have a walk-behind floor push sweeper https://www.amazon.com/VEVOR-Floor-Sweeper-Non-Electric-Adjustable/dp/B0CF212GM3/?tag=toolguyd-20 for around $85, and Amazon says they sold 5K+ in the past month. A post about that would definitely make some money.
Let’s say you were a content creator. Would you post about “random junk that’s not tool-related” for $100? $500? $1,000? More? It can be hard to turn down money.
If a sample opportunity aligns with my interests, I might accept. But there’s a high bar for what’s interesting and suitable. I never forget that I am lucky to be able to have this choice, and that might not always be true.
With the mixer that came up, I couldn’t find a review I found helpful. I can’t be the only one wondering, so ToolGuyd ordered one. It’s about what I want to explore, rather than what is pitched for me to feature or promote.
It can be a tightrope, which is also why I felt it worth bringing up.
Josh R
Oddly enough, everything I’ve bought from Vevor has worked fine, and it’s usually dramatically cheaper. I’m usually pretty picky about what I buy from them though.
Rick
“Any Other Ideas, Suggestions, Requests, Feedback?”
How about the best and worst new products in 2025?
Stuart
I usually don’t post about the worst ones. “Best” with respect to what was new, what I’ve tested, or readers found interesting?
“Worst” would be AI nonsense. Google inserted a post into my news feed that claimed Home Depot filed for bankruptcy (they didn’t).
Daniel
ToolGuyd website….
The comment section will contain some great comments. Would be great to click like on a comment. I don’t really feel the need for a dislike, but having the ability to acknowledge a good comment would be cool.
Will
Wish I could provide some help re: Meta/Facebook. My original Facebook page, which I had for nearly 20 years, was hacked a few years ago. There was/is no ready customer support for getting it back. The person who took it over asked for $1,500 to return control to me. I never replied, and luckily the page has remained dormant with no changes for years.
Adam
Sorry to hear about your friend’s Facebook and IG pages. I actually have the opposite problem, in that I created a FB business page for a carpentry business I had at the time and despite being out of that business for around 13 years, haven’t figured out how to delete the page and dissociate it from my main account. I get the feeling they really don’t want people deleting their presence on the site, though they obviously don’t much care when it falls into the wrong hands.
A small business I know of had their IG account taken over a few years ago and they ended up creating a new page using underscores where there used to be spaces and DM’ing all their known followers to let them know what happened. TBH, that seemed to work well enough for them in the long run, since once a majority of an account’s followers migrate elsewhere, there’s really no value in it to the thief, I’d imagine.
Aaron SD
The site is fantastic with great content. I check it a couple times a day.
One thing I don’t think covered was inflators, whether car tires or sports balls. Can the small cheap ones really work as advertised?
The business side of tools is also interesting and seems to be covered well now.
What about other trade shows outside of Dewalt and Milwaukee events? They showcase small companies making unique tools. I’ll see something interesting once in awhile in reels.
KC
I would like to see a review / comparison of some of the multi-head drills that have been introduced recently. I know that both Dewalt and Milwaukee make them. Perhaps adding interest would be how they compare to the Festool option that’s been around for a while. Thanks in advance for the consideration.