Ask the Builder

New Stanley Tools

By Tim Carter
©1993-2012 Tim Carter

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Summary: Flashlights are a thing of the past when you see the new Stanley Illumination Tools. Hands free lighting to work by. Tool boxes have gone high tech. Now toolboxes walk and talk.

What is so great here at the tool show? Well, for starters you must go see the new Stanley Illumination Tools. Most people would call them flashlights. But the new 369 Illuminator can run for 200 hours on just 9 AA batteries.

They just showed a new Stanley Maxlife 369 Flashlight that is going to rock your world.The handle of this illumination tool turns into a tripod so the light can stand up on its own allowing you to work with two hands.

You are looking at the new standard of flashlights powered by LED technology. The one lying flat is the Stanley Maxlife 369. The cool model next to it is has a rotating light head so it can aim straight up or rotate 90 degrees to aim sideways. Of course you can stop it at any point in between.

The new Stanley flashlights have some amazing hidden engineering. The lights operate on either 3, 6 or 9 AA batteries. Each of the aluminum tubes you see holds three batteries. The best part is that you can mix and match old batteries with new ones and it doesn't degrade the light power. If you do that with regular flashlights, the power from the fresh battery is pulled into the old or partially worn out battery and the light is dim. Not with these new LED flashlights from Stanley. They are bright!

So you are going to need a toolbox to store the flashlights and other hand tools, right? Well how about one that talks to you and tells you when you have not put a tool back in the toolbox?

The toolbox here is available in stores but is not equipped with any electronics. It was cool to see this radio controlled toolbox roam the convention center floor and cuddle up next to visitors. They didn't know what to think because they could not see how it was being controlled. It was very funny to watch this robotic toolbox move about and cause people to move out of its way.

This futuristic toolbox is a working prototype and if there is enough interest from consumers like you, they may bring it to the market. So how can you vote? Email me or get in touch with Stanley.

The mouth of the beast opened automatically! This motorized toolbox was assembled by a young Israeli who works indirectly for Stanley Tools. No doubt the inspiration came from R2D2 in Star Wars.

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