Cree Ultrafire 1800 Lumens Torch

Great little torch, very bright light output and made to a high standard. 1800 Lumens is very bright. Does the Cree Ultrafire 1800 Lumens Torch really produce 1800 Lumens, probably not. However, for a pocket sized torch it is great. It has a nice range of light from spread beam to spot light. This torch uses a T6 LED bulb, takes 3 AAA battery’s, and is also claimed to be waterproof but I wouldn’t recommend dropping it in water. Splash proof at the most. Another good feature on this torch is that it can take 26650 rechargeable battery’s. So a great choice for saving money on batteries.

G3 CREE Q5 400 Torch Review

The G3 Cree Q5 is a very small but powerful L.E.D Torch. It takes just one AA Battery and costs around £3 delivered. For the price this mini torch is a must have item for camping, night fishing, dog walking, keeping in the car for emergency, and just about any other activities where extra light is needed. A great item to have as a back up for home emergency’s like a power cut etc.

For a small, cheaply priced L.E.D torch it actually has a decent light output. It’s quite bright at short range and even at a few meters. Great little torch for the price. Check out the review videos on youtube about the G3 Cree torch made by Francis Dirnhofer, where he demonstrates how good the light is compared to others that cost more to buy. He also shows the G3 CREE Q5′s ability at close range and up to a few meters away using a spreaded light and closed point beam.

Roughneck Crowbar Sale

Crowbar, Jimmy Bar, Wrecking Bar, call it what you like, this tool has been a trusted companion within the construction and farming industry’s for many many years. It’s portable, reliable, and angled in such a way that it can help accomplish literally thousands of different tasks. It’s hard to find any other tool that is as useful or as versatile as a crowbar. The level of leverage it provides is unmatched from any other hand tool on the market. Specially within such a low price range. And with the sale price of the Roughneck Crowbar being so low it makes it the perfect solution to your problems.

It’s not only trades people that have many uses for a crowbar, many thousands of people like home owners who do jobs around their houses or gardens also find having a crowbar handy is a great help for many difficult DIY tasks. In fact, it makes many of those difficult DIY jobs fairly easy work. That’s what you get when you choose the one right tool, and a crowbar certainly is that. It can be used to dismantle furniture, fences, take up wooden flooring, floorboards, remove nails, opening hard packed delivery items, take up slabs, dismantle brickwork, removing skirting boards and door framing just to name a few. The potential uses for a crowbar are endless.

There’s only one brand that stands out if you’re looking for a very high quality, super reliable Crowbar at a shockingly cheap price. That’s Roughneck. Roughneck tools are built to last. All Roughnecks products have been made to a very high standard. There crowbars are the best you will find anywhere for the price, and also Roughneck mini spades have been a really impressive product that have withstood some serious abuse and just kept soldiering on. Roughneck is a brand you can trust to get the job done.

In terms of their crowbars some people buy the smaller, 18 inch model. However, your best bet is to go for the super heavy duty 24 inch model. It’s not only that little bit longer, giving more length and leverage, but it’s also the most cost effective option. A lot of people buy the 18 inch Crowbar only to end up wishing they had paid those few more pounds and went for the supreme heavy duty Roughneck 24 inch crowbar, which is capable of bringing a house down in the right hands! A very impressive, well made Crowbar. Both sizes are made from Forged Steel so buying a Roughneck Crowbar is a smart £10 investment in a product that will last many many years. Available on sale at Amazon for around a tenner. Just do an Amazon search for "Roughneck Crowbar".

The Best Waterproof Matches

Waterproof matches are very portable and definitely you’re best friend in those times of need where fire, light, or survival is of the utmost importance. Stay away from waterproof matches that are supplied in a normal, cardboard box. There are so many complaints from people that bought these types of waterproof match kits to use while camping or out in the wilderness only to be left disappointed because the box that houses that matches got wet, leading to the matches becoming wet or damp.

 

Buy these matches (UK, USA and Canada)

As you may know, even with matches that are waterproof and windproof, once they get wet / damp you will have a hard time trying to get one to ignite. Just at the time when you really need the matches to work, your wet and cold, they let you down! How convenient.

This is why you should only ever buy waterproof matches that are supplied with a high quality storage container, preferably with a striking column so you always have a surface that you can light the matches from. This is why the UCO Waterproof match kit has to be featured on this site. The UCO waterproof storm match kit is one of the absolute best available. You need look no further. This is the ultimate survival match kit!

The match charges are very similar to the grade that the military use on training exercises, and also carry with them in there supplies while on tour etc. UCO matches can be ignited and placed into a bucket of water and still they will not go out until all of the charge has burnt out. You can also stamp on it, throw water on it,  even bury it, The UCO match will still not go out while the charge is burning. 

The matches themselves are bigger and thicker than an average match. In fact, well over twice as big, so when you light a UCO match you can be sure that, due to the extra burn time, and Terminator like resistance, it will give you a much better chance of achieving the desired task under bad weather conditions.

The match container is very impressive. It is thick, waterproof, and also has a rubber ring around the screw cap to keep water and moisture out. When we say keeping water out this includes the container being totally submerged under water and still remaining completely dry inside. It comes in different colours and features a striking column on the side, complete with some spare striking columns for when the original column wears down.

Find them for sale here

One quick tip: It’s recommended that when you are not using the matches that you remove the striking column, which is easily removed, and insert it into the container. This will prevent the striking column from getting wet, which could make lighting the matches a bit  more difficult. Make sure the column remains dry and you’ll encounter no problems.

The match container itself can also be run over by a car and still remain perfectly intact. There are lots of “waterproof” match kits available but not many that are truly waterproof when it comes to withstanding very bad weather conditions and rough treatment. 

The UCO waterproof match kit passes the acid test with flying colours. Awesome performance and reliability. Don’t believe all the facts written in this article? I wouldn’t either.  Check out the video below and see for yourself how good these waterproof matches really are.

Ratchet Socket Set From Bahco

Cheap Socket sets are available to buy online. Some are not too bad for the price, while others literally fall apart after a few uses. I guess there is a reason why some are sold so cheap. Did you know that you can buy a 40 piece socket set with a ratchet for £5. That also includes free delivery! How do they do it. It sounds like a great deal, but if you were to spend a little time and search for the feedback that the buyer left for this item it’s almost always not very good. Fell apart after a few uses is the most common.

If you want a quality product that will last a long time you will have to spend that bit more money. Luckily, as far as Ratchet sockets sets go, the money gap between buying quality and total rubbish isn’t that far apart. Bahco is one of the best makers of high quality, low priced Ratchet sets. They are a proven performer and really do offer the best quality possible for the price.

This high quality Bahco 25 piece Socket set is exceptional value for the price. It comes complete with a 1/4 inch ratchet with one touch release, bit holder, extension bar for those hard to reach places, 12 sockets, 2 HEX bits, 2 Philips heads, 6 TORX bits of the most common sizes, all fitting nice and neat in it’s very own storage box. This 25 piece set is much more then just a socket set due to the wide range of different head attachments it’s supplied with.

As a result of the many different attachments supplied with this set, it can be used for hundreds more different jobs around the house, at work, or in the shed, as well as for fixing push bikes, lawn mowers, white goods, motorbike repairs, and for anyone who’s in the construction or engineering professions. In fact, this particular socket set, the Bahco SL25, has become a tool box favourite for many people from a very wide range of working environments and hands on professions due to it’s excellent quality, small size, and wide array of uses.

LED Lenser 8407 P7 Torch Review

The Lenser 8407 P7 is a hand held LED torch capable of producing an excellent source of light, whether that be close up or at a considerable distance. It packs a real punch, boasting a true 200 lumen output. It takes 4 AAA batteries which will last around 130 hours if you use good quality batteries like Duracell's or Energizer's. Lenser P7 is a favourite amongst the Police due to it’s reliability, high light output, and excellent versatility beam in a wide range of situations. 

 

Read over 1000 reviews for the Lenser P7

The Lenser P7 has a low and high light mode so you can either use less light and less battery power, or go for a full power, very bright light if you need to. Great feature. Make no mistake, this torch is more expensive than your average LED torch of similar size, but when you feel the build quality and see the torch in action it’s clear to see why this torch costs more than the others. LED Lenser torches are far superior to any other LED torches in terms of light output and quality.

 LED Lenser 8407 P7 Torch Video Review

More P7 Information

Many people who have bought the LED Lenser 8407 P7 Torch have been left shocked and pleased at just how powerful this LED torch really is. Check out the review video above, where it demonstrates the Lenser P7′s light beam at various focus settings and distances. "ledlenserp7lumens" #Core

Bahco S330 Ratchet Socket Set

For someone looking to spend less money but wanting to end up with a quality Bahco product you have the 25 Piece Bahco SL25 Ratchet Socket Set. But for those who want to spend a little more, not much more, say hello to it’s big brother, the ever reliable 33 Piece Bahco S330 Ratchet Socket Set. This set features a 1/4 and 3/8 Square Drive Ratchet sockets. The quality of the Bahco S330 is second to none for the price. Saying that, all Bahco products are top quality. The Swedish company is renowned for producing great tools.

And with the S330, it’s not just the tools themselves that are great quality but also the heavy duty oil resistant case. A nice finishing touch that compliments the socket set very well. This set is ideal for anyone that uses and depends on a socket set in there line of work on a daily basis. It’s also equally as good for the average DIYer or occasional item repairer who wants quality tools when the opportunity presents itself. Tools that will last for many years.

Roughneck Mini Spade Sale

The Roughneck Mini Spade is a great little digging companion. It’s very popular within the construction industry for completing all those little jobs that need a smaller, lighter, and more convenient spade for working in confined area’s, which would be much tougher going with a full sized spade. Other then the construction industry this spade is also popular among gardeners because it’s so light but still very strong. It makes easy work of planting shrubs, small trees, and any other jobs that need doing around the garden. Great also for digging out snow and keeping in the boot of your car in case of an emergency, like getting stuck in mud etc.

Out of all the people who buy this spade the most popular is without doubt the metal detecting community. This is the perfect spade for metal detecting. It’s extremely strong but also very lightweight so you can carry it for hours and not feel fatigued. It can handle all types of ground conditions from very soft to hard ground that has frozen solid because of winter weather. The Roughneck Mini Spade can even handle clay.

Unlike other spades such as the small fold away army style spades that are supposedly perfect for metal detecting, Roughneck mini spades do not bend easily under pressure. Have you ever used a fold away spade for metal detecting. If so you will be aware of how unsuitable they are. They are far too small, and as a result every time you need to dig a hole you have to get down on your hands and knees, unless of course your around 6 years old and can use it standing. Great for a kid but not for an adult. Also, in any kind of soil that’s pretty stiff they have a tendency to bend under the pressure and the rivets that hold the spade head to the shaft will come loose.

The Roughneck Mini Spade has no rivets, it’s an all in one piece of steel until it’s half way up the shaft, and then it’s bolted, which means it’s much more suited for real life use and abuse and does not come loose easily. And being made from steel it won’t bend easily under the pressure of hard ground digging. This spade will last you many years, and for the price it’s on sale for it’s a no brainer. The only mini spade that can rival the Roughneck is the Draper Mini Spade, which is almost equally as good.

Garrett EuroAce Metal Detector

The Garrett Ace 250 was made for the USA. If you have an Ace 250, or have seen the LCD screen you would have noticed that the symbols are in USA currency. This means that although the Ace 250 works really well in the UK on UK coins, it was made for US coins and US soil.

The Garrett EuroAce, the names a dead give away, was made specifically for the European market. It is a better machine than the Ace 250. It has a bigger coil and can detect slightly deeper targets. Air tests on the Euro Ace tend to be around 8 – 11 inches on various objects like coins, gold rings etc. With the bigger objects like relics obviously performing better. It has good discrimination capabilities and it makes all the same sounds as the Ace 250.

The EuroAce operates at a higher frequency (8.25 kHz), which is meant to be better at detecting thin gold and silver items like jewelry, rings, ear rings etc. Both detectors work really well and will find the goodies at decent depths if they are there.

But if your a beginner to metal detecting you would probably be wise to save some money and go for the Ace 250. For the extra £70 – £90 you pay for the EuroAce you get a bit more depth, slightly better Iron discrimination, and a bigger coil. If you’ve already owned an Ace 250 and really liked using it, then the EuroAce is the appropriate upgrade.

Pioneer VSA - E03 Amp Remote Price

I have a Pioneer VSA - E03 AV Amp that I'm selling. It's a superb Amp. While doing a bit of research online I strayed off a little and found out that the VSA - E03 remote is programmable so it can be used to control other devices like Televisions, other Amps etc. So it's definitely a good remote. However, the price I seen someone selling it for was unbelievable. On Amazon the price of a Pioneer VSA - E03 Remote is over £***. If you don't believe me search in Google for: PIONEER VSA-E03 Original Remote Control. Or just click the following link to see it for sale on Amazon UK: PIONEER VSA-E03 Original Remote Control.

Why is the remote so expensive when you can buy the Amp with the remote included for around £40 - £50 on eBay..I figure it's probably because they have now been discontinued so are hard to get as a single item. Either that or the seller is just over pricing his stock. But over £*** for the remote- that's just crazy.

Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 Camera Review

Is this one of most under rated or over looked little cameras around? It certainly seems so. I have owned a Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 camera for about 6 years. And after all those years it still works perfectly, and keeps on amazing me with it's reliability and excellent pictures. Samsung cameras on the whole have really shocked me with their ease of use and superb quality pictures. For a company that doesn't specialise specifically in just cameras, they really do make a good one.

The Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 is a 5 mega pixel camera, and in today's market with their being more mega pixels now available for the camera in your mobile phone, the Samsung U-CA 5 camera would be laughed at by most. The professional reviews of the Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 would make you think it's the worst camera ever made! Don't believe them. This is a good little camera that does what it's supposed to - take good pictures. No one expects it to be a DSLR, well except the "expert" reviewers. If anyone is expecting DSLR quality from this camera, then I guess there in for a shock.

The Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 camera has 3 key features. Taking pictures, recording video, and recording audio. There is a push switch at the top of the camera that makes it as easy as just moving the switch from side to side to change which one option you want to use. With just a 64mb memory card it can record  4:16 of video, 1 hour 35 minutes audio, or take 257 pictures with super fine quality enabled. This camera has loads of manual settings to tailor certain picture types. Popular pictures like fireworks, beach & snow, night, portrait, children, landscape, close up, text, sunset and dawn. These are most of the manual modes you can set this camera to. To be honest, I most just use auto a lot of the time and that's good enough for most picture types.

I have never upgraded my Samsung U-CA 5 and it still has the same 64mb memory card that it came with the day I bought it. I know that memory cards are really cheap, specially a 1GB, and if I needed one I would upgrade. But the truth is it's never, or I've never needed it. With just 64mb It has the capacity to take 257 pictures at the smallest size which is 640 x 480. This size is perfect for most of my pictures. If you are not sure of how big that size is just take a look at any of the pictures on this website that I have taken, they are all 640 x 480 in size (when clicked and enlarged) and were all taken with my trusty Samsung U-CA 5, mostly on auto setting. Obviously if you were to up the size the quality would have to be compromised. Using the camera with the smallest image size available and with the "super fine" image quality option enabled, this is probably the best setting for achieving high quality images.

A few days ago I borrowed a Kodak Easyshare C195 camera, which is 14.1 mega pixels. Or so it says. After using the Kodak it was clear that it didn't even come close to the quality and clearness that can be achieved from using the Samsung U-CA 5. Add to that the cheap plastic feel of the Kodak, the very confusing options and terrible flash, and I think it's safe to say that I would never consider buying a Kodak camera. Sorry Kodak fans.

I love insects and nature

I was reading reviews on some highly regarded cameras the other day, and though out the process of looking through many different cameras and reviews, one thing I read from 3 separate people was that they had the Samsung U-CA 5 and were looking to upgrade, so they took the plunge and bought a better camera and couldn't believe that it wasn't miles better than their trusty old Samsung U-CA 5. I'm not saying that the U-CA 5 is the best camera in the world, or even the best point and shoot in its class, but for what it is, and with it being just 5 mega pixels, it really performs much better than expected. It takes great pictures!

It does have a few downfalls though, one being the video mode. Once you have pressed record you can't use the zoom anymore while it's recording video. And the video quality is pretty bad for 2019. Also the shutter speed is pretty slow. But don't we love a few drawbacks. No camera has everything.

The Samsung U-CA 5 has an SHD lens with 2.5x zoom. A 2.5x zoom doesn't seem lot with what's available today, but it's actually not too bad for normal picture taking.

After all these years of use the battery of my U-CA 5 still holds a charge like it did when I first bought it, which I have never experienced with any other product, not just cameras.

Samsung Digimax U-CA 5 cameras must be going for Penny's these days. Although I don't think many places sell them anymore because it's an older model. but you can buy one if it's big brothers for pretty cheap. And if the U-CA 5's anything to go by, I'll bet the newer models must be great too. Actually, that's not always the case. 

If you are looking for a small camera that can take good pictures and you don't want to spend much money, the Digimax range is a very good choice. A Second hand buy would be very cheap now. I just had a look. Some can be bought cheap, but some sellers on eBay actually want like £40 - £50.That's a bit steep considering you can now buy a nice Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ28 (used condition) Bridge or similar for that type of money. Still, if you can find a U-CA 5 cheap, like £15 - £20, they are well worth considering.

Update: I still have this camera and it still works. However, it has become faulty after being dropped a few times. But still, it is the most reliable camera I've even owned, giving me well over a decade of trouble free picture taking. I have upgraded to a Samsung WB500. A pretty good cheap upgrade, but not as good in auto mode. But, to its credit it is much better at recording video and makes a great car dashcam. Overall the pictures are good also.

My Seagate External Hard Drive Broke

I bought this Seagate 1TB External Hard Drive about 8 months ago and it's been great, no problems with it at all. Then today I tried to plug the USB cable into the connector on the hard drive casing and the connector snapped, falling inside the hard drive casing..So, after opening the case I see that the connector has completely broken off the motherboard circuit inside.

I managed to press the broken connector down really hard onto the board in the spot where it was originally attached, and lone behold, it worked. So the 1000GB hard drive still works perfectly. After about 5 minutes of holding this piece on the board my thumb was aching!

At least the hard drives still good!

So now I have a few choices, I can either buy a soldering kit and solder the connector back on to the board, buy a new SATA hard drive enclosure, or just buy an IDE, SATA to USB converter kit. I think I'll go with the converter kit as it can be used many times and costs about the same as a soldering kit. Also, with the SATA to USB converter kit it can be used for all other hard drives of all types and sizes, like IDE drives, Laptop drives etc, so it seems like a really good buy. Then again, I might take the risk and buy another external hard drive, but not a Seagate! Toshiba 1 TB USB 3.0 External Hard Drive seems to be a good choice. The reviews make me think this external drive might last longer then a few months. Price isn't too bad as well.

Comfast Wireless USB WiFi Adapter

After my last Wifi adapter started to play up I thought I’d better go and buy another one before it stops working completely. My last one was a full sized USB adapter that is very easy to knock on accident due to it just hanging out the back of my laptop. So this time I thought I’d get one of those tiny USB adapters because they are much smaller and less likely to get knocked.

So I had a look on Amazon and ended up buying a tiny USB Wifi Adapter. Some people call them a Nano adapter. In fact, I think that may be the correct term. The exact model I bought is a Comfast 802.11b/g/n 150Mbps Mini Nano USB Adapter.

Once it arrived I thought Great. No more using a book to hold my old faulty Wifi adapter in place so it stays connected to the Internet. Straight away I had problems. The mini driver disc that came with the adapter did not work in my CD ROM drive. The CD ROM drive wouldn’t even detect that there was a disc in the drive.

So I took the disc up to my desktop computer. My Asus CDRW wouldn’t even detect the disc, and that drive usually picks up any disk. It was only when I put this miniature disc in my DVD ROM that it just about worked. First it worked and then it would vanish, so I would end up being asked to “Enter a disc into Drive D”, when the disk was already in there. Very annoying.

Finally, the disc stayed readable for long enough for me to copy and paste all the files to my computer. From there I installed the Comfast Driver for XP and it worked very well. Surfing the Internet is fast and I have no complaints as far as the speed of the adapter is concerned. However, it was quite annoying to have been supplied with an obviously faulty disk. And to mess about copying drivers onto flash drives in order to install the required drivers on my laptop.

Also, I thought that this adapter would be totally concealed except for the tiny square block that houses the circuit board but it isn’t fully concealed. Check out the picture below to see how much is still exposed. That is with the adapter pushed in as far as it will go. I guess the manufacturers made it like that so the user has something to grab onto when taking it out of the USB slot

I don’t mean to just point out all the bad points of this adapter, it does work well once installed. These are just a few niggles that I thought would point out so a potential buyer of this product knows what to expect. A good alternative product is the Edimax EW-7811Un 150 Mbps Wireless 11n Nano Size USB Adapter.