Tom and family travel a few miles south the Estes Park Colorado for a long weekend get away.

The week between Christmas and New Year tends to be a little slow at Trade Tool Innovations. We usually take advantage of the time off and pop in and out of town as the weather allows.
This past Christmas day we were up in Boulder Colorado preparing for our Christmas dinner and I (Karen) came [...]

Tom reviews a deep fry kit from Bass Pro Shop in honor of Thanksgiving.

One great way to save money and boost the look of your home in any kind of economy is to replace carpet yourself. Tom usually replaces living room carpet about every 3-5 years. The living room is heavy used in the Gabriel household and it is directly adjacent to Tom’s busy shop area. [...]

When traveling in the northern New Mexico area, one stop along the way that you won’t want to miss is the Visitors Center for Earthship homes. These structures are very interesting.
Earthships are buildings that are designed to be built with recycled materials. These structures take green living to it’s extreme. Each structure is basically old tires packed with earth and stacked on top of one another to form walls.

Tom explains what to look for when purchasing a new gas grill.

In this video Tom explains how to wire lights on a snowplow attached to the front of a pickup truck.  Tom is transfering a Bosch plow from a 1991 pickup to a 2004 pickup.  Tom finds himself fighting the wiring harness from the plow.  Tom has to trase the wire using a multimeter so he [...]

This video shows how Tom built his dream shop/house.  The shell of the building was ordered through Fast Trac Buildings, Inc. in Colorado.  Much of the interior of the shop and home was purchased as was needed through local building supply houses and stores like Builders Square, Lowes, and Home Depot.
The two and a half [...]

Tom and Dave test out a new air compressor.

Tom built a custom welding table for his shop.  His old welding table was built out of 1/2 inch steel plate.  After three or so years of use it began to warp slightly.  He used it primarily to weld a lot of jigs.   He ran across a guy in Nebraska who cut apart a press [...]

Tom had the chance to stop and visit with Steve Yuhl of Triton Marine Construction out of Aiea Hawaii on a recent trip to Oahu. Steve and his company, Triton Marine Construction, have modified the TTI Screedright Pro to help them repair bridge decks on interstates.
When concrete breaks out of the decks on interstates the [...]

A great new website to check out for all you decorative concrete guru’s is www.concreteideas.com The creators of the site have found a way to cut through the clutter… so to speak. High speed internet concrete fans are treated to a smooth rotation of project photo’s right off the get go. The home page is [...]

Check out a great resource we found on welding.

Tom and crew pour a slab of concrete for his new building addition using the TTI Screedright Pro.  The TTI Screedright Pro utilizes a wooden 2X4 as a screed bar.  A wooden 2X4 allows for better screeding with no expensive screed bars to purchase.  A wooden board can be cut to any length for a [...]

Â
Tom puts up the skeleton for the new steel building addition.  After the concrete footings and floor were complete, it was time to erect the steel structure.  The main frame steel is put up first.  Those are the large steel girders and serve as the main support for the metal structure.  Tom started in the [...]

Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Today Tom was busy working on a welding job at the University of Wyoming.  UW has experienced an explosion of construction growth in the past year.  Much of the building has to do with the state surplus that Wyoming enjoys from it’s mineral money.  The legislature has seen fit to allow for many upgrades and [...]

The twenty four foot portable toilet trailer that Tom is building for Honeywagon Sanitation has one last step.   Creating a good system for attaching the portable toilets insures the security, safety and ease when mounting the portable toilets for travel.  It also secures the investment a sanitation company has made in purchasing portable toilets.Â
A [...]

Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Today Tom completed wiring the lights and the charge wire for the trailer breakaway kit.   With a few tools and a little know how, anyone can complete a simple wiring job.  Tom used: fish tape, an ohm meter, wire cutter, wire stripper, soldering iron, shrink tubing and a heat gun.
A few wires were needed [...]

Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
This is the first article in our new section “Tom’s World”. When Tom quit his conventional job at the City of Laramie several years ago, his day changed dramatically. Many times we get the question: “What do you do?”. We will try and do a daily update in this section of our website.
Today Tom and [...]

Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Â
Commercial and residential structures are popping up everywhere these days with metal roofs. New buildings and remodels alike are opting for this sustainable and economic choice without compromising on architectural design and function.
Metal roofing will outlast most other roofing types. Metal roofing is more durable. Wind can lift the edges of small tiles and shingles. [...]