The Deep Satisfaction of Using Your Own Inventions

There’s a quiet satisfaction in completing a job with tools you’ve had a hand in developing. That feeling becomes even more meaningful when the work is on something personal—like my sailboat—and the tools happen to be ones our team designed and manufactured years ago.

A Small Repair, A Big Reminder

The job was simple: I needed a low-friction bumper to protect the rail on my boat where the jib furling line pulls across. Over time, the line had carved a channel into the fiberglass—something I wanted to stop before it got worse.

I picked up a 1" round rod of Delrin®, a low-friction plastic perfect for this kind of job. The plan was to cut a 90-degree section from it so it could fit snugly over the edge of the rail, then fasten it to the fiberglass without causing cracks.

Putting the Tusker Plunger Blade to Work

Enter the Tusker® TSP-101 Sidetooth Plunger Blade—a tool we designed specifically for tough cuts in both wood and plastic. I was reminded once again just how capable it is.

Cutting Delrin isn’t exactly forgiving; it melts if your blade isn’t doing the work efficiently. But our side-toothed design pulled the melted debris out as the blade worked, keeping the cut clear and the material cool enough to shape properly. The blade didn’t chatter. It didn’t gum up. It did exactly what we designed it to do—and that felt fantastic.

A Satisfying Turn of the SqueezeDriver®

Once the bumper was shaped and ready, I pre-drilled holes through it and into the rail. That’s when I turned to our old friend: the SqueezeDriver®. There's a lot to be said for cordless drills, but for this job—where feel and finesse were essential—nothing compares to the SqueezeDriver.

In ratchet mode, I had just the right amount of torque to cut threads into the fiberglass. And in squeeze mode, I could feel exactly what was happening under the screw. That sensitivity helped me avoid cracking the rail. Again, exactly as intended.

Why It Matters

When you design a product, you imagine how people will use it, the jobs it will tackle, and the problems it will solve. You test. You refine. You sweat the details. But when the user is you—when you're relying on those tools not in theory, but in the messiness of real life—it becomes something more. It becomes personal.

And when those tools deliver—when they help you solve a problem gracefully, reliably, and even elegantly—it’s hard not to feel a surge of pride. You remember why you obsessed over the curve of that handle, the bite of those teeth.

You remember why you started. There are lower risk ways to make money than inventing. But few are as satisfying.

• The Tusker Sidetooth Plunger is available on Amazon.
• You can read the SqueezeDriver story here. It's no no longer available on the market, but we are hoping to bring it back soon.