December 01, 2020 12 min read
How do you buy the perfect gift for the mechanic who has it all? You’ve seen their garage and they look like they own a small tool shop that would make a NASCAR pit crew jealous. We will provide you a large list of very unique gift ideas with a nice budget range to choose from that are sure to wow them when they rip open their gift.
The Best Mechanic’s Gift ideas will include things that make their work area easier to see, safer to be in, are designed for repetitive use, durable for dropping, designed for tight spaces, frees up their hands, and improves their work efficiency on their projects.
Typical Mechanics gifts like tool sets are a nice idea, but they can leave your mechanical expert a little disappointed because one, they might already have it and two because your thoughtful gift may not hold up to their tough work environment.
Here at STKR Concepts we think a little outside of the box and can provide you gift ideas that will leave your mechanic wondering how they ever functioned before they got your gift.
To help break down this gift article we are going to use cost as your budget may be what will ultimately decide what present you give your mechanic.
Table of Contents: |
Gifts for Mechanics $10 and Under |
Gifts for Mechanics $10 to $30 |
Gifts for Mechanics $30 to $50 |
Gifts for Mechanics $50 to $100 |
Gifts for Mechanics $100+ |
Mechanical Carpenter Pencil $3.99
Reusable/Washable Cotton Face Mask - B.A.M.F.F. $4.99
Simple Sucker Flexible Phone Mount $6.99
Magnetic Light Mine Hands-Free LED Light $6.99
Tough Skin $7.99
The Mechanical Carpenter Pencil is a new take on a very old design. The carpenters’ pencil is a wide and flat pencil used by carpenters and similar tradesmen to mark cut lines on their material. These pencils are used similarly to a normal pencil except when it comes time to sharpen them.
The most common way to do so is for the tradesperson is to pull out a utility knife (sometimes known as a box cutter) and literally sit there and whittle a nice sharpened pencil tip. This definitely isn’t always the safest thing to do as the chances of cutting yourself are way up.
This leads to another downside which is that because of this more haphazard way of chipping away at the tip to get it sharpened, it makes the pencil much shorter at a quicker pace.
That’s where the Mechanical Pencil from STKR Concepts comes in. The body is the same small shape of a standard carpenter’s pencil but it uses interchangeable lead strips that can be locked into place and released using your thumb on the end in the same way a regular mechanical pencil works.
The B.A.M.F.F. Reusable/Washable Cotton Face Mask is one of those gifts that says “if you have to wear one, why not wear one you actually want to wear”. That’s right, this COVID-19 thing has really become just another part of life and so has seeing and wearing facemasks.
Because we all have to wear them, why not personalize the experience. This may even help your mechanic with actually wanting to put one on every time as this one is a little cheeky and in your face with STKR’s bold B.A.M.F.F. branding.
The Simple Sucker Flexible Phone Mount is essentially two small suction cups attached back to back via a flexible spine. Because of this simple design, the uses are only limited by your imagination. These can be handy in the car as a way to attach your phone to the glass and have a safe and stationary GPS experience.
The simple sucker is also useful in the kitchen when you are cooking and need YouTube’s advice, or at the gym on a treadmill, or at work multitasking between a laptop screen and a phone screen. All you need is a clean, flat, non-porous surface to mount to and a phone with a clean flat backside and you’ve got a connection.
They come in five fun colors and the flexible body can bend and adjust to almost any phone mounting scenario. That bendable body is also a great place to wrap around and store earbuds.
The Magnetic Light Mines are small and very unique flashlights. They are spherical and about the size of a golf ball and are rhythmically covered in rare earth magnets making them look like an underwater sea mine.
These small magnetic flashlights are great for mechanics as they are constantly working on or around metal objects that these tiny lights could attach to and help your mechanic see what they’re doing hands-free. They also work well on the ground as the ‘mine’ shape of the magnets gives the light a tripod to stand on letting you set the light down under the car, for example, and direct the light upwards at the bottom side of the car.
The Tough Skin Palm Protectors are a completely different take on the work glove. Right away you’ll notice that these actually aren’t gloves at all, but are actually a thin layer of “NAME” that has the perfect shape to protect your palm and the webbing in between your thumb and pointer finger from things like calluses and blisters.
As someone that has put on my fair share of work gloves, I can tell you that your gloves are only as effective as they are comfortable. Meaning, if they aren’t comfortable to wear then they will only be used when absolutely necessary or not at all.
Some of the major drawbacks to most work gloves are how hot they get and how uncomfortable and sweaty that becomes. Well, with the Tough Skin palm protectors it’s like driving around with the top down as the gripping surfaces of your hand stay protected while the rest of your hand is open and free.
Light Mine Pro $24.99
STKR T-Shirt - Next Level Premium $24.99
Garage Parking Sensor $29.99
B.A.M.F.F. 2.0 Dual LED Tactical Flashlight $29.99
Flexit Auto Flexible Flashlight $29.99
Flexit 2.0 Flexible Flashlight $29.99
If you liked the looks of the small light mines in the section above but want something bigger then you’re in luck because the baseball-sized Light Mine Pro is the big brother to the smaller golf ball-sized Magnetic Light Mines.
Not only does this mine just feel bigger and beastier, it puts out 15 times more light than it’s little counterparts coming in at 220 lumens. Another very large difference is that the Light mine Pro also features a Red light night mode.
The red light can be used in the always on position to give you night vision as it will keep your eyes from dilating. Using extremely bright light under extremely dark circumstances can create a very harsh contrast. The red light can also be switched to a strobe function giving you a perfect roadside hazard light that can be magnetically attached to the side or back of your vehicle.
If you have a mechanic in your immediate family and know how hard it can be to find clothes to buy them that they’ll actually wear then an STKR Next Level T-Shirt might be just the find you needed. It’s definitely not your dad’s old tool shirt as this black shirt features the bold red STKR logo on three different sides with contrasting white STKR letters across the front.
Next on the gift list coming in just under $30 we have a Garage Parking Sensor. While this may be a one-solution product in many people's garages, a mechanic could use this for multiple reasons.
It's essentially an electronic stop sign that can fit in the palm of your hand that's equipped with a laser that can be custom-set to gauge distances from 6 inches to 6 feet in your garage or shop.
So if your mechanic is constantly moving large things around by themselves like vehicles into tiny spaces like garage work bays then something like this could communicate to them how close they're getting by using green, yellow, and red traffic light signals.
The next product is actually one out of six tactical flashlights that we currently offer in our B.A.M.F.F. tactical flashlight lineup.
The B.A.M.F.F. 2.0 Tactical Flashlight is our entry model but it's still a very capable flashlight and includes one of the most important features that every one of the B.A.M.F.F. flashlights has, Dual LED technology.
These tactical flashlights have a primary LED spot light to see far distances and are equipped with a secondary LED flood light that fills the area directly near you. This pair of LEDs makes for a best of the most worlds scenario lighting up everything around you and out in front of you.
The next gift idea for your mechanic that's just under 30 bucks is the Flexit Auto Flexible Flashlight. This flashlight is part of a series of flexible flashlights with a magnetic base that STKR Concepts has to offer.
This particular model is designed to be kept in your car in the same way you would keep a spare tire or jumper cables as it's designed for roadside hazard assistance.
The flexit auto is designed with a similar triangular shape to that of a traffic cone and also features forward trouble lighting and red rear caution lighting for oncoming traffic.
The last present suggestion in the ten to thirty dollar category is the Flexit 2.0 Flexible Flashlight. Just like the last suggestion, it's part of our line of flexible flashlights with magnetic bases.
The flexit 2.0 has a large square body that is bendable, moldable, and shapeable. This can make for different light beams such as flood, spot, or even 360° lighting just by changing the shape of the light body.
B.A.M.F.F. 4.0 Dual LED Tactical Flashlight $34.99
B.A.M.F.F. 4.0XL Dual LED Tactical Flashlight $39.99
FLEXiT Headlamp 2.5 $39.99
FLEXiT 4.0 Flexible Flashlight w/Focus Spot Light $39.99
FLEXiT Solar Flexible Flashlight $49.99
The Mobile Task Light $49.99
In the $30 to $50 range we have a wide variety of lighting options that are past just your entry level flashlight. Everything that we've suggested in the previous budget ranges have been lights in the 250 lumen or under category.
A lumen is a measurement of brightness. Click here to check out our other article to dive deep into lumens, lux, and brightness.
The B.A.M.F.F. 4.0 Dual LED Tactical Flashlight just barely breaks into this budget category but for the small upgrade in cost you get double the lumens over the 2.0.
These two lower-end models come with a 'AAA' battery cartridge that lets you use disposable batteries or you can take that cartridge out and purchase an optional lithium ion rechargeable battery like what comes in the higher end BAMFF tactical models.
The B.A.M.F.F. 4.0XL looks like 4.0's bigger brother on steroids. Of all our tactical flashlights, this is the only one outside of our normal tactical size. The 4.0XL comes in at 7.4” long by 1.45” in diameter whereas the rest of the B.A.M.F.F. line comes in at 5.1” in length by 1.2” in diameter.
The full size of flashlight allows for a larger AA cartridge meaning that you can put larger capacity batteries in and will therefore last much longer than its little brothers.
Next on the list is one of our headlamps, the Flexit headlamp 2.5. This wearable light is very light weight at only 5.8 oz and features a flexible main CREE LED in the center for distance lighting and four smaller stationary LEDs arranged on either side for close-up peripheral lighting.
Almost everything a mechanic does involves holding something in one hand and a tool in the other hand so the idea of a hands-free lighting gift would be much appreciated and extremely useful.
The FLEXiT 4.0 Flexible Flashlight is similar to its sibling the 2.0 mentioned earlier in the article in that it also has a square flexible body that can be molded and shaped around objects for a number of different lighting scenarios.
What makes the 4.0 a step up is that it's not only lined with rows of single LEDs just like the 2.0, but it also has a main Cree LED spotlight right in the center. The 4.0 also boasts 400 lumens making it twice as bright as the 2.0.
The FLEXiT Solar is the Cadillac of STKR's flexible flashlight series. Like it's predecessors, it features a flexible shape-loc flexible and bendable body, a Cree spot LED and rows of single LEDs, and a magnetic base with hanging hook.
Where the FLEXiT Solar shines (pardon the painfully obvious pun) is that it contains a built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery that can be charged up using its built-in solar panel or USB port.
The last suggestion in this budget category is probably the brightest work light you'll find for the money.
The Mobile Task Light is a modern day flood lamp that is perfect for project lighting as it can be set down or hung on something and then the light can be directed at the desired work area.
The small aluminum panel about the size of your hand can put out about 1,200 lumens making it an amazingly bright portable light. That aluminum panel is attached on one side to the bottom frame similar to a door hinge connection making it rotatable for directional lighting. It has built in lithium ion batteries and is charged via USB.
3 Gallon EZ Utility Jug w/hose bender spout $54.99
5 Gallon EZ Utility Jug w/hose bender spout $69.99
Optional EZ Floor Mount $19.99
FLEXiT Headlamp Pro $59.99
B.A.M.F.F. 6.0 Dual LED Tactical Flashlight $59.99
B.A.M.F.F. 8.0 Dual LED Tactical Flashlight $79.99
B.A.M.F.F. 10.0 Dual LED Tactical Flashlight w/Gun Mount $99.99
First up in the $50 to $100 range we have two utility jugs, a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon EZ Utility jug. These jugs are great for transporting liquids. Whether that be antifreeze, oil, hydraulic fluid, fuel, water, or just any liquids. Because of the nature of some of these products like gas and oil, there are different rules and laws from state to state about what can and can’t be used so be sure to check your state laws.
When the EZ Utility Jugs are paired up with the Hose Bender Spout then you get a spill-free pour every time and if you want to be able to lock it into a truck bed or trailer then the optional EZ Floor Mount has you covered with its quick release style system.
The FLEXiT Headlamp Pro 6.5 is STKR’s newest bad boy on the block and is the big brother to the 2.5 model in the last budget section. While they both aim for similar functionality, the 6.5 Pro packs almost 3 times the brightness at 650 lumens! Another large upgrade is the power source; the 2.5 relies on 3 AAA batteries where the Pro 6.5 is powered by a single 18650 lithium-ion rechargeable battery.
The last three products in the 50 -100 dollar budget category are the B.A.M.F.F. 6.0, 8.0, and 10.0 models of tactical flashlights. These are the higher lumen / brighter older siblings to the 2.0 & 4.0 mentioned in the first 2 budget categories coming in at 600, 800, and 1000 lumens. These three higher end B.A.M.F.F. modals come with a rechargeable Li-ion battery instead of AAA’s, but still include the AAA cartridge in case you wanted to power them via disposable batteries as well. The B.A.M.F.F. 10.0 is actually a kit that includes the mounting hardware necessary to attach it to a picatinny rail on a rifle or shotgun and a pressure mount switch.
TRiLIGHT Motion Activated Deformable Garage Light $129.99
TRiLIGHT Shoplight 360 Degree Drop Light $129.99
Multi-Point Illumination (MPI) Full Room Lighting System $249.99
In this last section we have three major sources of light that don’t run off of batteries and are designed to fill the entire room with light.
The TRiLIGHT Motion Activated Deformable Garage Light is a quick install light bulb replacement. This light twists-in directly to an existing light bulb socket in a garage or shop and puts out 5x more light (4000 lumens) than a standard bulb. Like the mobile task light mentioned earlier, the TRiLIGHTs have three aluminum wings that rotate from their connection point to the base. This design allows the light to be directed into more of a spot straight down or rotate the wings up more to spread or flood the room with light.
The TRiLIGHT Shoplight 360 Degree Drop Light is the twin brother to the above garage light except instead of screwing in like a lightbulb, the TRiLIGHT Shoplight is more like a traditional shop drop light. It’s a handheld, corded light that can also be propped up, set down, or hung by its robust hook.
Our last gift suggestion for the mechanic in your life who has everything is the MPI Full Room Lighting System. If your mechanic is just setting up their shop or expanding then they are going to need some good full-room work lighting.
The MPI is another twist-in type lighting setup similar to the TRiLIGHT except that the MPI has 5 points of light: the main hub and then 4 satellite LED pods. This system puts out 12 times more light (7500 lumens) than a standard bulb.
Well, that was a fairly exhaustive list of ideas of what to get that mechanic in your life that has everything. Hopefully you were able to find some ideas in a price range that is perfect for you. If you haven’t already, click on some of the product names and go learn more about these innovative products.
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