How a school teacher just sent a little-known Bunnings gadget into sell-out mode: 'Game changer'
Jordan Shallcrass, 31, has been raving about Ryobi's USB Lithium Power Cutter, which is available for $89 at Bunnings.
The teacher shared a TikTok video that showcased the clever tool in action, with the 52-second video seeing her easily cut strip after strip of thick cardboard into neat squares for an upcoming art lesson.
Jordan, who has spent more than a decade in the profession, described the cutting tool as 'worth its weight in gold'.
The 'handy tool' was something Jordan recommended not only for crafty-types, but anyone who regularly needs to cut various materials or 'break down a lot of cardboard'.
Demonstrating how the Ryobi gadget works, Jordan explained that the tool's lithium battery is simply slotted and twisted into the end of the device - and it is 'good to go'.
The Christchurch-based teacher also made mention of the rechargeable battery being 'really easy to recharge', thanks to its USB C port.
The Ryobi USB Lithium Power Cutter, which is available at Bunnings, is a handheld device that has is able to quickly and accurately cut through tricky materials like plastic, carpet, rubber, paper and cardboard
As she effortlessly pushed the power cutter along pieces of thick cardboard, Jordan also addressed any safety concerns about the tool being accidentally picked up by her young students.
'It has double triggers, so you don't have to worry about it getting into kids' hands and them easily being able to use it,' she explained.
Jordan spoke further to Daily Mail about the craft tool, explaining that preparing cumbersome materials like cardboard for art classes was a time consuming process, which is difficult when teachers already have 'limited free time for lesson planning'.
But once she'd discovered the power cutter, Jordan knew it would be a gamechanger for school.
'I've even used it to create organisation systems with old boxes for my classroom,' she said.
'I also regularly use the power cutter at home to break down cardboard boxes,' she added.
'It can also cut fabric, which was another reason I was interested in getting it.'
The Kiwi woman, who shared the now viral video on her @miss_shallcrass account, was quickly inundated with hundreds of impressed comments - many noting other potential uses for the nifty tool.
NZ teacher Jordan described the power tool as an unlikely game changer in her classroom (left) and had even used it to make things like these dividers (right), created by cutting up old cardboard boxes
Bunnings shoppers who like to undertake creative projects were quick to note the abundance of potential of uses for the power cutting tool and were excited that it could be used on a number of different materials
'As a kinder teacher, YES PLEASE!' read one response.
'It would be great for kids school assignments or making costumes,' a dad replied.
'I have one and it is a life saver!' chimed in another person. '[M]akes cutting up boxes so easy! I live in an apartment building with a small recycling chute and now can cut all my boxes down to fit easily.'
'I have never coveted a power tool before now,' one excited responder wrote.
'I want it, just to cut things for fun…running to Bunnings,' another person added.
The online product description notes that the hand-held Ryobi USB Lithium Power Cutter tool is 202mm in width, 60mm in height and 100mm depth.
The power cutter is designed to be used on 'plastic, carpet, rubber, paper and cardboard' and described as a 'great alternative to using scissors or a box cutter'.
It also has an 'integrated guideline', which helps users to 'make accurate and clean cuts'.
As Jordan noted, the device has a number of in-built safety measures, including a blade guard and a lock-off safety switch.
Jordan told Daily Mail that this wasn't the only Ryobi tool that was helpful and convenient for classroom art projects.
The teacher also swore by the Ryobi USB Lithium Soldering Pen, $99 and the Ryobi USB Lithium Soldering Glue Pen, $79, which are also both stocked at Bunnings.
Jordan noted that all three tools operate on 'the same batteries'.
'I have the three port charger and just grab a battery when needed,' she added.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
8 hours ago
- Daily Mirror
'I took a driverless taxi in LA as tech giants prepare to bring them to UK'
An army of driverless 'robotaxis' is heading for UK shores after taking to the roads in the US - the Mirror's Jeremy Armstrong took one for a spin in Los Angeles An army of 'robotaxis' is heading for Britain next year after taking to the roads in the US. Baidu has partnered its Apollo Go taxi business with Lyft, one of Uber's main rivals. It is said to be planning a self-driving taxi service in the UK and Germany in 2026, with competition from a number of international rivals. The Sunderland Advanced Mobility Shuttle initiative is already testing a self-driving, emissions-free shuttle. It ferries passengers between three sites on public roads, a first for the North east. But driverless taxis have been a common sight in America since 2020, with millions of journeys completed across several different cities. The Mirror did a 'test ride' of the driverless Waymo taxis in LA to see what lies in store for UK road users and passengers. A strange sight greeted me shortly after arrival on US soil. On the way from Los Angeles airport, during the short 20-minute drive to Venice Beach, a Jaguar I-Pace fully electric SUV pulled up next to my vehicle at a traffic light. I spotted the 'Noddy style' hat on the roof straight away, and a woman passenger in the back. There was no driver, and that became a familiar scene on roads across the sprawling metropolis. It is a strange sight for any new arrival from the UK. There remains opposition to the technology, with the US refusing entry to Chinese-based operators in the country from 2027. But California-based Waymo has carried passengers on millions of journeys across America. And this is what lies in store for a road near you soon. My early morning departure from Newcastle meant a conventional taxi journey from a city centre suburb to the airport. My cabbie told me about the rise of Uber; he estimated there were thousands on the roads around the city. Any notion of a chat with the driver disappears when you climb into a Waymo. The first issue to tackle is getting aboard. Handles are retractable and flush with the door until you press the 'unlock the door' in the App (you can also enable automatic door unlocking). As you climb inside, and take your seat, the computer generated female voice asks if you are ready to start your journey. You are reminded to remain in the car unless there is an 'urgent need to exit'. There is then the surreal vision of the steering wheel moving around as if guided by an invisible driver. It reminded me of the 1971 Hollywood classic "Bedknobs and Broomsticks", when inanimate objects are brought to life by magic. My trip (you can take up to three passengers) was taking me through the quiet residential streets of Venice Beach, and a four-lane, mile-long street full of shops, bars, restaurants, and my destination, a coffee shop. You spin through the traffic at a very sedate pace and cross lanes to get in line, waiting at traffic lights to make a turn. There is an arrival time given, very similar to the Uber experience, and a map of the route to the destination. It takes a matter of minutes to download the app, order a cab and get underway. You can follow the arrival of your £130,000 Waymo Jag via your mobile phone, and track the planned route as you travel. It is a very relaxed ride, at a slow and steady pace, once you get used to the sight of the self turning steering wheel. We turn right at a busy junction before making our way to another set of lights for a left turn. This time the tight turn involves the navigation of a busy set of lights and a brief wait to make way, all with the use of satellite technology, sensors, and onboard cameras. We didn't get over 20-25 mph; the ride took a matter of minutes, covered under 2kms and cost $10 (£7.43). Most unusually for LA, they didn't ask for a tip. There is a strict no drink and drugs policy onboard, though how they check on the sobriety of passengers is unclear. There is a reminder to make sure that you have all your belongings as you alight, and then the driverless cab heads off for its next passenger. The key question is whether you would feel safe on an LA Freeway, UK motorway or navigating a bustling London street? That may be the key test for driverless passengers in the UK next year.
Reuters
13 hours ago
- Reuters
AI agent startup TinyFish raises $47 million in ICONIQ-led round
Aug 20 (Reuters) - AI startup TinyFish has raised $47 million in a Series A funding round led by ICONIQ Capital to scale its platform for building and deploying AI-powered web agents, the company told Reuters. The round included participation from USVP, MongoDB Ventures and Sheryl Sandberg's Sandberg Bernthal Venture Partners. The company plans to use the capital to invest in products and expand its go-to-market operations. Founded in 2024, TinyFish is building web-based agents to automate repetitive and complex online tasks for enterprises. Its technology simulates human-like browsing to perform actions and gather data at a massive scale. The company is initially focusing on the retail and travel sectors. Its primary use cases include dynamic price surveillance, where AI bots track prices, promotions, shipping times, and inventory levels across competitor websites in real-time. These tasks were traditionally handled by large, offshore teams performing manual data entry or by custom software scripts that would often break when a website's design changed. Palo Alto, California-based TinyFish has a team of about 25 people. The new funding provides TinyFish with a runway of three to four years, according to CEO Sudheesh Nair. The AI agent space is experiencing a gold rush, with a flurry of offerings on autonomous software. Big tech companies and startups are racing to capitalize on the shift from static large language models (LLMs) to dynamic agents capable of performing complex, multi-step tasks. TinyFish says its technology could help solve the problem of efficiently and reliably gathering critical data from the dynamic and messy environment of the internet. "If you can turn the internet into analyzable data, it will fundamentally give businesses advantages that others don't have," Nair told Reuters, adding that the goal is to help businesses "make more money," not just save on costs. Its system uses advanced AI models for reasoning and exploration, and then codifies that knowledge for high-speed, deterministic execution at scale, according to Nair. Amit Agarwal, partner at ICONIQ, said the decision to invest was driven by TinyFish's success with early pilot customers, including tech giant Google. "They had operationalized it, productionized it at a very large scale for two large-scale customers who have all the development resources in-house to build these types of things themselves," Agarwal said.
Daily Mail
14 hours ago
- Daily Mail
White House joins TikTok
Donald Trump 's supporters are jazzed about the White House's new TikTok account. Republicans in Congress have warned of national security concerns with the foreign app and pushed for the U.S. to ban TikTok if it does not sell to a non-Chinese owner. And even though Trump issued an executive order during his first term on the need to address the emergency threat posed by TikTok, the president's most loyal followers are pleased with the new account. It emerged on Tuesday night with three videos within a few hours of each other, all amassing hundreds of thousands of views. More than 110,000 users followed it by Wednesday morning with thousands more following by the minute. 'White House getting on TikTok is YUGE!' Gen Z political commentator Brilyn Hollyhand wrote on X. 'Posting behind the scenes videos, speeches, and accomplishments - that's how we keep Gen Z for the GOP !' he added. Another X user called MAGA Voice with 1.2 million followers wrote: 'President Trump just launched an official White House TikTok account with the most bad[expletive] 30 second video. This is freaking epic.' The White House said in a statement to the Daily Mail that the account is meant to communicate Trump's successes to Americans directly on as 'many platforms as possible.' TikTok is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, and Republicans in Congress have repeatedly threatened a U.S. ban if it does not sell to a company without ties to the CCP. Those threats have turned out to be empty with the president acknowledging his tariffs on Beijing might make a sale even more difficult. He has extended the must-sell-by date several times , and it doesn't appear a deal will happen before the current September deadline. On January 18 this year, TikTok was removed from U.S. app stores and those with it already downloaded were met with the message: 'Sorry, TikTok isn't available right now. A law banning TikTok has been enacted in the U.S. Unfortunately that means you can't use TikTok for now.' The app was back up and running in the U.S. just hours later after Trump announced he extended the deadline for ByteDance's sale. 'Thanks for your patience and support,' a message on the app read for users who regained access. 'As a result of President Trump's efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!' TikTok's Singaporean CEO Shou Zi Chew, who attended Trump's inauguration, posted a video praising the then-incoming president. Many Republicans are against TikTok operating in the U.S., and warn that is causes a massive security concern because the CCP has access to users' data. In his August 2020 executive order, Trump even admitted that the app could be used to track federal employees, conduct espionage and facilitate censorship or disinformation. At the time, he called the threat of Chinese-owned companies operating in the U.S. a 'national emergency.' Some on X pointed to Trump now breaking with Republican lawmakers on the matter. 'In a clear nudge to Republican members of Congress who are still on the fence, the White House has officially joined the platform that helped propel President Trump back to the White House: TIKTOK,' wrote CJ Pearson, co-chair of the GOP's Youth Advisory Council. Chinese human rights advocate Yaqiu Wang posted to X: 'American politics has become such a farce.' 'Congress nearly unanimously passed a bill requiring the sale of TikTok over national security concerns. Yet, not only has the president illegally refused to enforce it, but now the White House itself is busy posting on TikTok,' she expanded. Additionally, Mario Nawfal, who posts pro-Trump content to X, wrote: 'Trump has praised TikTok as key to energizing young voters during his 2024 win over Kamala.' 'Intelligence agencies have long warned about the app's Chinese ties,' he acknowledged.
