Thomas Gaige

Co-Founder & Pro Reviewer, Pro Tool Reviews

Tom Gaige co-founded Pro Tool Reviews in 2008 alongside Clint DeBoer and remains one of the most credentialed reviewers in the industry. With a degree in mechanical engineering, he walked away from a 15-year consulting career. Tom felt the office couldn’t satisfy his need to build things with his hands. He’s a former licensed general contractor, an AutoCAD design professional, a classic car restorer, and the on-camera frontman for PTR’s long-form video reviews and head-to-head comparisons.

CO-FOUNDER | MECHANICAL ENGINEER | 20+ YEARS CONSTRUCTION
FORMER LICENSED CONTRACTOR | AUTOCAD DESIGN PRO | LINKEDIN

More About Tom

Tom Gaige has one of the most honest origin stories in tool media. He earned a degree in mechanical engineering, spent 15 years in the consulting engineering business, and eventually walked away from all of it because, as he puts it, “the need to really use my hands was never fulfilled in the office.”

After leaving engineering, Tom founded Gaige Design, LLC, and then Diversified Construction, gaining his general contractor’s license in South Carolina and spending years doing the full range of residential and light commercial construction work. That included framing, trimming, roofing, custom cabinetry, and even advanced AutoCAD design for clients who needed someone who could think like an engineer and work like a craftsman. That’s an unusual combination, and it’s what makes Tom’s tool reviews so reliable. He knows how tools are supposed to work on the jobsite.

“Engineering provided me with excellent experience in construction design, but the need to get dirty was never fulfilled in the office. I’ve always liked working with my hands and building things, and that’s never going to change.”

In 2008, Tom teamed up with Clint DeBoer and co-founded Pro Tool Reviews, bringing his decades of hands-on construction and contracting experience to a publication designed to help professionals get the professional-grade reviews they deserve. While the Internet had plenty of woodworking reviews and product news sources, hands-on power tool reviews from experienced construction professionals were few and far between. Tom’s background helped shape the “Pro-first” perspective that remains in PTR’s editorial DNA to this day. He knows that a review is only helpful if it helps you understand how the tool will hold up on a real jobsite.

TOM’S TOOL PHILOSOPHY
His combined mechanical engineering background and love of building things serve as the basis for why Tom cares so deeply about evaluating power and hand tools. More often than not, you’ll find him with a tool in his hands while standing knee-deep working on a renovation, restoring a vintage car, or rebuilding something that most people would have junked years ago.

The Shop Outside the Shop

Tom’s experience in his own personal shop space is its own biography. Over the years, he’s used it to restore a classic BMW from the ground up, rebuild a fiberglass boat, swap car engines, restore a Porsche 924, build custom furniture and cabinets, and take on a long list of projects that most people would simply hire out. Each one has been a deliberate extension of his belief that working with your hands on something tangible is its own reward.

Tom brings the same problem-solving mindset to his head-to-head comparisons at PTR. When Tom runs an 11-way string trimmer shootout or compares the best cordless reciprocating saws, he’s asking the same questions he’d ask on a jobsite. Which tools actually do the work, and which ones make you wish you’d gone with a different brand?

Faith, Service, and the Full Picture

Tom’s story doesn’t fit neatly into a single professional category. Between chapters of his construction and publishing career, he chose to spend significant time in direct community service. First, he led neighborhood development work at Parker Street Ministries in Lakeland, a Gospel-centered nonprofit that works alongside families in one of the city’s most under-resourced neighborhoods. Later, he served with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. His very active faith has shaped where he chose to put his time and energy at key points in his life—and still does.

Currently, when he’s not in front of the camera testing tools, you can find Tom leading vocational instruction for Polk State Corporate College, which has partnered with the Florida Department of Corrections to provide vocational certifications in logistics, machine maintenance, and manufacturing processes to incarcerated individuals. For Tom, the shop, the jobsite, and the life lived beyond them are all part of the same integrated picture.

What he brings back to PTR from all of that—the engineering, the contracting, the service work, the shop projects, the restoration builds—is a perspective that is impossible to manufacture. Tom isn’t reviewing power tools as a consumer. He’s evaluating them as someone who has built, repaired, and restored things his entire adult life, and who knows exactly what it costs when a tool isn’t up to the task.