What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[jblnut]

Got an area ready for concrete today.


Skiddy is sitting on concrete so we’re connecting the two pads. I plan to put some large water tanks on here to use to fill the sprayer. Pretty excited to get this poured and fill it up with stuff !!

 

[kaymccampbell]

Dingo out, Dingo back. Drained its oil.

 

[rocksnstumps]

In the bad smells car department, was at the welding supply place last yr trading in a tank. A young fella came in wanting like 6-7 lbs of dry ice. They asked if he wanted it in a cooler or something but said nah just a plastic bag good. Gonna use it right away anyway. Curious, I asked him about his plans.

Turns out he details cars sometimes for used car lots and claims that putting bunch of dry ice in a car with windows shut, AC on and vents on cabin recirc really takes out odors. I wondered about ozone too but he said works great and why change it. Never tested it myself but there ya go...

 

[kaymccampbell]

In the bad smells car department, was at the welding supply place last yr trading in a tank. A young fella came in wanting like 6-7 lbs of dry ice. They asked if he wanted it in a cooler or something but said nah just a plastic bag good. Gonna use it right away anyway. Curious, I asked him about his plans.

Turns out he details cars sometimes for used car lots and claims that putting bunch of dry ice in a car with windows shut, AC on and vents on cabin recirc really takes out odors. I wondered about ozone too but he said works great and why change it. Never tested it myself but there ya go...

Worth a try. Gotta beat that damned fishy smell from typical car deodorants.

 

[scooby074]

How about shop adjacent.

My youngest got our old lexus running basically on her own, I didnt lift a finger lol. Hasnt ran in several years. Shes got her heart on getting it running and driving it when she turns 16 in a couple years. She was pretty stoked.



Serviced a Kohler 20kw generator. Created some new swear words while accessing the rearmost sparkplug.

 

[nadogail]

Cut more Birdhouse Parts this afternoon.

 

[Mikeske]

Got to the tractor today and found the start and immediately shutting off problem I think. I knew it was probably a ground someplace and went to the battery and cleaned the crud off the negative terminal and for good measure also did the positive terminal. Started it several times and no issue. I did also check the engine ground and several other grounds and they all be ok but cleaned the grounds to shiny metal then touched up the paint after I reconnected them. Then I checked the smaller tractor and cleaned its battery terminal while I was in them and then out to the yard and mowed with the smaller tractor. also.

 

[kbeefy]

Back to van stuff. Seats, specifically. This took a bit longer than I expected, I had to modify or fabricate every part to make them work.


How to make these seats and swivel bases, from a 1980 E150 fit into a 2004.





Well, first the mounting holes are quite a was off between the two.
I used some angle iron to make some extension legs and redrilled some holes for the rear bolts.





That seems like it will work OK. A bunch of cutting, grinding, and drilling, a little paint and they're in.


Now what about the seat belts? There is no easy or clean way I could think of to retrofit the tensioner assemblies from the 2004 seat to the custom seats without butchering the upholstery or mounting them externally. I pulled some rear seatbelt receptacles from a 98 E150, they are different and won't work. After rummaging about for quite a while, staring at the interwebs till I had a headache, I decided to wing it.


I looked through all the vehicles I have around, even including my tractor and suzuki samurai and found that the second row seats of a 2004 suburban have a receptacle that may work.


I built some little brackets to attach the receptacle to the seat base...








No pictures of them painted, but I'll get some when I get a couple receptacles installed.


I did figure out that if you happen to loan this van to someone 7' tall, you can install the seats with the swivel backwards and get tons of legroom.
After I removed and reinstalled the drivers seat, This is what I was left with.

 

[kjdhawkhill]

Took Monday off to pay--- correction--- file, my taxes... It was a beautiful day, I'm getting a refund, but didn't get anything done in the garage.. . Teleworked from the garage today with lots more time to diddle-fart.

1. Did a dry fit of bike lights in the HF machinist-chest I'm eventually going to drill through as a charging station.
2. Replaced a chain on bicycle number uno. (including a full cassette removal and cleaning)
3. Replaced rear pads on bicycle number uno. Should have been easy, but nothing was simple today, required a reentering of the whole caliper assembly - so an extra seven minutes while on a call...
4. Checked front pads. not bad, but getting close so-
5. Ordered new pads for parts bin.
6. replaced stretch cord on flat bag for bicycle numero uno. This was actually the most out of my element thing I did... it took a while to figure out how to thread a cord through multiple grommets without access to the backside of the grommets (inside of the bag) due to the liner.

Sorry, no pics, all of this was done while on the clock, Ala May 2020 telework, but I didn't have time to take pics AND complete my daily duties.

 

[ZRX61]

Day two of cleaning the Explorer ST. I have other stuff to do tomorrow, so day 3 (the interior) will likely be Friday.

 

[FLHCHAZ]

Got the tools put away and cleaned the bench.

 

[mrb1]

Nice looking bench and boxes @FLHCHAZ. Great looking poster front and center also

 

[FLHCHAZ]

Nice looking bench and boxes @FLHCHAZ. Great looking poster front and center also

Thanks! That is a great photo!

 

[ryanp77]

Sorted tires and getting ready for the season

 

[larry4406]

Shook my head at the mess.

 

[niget2002]

A little more sanding on the kayak.

 

[ZRX61]

Folded & put away* the drying/detailing towels used on the ST yesterday after washing them last night.


* ok, almost put away, I stacked them on the ZRX11. I'll put them back in the totes later after I get back from the bank & dentist.

 

[Freeborn John]

I have tried two or three things that say new car smell. None smelled very good or at least did not smell like a car. I wound up using one that was not offensive, but definitely did not smell like a new car, as a kind of a garage deodorizer.

I bought a four year old Land Rover Defender from a main dealer once, it smelled just like a new one, that production line rubber, adhesive and paint smell.
The 'utility vehicle scent' idea must have flopped, I never found anything like it since.

 

[Motorman55]

Finally got around to finishing the Castrol sign by adding the black pinstriping. I still would like to sharpen up the edges of the words 'MOTOR and OIL', but that'll wait for a nice bright sunny day sometime down the road.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Fixed all my broken nails. Put oil in the Dingo. Fed it all the little partial bottles. Greased all the fittings. It's ready to start the next season. Cleaned up the mess and the metal bench. Started a new waste bottle. Recycled the little ones.

 

[Burt Shaver]

Did some work on our Mazda 2 today. Changed the exhaust donut between the exhaust manifold and cat. Also changed the rear shock absorbers and put the summer tires on

 

[Old Man Roger]

Got some new sneakers for the Silverado. I got rid of the old steel wheels and replaced them with some alloy wheels off a Suburban. Took a little work to get them to fit, had to grind the casting marks off the calipers, and add some wheel adapters.

The wheel adapters were the hub centric billet type that you bolt to your studs, then they have a separate set of studs that you bolt your wheel to.




With the adapters being only an inch and a half, my stock studs stuck out a little and would have interfered with the back of the wheel.

Luckily, my stock studs had about a half inch tapered end that has no threads, I was able to cut that part off with out getting into the threads of the stud. I guess the tapered end is there to make it easy to line the wheel up.

Truck looks much better with the alloy wheels.



The ugly old steels


Also got a new to me cabinet at a garage sale, filled it up with extension cords, paint, and paint supplies.

 

[02Xterra]

After way too long, I took my mtn bike down off the hooks last night and got it ready to ride some local trails today

 

[nadogail]

Cut more Birdhouse parts and put together a box to keep some of them in; the plan is to make several sets of interchangeable arts and have a stock of each part in their own container.

Interchangeable parts is the first step of mass production.

 

[Outlawmws]

Uncovered the furniture in the patio post new furniture coming in last Sunday, and piled it on top of the couch at the curb with the free sign on it - 3 ottomans were adopted for free, the couch and chair out there were left for bulky wast. added a chair and a dead recliner couch to the pile, and 4 dead tires.

 

[Mikeske]

Got the pressure washer out and then rolled the bigger tractor in the shop. At the start of every season for the past 15 years I owned this tractor I have always done a scrub a wash and wax the tractor. This affords me time to see any damage scratches and take care of any issues. I am seeing I need to find a fabric seat cover as the vinyl seat cover is starting to have some cracking. Since the tractor is stored inside the vinyl is still in decent shape but it is time to kind of find either a new seat or seat cover and I am leaning towards slapping a cheap seat cover on it

 

[Prospecter]

Cut more Birdhouse parts and put together a box to keep some of them in; the plan is to make several sets of interchangeable arts and have a stock of each part in their own container.

Interchangeable parts is the first step of mass production.

Interchangeable parts is a great way to go. When the inevitable part splits, you can just substitute another. All according to plan instead of a frustration. Good to have a bunch of houses. Some years the birds like certain locations. Then they switch around to others. Not sure if you mentioned what kind of birds you are after. Our blue bird houses are also appealing to tree swallows. The swallows are aggressive, and don't like to be too close together, but will accept, and protect, blue birds in the closer houses.

 

[Prospecter]

I admire and appreciate you folks who are so good about posting regularly. You set a high bar! So over several days, and not just one day.
I am temporarily restricted in outdoor time and number of steps per day, which is working out great for QST. My new tablesaw has a different footprint than the old one. One thing leads to another, and my quick sort, clean, toss has turned into a major shop reorganization, which is still underway. 6 bins of trash, and 6 more of recycling. Trailer load of wood scrap for the wood stove. Move the tool chests around. Adjust all the benches. New out-feed table, and so on. I also need to get ready for the shop addition builders and make room for a connecting door between the old shop and the addition.

Getting my shaper ready to sell, along with the old TS. (Selling is so annoying!) Finally broke down and bought a shop crane. Made some sketchy jobs a lot easier!

 

[harley jim]

Built a couple of trikes!

 

[larry4406]

Built a couple of trikes!

Nice builds! Consider a chain guard for the rear if you are going to offer these for sale. I can see someone leaning back and zip!

 

[ZRX61]

Was at the steel yard this morning picking up ten 4x4in x 3/32nd pre-cut steel squares for backers to the tie down's I'm going to install in the bed sides when I spotted a rack of pre-cut 11g &16g polished diamond plate.
Grabbed a 1x4ft piece of 16g & installed it at the rear of the plywood in the bed... (after I trimmed a 1cm strip off one end & rounded the corners)

 

[Outlawmws]

Nothing. Swept up after the bulky waste PU day, and felt like "I'm supposed to be doing something after they hauled off allthat stuff..." Nope!

 

[Outlawmws]

Built a couple of trikes!

Looks like fun! I hope the rear axles aren't solid! I remember the early/smaller Honda ATV trikes you had to tilt then off to the outside of the turn to get them turned... made no sense at all...

 

[nadogail]

Wire wheeled surface rust off of a steel beam. Got a little more than half of it done, when I finish I will be painting it with the Direct To Rust primer then moving it to my outside storage area.

 

[ATC]

I moved a few small things around. Moved my line wrenches off the top of my box after a year and put them in the drawer they go in.

I have a drawer of self-tapping screws and other wood/deck screws. I combined some I had multiples of to make a little room in there.

Took a handful of trash off the top of my toolbox.

Then mom called me and said she wanted to go to dinner. So I turned out the lights and headed out to meet her at Cheddar's.

 

[Motorman55]

Today I made up a couple of signs for the shop using the wood letters I bought the other day and two metal frames from my drafting desk that I wasn't using.

I hot glued the letters to the frame. The metal frames have mounting tabs already spot welded to them, so it was an easy task to mount the PARTS sign under the door frame and the SERVICE sign over the large tool cabinet below the main shop sign.

The wood letters aren't painted as I'm not sure if I want to leave them natural or maybe paint them white or yellow. I kind of like them natural.

I also added the black pinstripes to the large letter 'M'. Still have to pinstripe the wings before its done.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Dropped the new PC and keyboard on the bench.

 

[niget2002]

Seats for the kayak came in, so I thought I'd put them in to see what it'll look like.

 

[snorvet]

Made some more wood strips for the kayak build.

 

[GRN96WS6]

Got my cylinders rebuilt and tested them out today to check some bolts under the ol' DSM