What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[Skyman]

Fixed a tool I had disabled a few weeks ago. This little ******, which I'd just received as a new purchase from the jungle:



Upon its arrival, I was impressed with its tiny size, but as unimpressed as I could have been with its performance. Back drag was just awful. To the point where I felt it was practically useless as a tool for working in highly confined quarters.

So, I dissected it, and while attempting to shorten the spring that loads the ratchet pawl, I managed to transform the spring into a jesus clip, which is to say that it took wings across the shop, never again to be seen by human eyes. It was among the tiniest compression springs I'd ever seen, and attempts to locate it were futile.

I was about ready to ash-can the tool and write off the loss, but decided to see what I could find for a replacement spring. Searching online for one as small as what is needed bore no fruit, so I instead ordered up an assortment of spring wire. I finally got around to seeing what I could do with it tonight, since it's too cold to work in the garage, and tried my hand at winding a tiny spring. The first one decided it, too, wanted to take leave across the shop, also never to be seen again. My second attempt, however, turned out acceptably well. Not pretty, not factory-made-looking, but functional. And best of all, the back drag is much reduced, so I'm declaring victory and calling this one done.

Now, I have to decide whether to try the same with this one which arrived this week from the jungle. Very disappointed with its back drag, which is similarly awful:

 

[JEFFREYWisconsin]

I have a dog that watches sunsets.

 

[bmwrd0]

I was going to make some repairs to the air gun rack I whipped up out of scrap a few years ago, but after looking at how overloaded it is, I have decided to just build a new one, that is actually well thought out and not a "huh, this will work" project.


So I got started scraping **** off the lathe bed.

 

[M.Brane]

Cured the glaucoma on the Red Queen for another year.

 

[rharman]

At east I did find the "mystery" SSD on my old comp.



It's under the tinfoil upper left. I was looking for a SATA drive, but it's a PCIE bus drive. If the new enclosure and drive don't work out, I'll return them and get another brand of PCIE-to-USB3 enclosure--they're much smaller.

Hands aren't working for **** typing today. I think I'm out of edits already.

When I saw the original post, I was going to ask if you looked there. Looked to be a NVMe SSD. Glad you figured it out. It looked so familiar as I just did a NVMe swap on my laptop.

 

[nadogail]

Trimmed three sets of end panels for the Raised Bed Planter Boxes i make and sell

 

[Beerhippie]

When I saw the original post, I was going to ask if you looked there. Looked to be a NVMe SSD. Glad you figured it out. It looked so familiar as I just did a NVMe swap on my laptop.

I'm going with the old guy defense. I just don't recognize some newer (like less than twenty (thirty?) years old) components.

I can easily identify the carburetors and distributors of the computers of my day!

 

[bugnut]

First thing I did was fire up the heater 49 heading to 60. Then took another look at the bug carb, while waiting on the rebuild kit. Double checked for clean passageways and reinstalled butterflies and hard parts that won't be replaced. Next had a couple old laptops, disassembled and removed hard drives. @Beerhippie I was trying to identify memory and see if it could be used to upgrade my shoptop, google image search identified them instantly, and no they were the wrong type to allow for an upgrade. Also looked at a couple old cell phones to see if they needed cooked before recycling and decided not. Lastly started the clean flung and put away. Pile for Goodwill, pile for recycle. Walked out of the shop to the mailbox and found that the gasket kit had arrived, back to the shop opened package removed two diaphragms and left to normalize back to shape and size. Turned off the heat, lights and off to the house.

 

[SMOKEYBEAR]

Last bit of glue/ assembly for the bench frame, then plenty of sanding. Waiting on some SS bar to use for the shoe rack portion, then make a decision on the seat top. Temperature has dropped here, that will slow me down. The shop isn't insulated nor does it have heat.

 

[FLHCHAZ]

Put a bunch of tools away, welded a new seat stud into a floor pan. Started making another floor pan for the 72 Riviera project car. 16ga sheet metal is no joke to work without proper metal working tools! Sat down, drank a beer to make sure nothing was smoldering or any fires before going back into the house.

 

[Jgaz]

Sat down, drank a beer to make sure nothing was smoldering or any fires before going back into the house.

Now there’s a fire watch detail that I could really learn to love

 

[Beerhippie]

First thing I did was fire up the heater 49 heading to 60. Then took another look at the bug carb, while waiting on the rebuild kit. Double checked for clean passageways and reinstalled butterflies and hard parts that won't be replaced. Next had a couple old laptops, disassembled and removed hard drives. @Beerhippie I was trying to identify memory and see if it could be used to upgrade my shoptop, google image search identified them instantly, and no they were the wrong type to allow for an upgrade. Also looked at a couple old cell phones to see if they needed cooked before recycling and decided not. Lastly started the clean flung and put away. Pile for Goodwill, pile for recycle. Walked out of the shop to the mailbox and found that the gasket kit had arrived, back to the shop opened package removed two diaphragms and left to normalize back to shape and size. Turned off the heat, lights and off to the house.

What are you planning to do with the drives? If they're HDDs and you don't plan on reusing them, they have two nice and powerful RE magnets that are mounted to backplates, making them easy to mount for door latches, etc.

 

[Jay__Dub]

Fixed the cab on my snow blower, again.

At least it started...

 

[nadogail]

Disassembled the table I found in the Alley last week. It was constructed of 3/4” plywood and 17 inch wide edge jointed boards.
The plywood will become the top of my Abrasive Chop Saw stand and another assembly table.

Those 17 inch wide furniture grade boards will be saved for another, yet to be determined, project.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Made it 4 feet in before my back spasmed.

 

[nadogail]

Made it 4 feet in before my back spasmed.

Getting Old is not for Sissies.

 

[JEFFREYWisconsin]

Made it 4 feet in before my back spasmed.

I am right there with you today. Then I laid down with ice on it and fell asleep and woke up with basically a frozen back spasm.

Brutal.

 

[Vwpower]

I made a knob for my cold cut saw.

 

[Hal]

fDiscovered the maximum torque limit of a Sunex 3/8 drive 17 mm universal socket. Astro Nano with a 3/8 adapter killed it.

 

[rharman]

I successfully transplanted the SSD form the old comp to the new!



It's the silver bar between the LENOVO on the battery and the left fan.

Not rocket surgery, but....

Booted up the new comp and... I transplanted the C: drive, not the D; data drive...

Back to the drawing board. My miniature driver and case opening set is getting a work-out.

For some reason, I do want to keep the old comp alive. It's only a few years old... but the more I use this one, the more I question that decision. This thing screams by comparison.

The SSD from the old comp is only 500GB.

I remember when a 100 MB drive was awesomely huge--how would you ever use 100 mega bytes?

That was long before digital cameras... especially 45.5 megapixel cameras.

I feel your pain.... When I installed my 1TB NVMe, I moved the old 512gb to the second slot - planning on reformatting it later. My laptop kept booting from the old drive no matter what I tried - changing boot priority, etc. I ended up leaving it out and, for now, will use it externally in the Sabrent case I bought to setup/clone the new one. My T5 Torx got a workout as well. Ended up wearing it out - it was part of an el cheapo set of small Torx sizes I bought long ago to have around "just in case".

100mb? Pfffttt... My first PC, an IBM XT, had a 10mb drive. That 1tb NVMe is equivalent to 100,000 of those 10mb drives! The PC I used for development in my first job as a programmer had just dual floppies. Compiler in one and my code in the other. I'd have to swap out the compiler disk halfway through the process for the linker.

 

[Beerhippie]

Still messing with the new computer. Today was getting plugged back into my company stuff--Amazon Business, MS 365, etc. Irritating.

Then repopulating my apps I like to have. Decisions--why did I have Google Earth Pro? Do I need whatever the Pro part is? Where the hell is the license for VuScan? Etc, etc.

Downloaded a sych app so I can automatically back-up to my new external drive. I'll deal with installing and configuring it tomorrow.

Something odd is going on with the keyboard now. I type a bunch and nothing happens, then it all pops up on screen. Doesn't make my pathetic typing skills any better. Maybe check the batteries?

 

[Beerhippie]

I feel your pain.... When I installed my 1TB NVMe, I moved the old 512gb to the second slot - planning on reformatting it later. My laptop kept booting from the old drive no matter what I tried - changing boot priority, etc. I ended up leaving it out and, for now, will use it externally in the Sabrent case I bought to setup/clone the new one. My T5 Torx got a workout as well. Ended up wearing it out - it was part of an el cheapo set of small Torx sizes I bought long ago to have around "just in case".

100mb? Pfffttt... My first PC, an IBM XT, had a 10mb drive. That 1tb NVMe is equivalent to 100,000 of those 10mb drives! The PC I used for development in my first job as a programmer had just dual floppies. Compiler in one and my code in the other. I'd have to swap out the compiler disk halfway through the process for the linker.

Oh, yeah, juggling 5 1/4" floppys....

I need to pull out my first laptop. It had 1KB of memory and I think maybe 10 MB of storage. 25 khz processor--what a screamer!

 

[TheRealZeus]

Still messing with the new computer. Today was getting plugged back into my company stuff--Amazon Business, MS 365, etc. Irritating.

Then repopulating my apps I like to have. Decisions--why did I have Google Earth Pro? Do I need whatever the Pro part is? Where the hell is the license for VuScan? Etc, etc.

Downloaded a sych app so I can automatically back-up to my new external drive. I'll deal with installing and configuring it tomorrow.

Something odd is going on with the keyboard now. I type a bunch and nothing happens, then it all pops up on screen. Doesn't make my pathetic typing skills any better. Maybe check the batteries?

If you’re using a wireless Bluetooth keyboard, try plugging in a wired keyboard and see if it keeps happening. If a plug-in fixes it get another Bluetooth keyboard or at least replace the batteries… if it’s still happening with a wired keyboard, then perhaps your CPU can’t keep up with everything you’re doing.

 

[bugnut]

@Beerhippie Hard drives are going for a trip through the wood stove and then the bin. Don't really need more parts to save......

What are you planning to do with the drives? If they're HDDs and you don't plan on reusing them, they have two nice and powerful RE magnets that are mounted to backplates, making them easy to mount for door latches, etc.

 

[bugnut]

Turned on the heat and got busy. A quick trip to the hardware for m4 bolts as none I had were long enough. Then pulled a retainer cleaned out check ball and socket, reinstalled. Finished installing new parts, rough adjustments and when it warms up carb will be installed and hopefully car will run.

 

[kaymccampbell]

@Beerhippie Hard drives are going for a trip through the wood stove and then the bin. Don't really need more parts to save......

I cook mine in the forge. They make nice ingots for casting.

 

[racecougar]

Turned on the heat and got busy. A quick trip to the hardware for m4 bolts as none I had were long enough. Then pulled a retainer cleaned out check ball and socket, reinstalled. Finished installing new parts, rough adjustments and when it warms up carb will be installed and hopefully car will run.

Boy. That looks familiar.


I turned off the lights and stepped outside the shop to take in the Northern Lights. A rare sight that is recently becoming more common here in mid-MO.

 

[Outlawmws]

Finished installing new parts, rough adjustments and when it warms up carb will be installed and hopefully car will run.

I sold one of those 2 years back or so; NOS. Probably still needed gaskets after all that time

 

[Beerhippie]

Boy. That looks familiar.


I turned off the lights and stepped outside the shop to take in the Northern Lights. A rare sight that is recently becoming more common here in mid-MO.

They were visible from here, too. No pics this time.

 

[Skyman]

Fixed a tool I had disabled a few weeks ago. This little ******, which I'd just received as a new purchase from the jungle:



Upon its arrival, I was impressed with its tiny size, but as unimpressed as I could have been with its performance. Back drag was just awful. To the point where I felt it was practically useless as a tool for working in highly confined quarters.

So, I dissected it, and while attempting to shorten the spring that loads the ratchet pawl, I managed to transform the spring into a jesus clip, which is to say that it took wings across the shop, never again to be seen by human eyes. It was among the tiniest compression springs I'd ever seen, and attempts to locate it were futile.

I was about ready to ash-can the tool and write off the loss, but decided to see what I could find for a replacement spring. Searching online for one as small as what is needed bore no fruit, so I instead ordered up an assortment of spring wire. I finally got around to seeing what I could do with it tonight, since it's too cold to work in the garage, and tried my hand at winding a tiny spring. The first one decided it, too, wanted to take leave across the shop, also never to be seen again. My second attempt, however, turned out acceptably well. Not pretty, not factory-made-looking, but functional. And best of all, the back drag is much reduced, so I'm declaring victory and calling this one done.

Now, I have to decide whether to try the same with this one which arrived this week from the jungle. Very disappointed with its back drag, which is similarly awful:

Okay, today I decided to try a similar drag-reduction effort on the above-mentioned little VIM POS ratchet. I can't figure why manufacturers of such tiny ratcheting devices don't seem to grasp the importance of minimizing back drag, but it seems to be a very common problem.

I dissected the thing:




And this time was able to avoid losing the spring into the netherworld of the dark and dusty black hole that this workshop seems to contain. Did I mention that these springs are tiny?

A very careful snip of the spring to reduce its relaxed length until it only barely projects beyond the plunger in which it resides.

Snipped:




Shortened spring reinserted into plunger:




Did I mention the size of these springs? Ordinary wooden toothpick in this frame alongside of the portion of spring I amputated:




Measurement of the diameter of the spring wire. Measures right about .010 inch. The fragment of spring is so tiny that it's almost invisible at the tips of the caliper:




Followed by reassembly with a judicious (minimal) application of Super Lube, and another declaration of victory.

The back drag has been reduced to the point that this tool has been transformed from being a close-to-useless POS into one that'll work well in most of the applications in which I'll employ it.

I don't think any further reduction in the spring pressure's loading of the pawl would yield any additional reduction in drag. I'm satisfied that what drag remains is mostly a function of irreducible friction between moving parts in contact. This is how these tiny tools should have left their factories.

 

[TheRealZeus]

Presenting ‘Doctor Skyman, The Ratchet Surgeon’

 

[nadogail]

Completely dissembled the table/bench I found in the alley behind my house.

It was put together using six penny finish nails. They were too thin to drive them backwards, so used nippers to pull them through the through the 3/4” plywood.

I will cut an 18 X 30 panel from the plywood to make a top for the cart that will be used to mount my Abrasive Chop Saw.

 

[Beerhippie]

Completely dissembled the table/bench I found in the alley behind my house.

It was put together using six penny finish nails. They were too thin to drive them backwards, so used nippers to pull them through the through the 3/4” plywood.

I will cut an 18 X 30 panel from the plywood to make a top for the cart that will be used to mount my Abrasive Chop Saw.

Pulling the finish nails out from the backside also doesn't blow out the front side--old trim recycler's trick.

 

[Dh3256]

Skyman:​

" I can't figure why manufacturers of such tiny ratcheting devices don't seem to grasp the importance of minimizing back drag"

What IS the importance of minimizing back drag? I'm not sure I really even understand what back drag is, but I've never found the need to modify, lube, or anything other than just use the ratchets I have. Please enlighten me, I feel like I must be missing something.

 

[Beerhippie]

Skyman:​

" I can't figure why manufacturers of such tiny ratcheting devices don't seem to grasp the importance of minimizing back drag"

What IS the importance of minimizing back drag? I'm not sure I really even understand what back drag is, but I've never found the need to modify, lube, or anything other than just use the ratchets I have. Please enlighten me, I feel like I must be missing something.

Backdrag is when the fastener you're trying o loosen re-tightens on the backstroke of the wrench. Very frustrating.

 

[Beerhippie]

It was a perfect late fall (around here) afternoon--65F, sunny, no wind.

So I grabbed a six-pack, put on my Speedos and flip-flops and headed out for one last mowing of the leaves.



But...





That one crapapple is dropping more than just leaves. It over-bore this year and no one showed any interest in harvesting the bumper crop of excellent little apples, so there they are--and not all of them have dropped.



That horrible, gooey, slippery, fermented applesauce sticks to everything. The tires of the mower are at least two inches larger in diameter than when I started and my flip-flops are worse.

After mowing, I blew the leaf mulch off the tables, pads and walks and then it was time to try and clean up some of the applesauce from the tables and pads. Hose did nothing. Trying a broom would just ruin the broom.

So:



3,000 psi water from a 15 degree fan nozzle and three passes each, letting the water soak in between passes, got most of it.

To whomever designed and approved that cart: Some day, we will meet. I will enjoy it. You will not. With the wheels in front, it's almost impossible to push or pull. I have to take tiny little baby steps while holding the handle as high as I can without tipping it over. People who don't use tools should not be designing them! Otherwise, it's a fine little pressure washer and started on the first pull after sitting for a couple of months.

I'm now soaked and covered in rotting applesauce and leaf bits.

I finally changed the batteries in my wireless keyboard and all the odd behavior is GONE!

 

[Skyman]

Backdrag is when the fastener you're trying to loosen re-tightens on the backstroke of the wrench. Very frustrating.

This ^^^.

Ratchets are supposed to ratchet. Not just swing the fastener back and forth with no progress toward removal or securing. Hell, a breaker bar can accomplish that.

Minimizing backdrag greatly reduces how often you'll need to do something to keep that fastener from walking right back to where you were with it on each backswing. It's only a minor annoyance in some situations, where everything's big and there's plenty of access to grab the extension you're also using, etc, to keep that fastener from walking right back on the backswing. But, tiny little ratchets such as the ones I've been revising tend to be used in the tightest of quarters, where it's difficult or impossible to do anything to prevent back-walking (instead of ratcheting) on the backswing. That's beyond a mere annoyance.

And, then there are the times when your other hand (the one that's not swinging the ratchet) is otherwise occupied, such as gripping a wrench to hold the nut that you're trying to thread that bolt into.

 

[Skyman]

Presenting ‘Doctor Skyman, The Ratchet Surgeon’

Or, at least, 'Doctor Skyman, the guy who hates tools that don't work as well as they should.'

As Timm so well stated a little further downthread, "People who don't use tools should not be designing them!"

I'll take that a step beyond, and say that no product should be released from Design Engineering to Manufacturing until people who understand what it should do and how it should do it have had a chance to make sure that it does and will. And that it can actually be manufactured, serviced and repaired.

 

[BetterDays]

Continuing the progress of organizing / decluttering / wondering why I am keeping something AND finally bought a paper shredder for the cardboard.

• Moved 5 horse stall mats from the basement to the workshop area (better flooring)
• Put some other stuff away properly (oh, that's where it went!)
• Disassembled a whiskey barrel (was a gift, keeping the head for inside the house, The staves are either going to be a craft project or smoker wood)
• Shredded enough cardboard to fill a 55 gallon trashbag (for compost / homemade firestarters) this cleaned up a ton.
• Have a large box of cardboard too large for the shredder, since people don't respond to Marketplace listing
• Sold snow tires from my Jetta that died in April (RIP)
• Took stuff to the shed for the winter.

 

[Outlawmws]

I also did fall leaves (again) you can't mulch oak leaves - too acidic and on microbes will live in that...
But I was getting alder leaves off the screen room roof as well. Oak off the edges of the house roof, and in the valleys were the collect, and pile up and got them all off but after I trimmed a bunch of low hanging alder branches. Now alder mulches wonderfully! almost too easily! And anywhere they had collected for more than a couple of months they were composting on the bottom. so te valleysa dn the screen room roof had compost!

Swept most of the leaves of the screen room roof with a wide broom head on a long extension pole, then used the blower for the valleys, the one second story gutter that still does not have gutter guards, )half ful of conpost again...). and got it ll off the roofs.

I'm a mess (sympathies Timm!) but its wet muddy compost...

Did some other alder and dead maple "trimming" (the dead maple it was anything I could hook my pole lopper on and break off..) and got most of the mess on the ground into piles at least/ then Alder we re just re-spreading on the ground in back to hell choke out winter weeds. the oak had to go to the green bin.

That was pretty much an all day sucker as I had to take breaks from any roof work when SWMBO took the youngest to the doc and pharmacy. (What if I fall off the roof? - and thy don't like me begin up there anyway...)

After another break I got the connector off the PCM in the T-bird (still have a O2 sensor code popping up... Grrr... ) and got pics, of it... not sure how one is supposed to get to the PCM itself to remove, much less replace. wires and wire sand wires, plus the heater/AC blower are in the way... Connector bolt was NOT tight, could that be it?

Oh, and consider yourselves treated to a rant on stupid Ford engineers, and stupider folks and AI who CANNOT be trusted to provide ANY concise or constant info as to when the ****** PCM even was! Even The Factory FSM, and I have the full mechanical and electrical books, were not worth much more...

FSM:




Reality:
(Harness pulled away)




PCM connector, is out, I thought the bolt was for the whole PCM (4 above...)



(Harness pulled away)



PCM connector: