What did you do "IN" your garage today?

[dgreen1069]

I ordered a thumb for my backhoe for Christmas. When it arrived, the company said they had not received one of the pins that should have been plated. They shipped it with an unplated pin so I could use it until the proper one could be shipped. I received it today, but it had visible machine marks that I could feel on it. I didn't want to mess up the bearing surface of my bucket, so I made a makeshift polishing lathe out of my drill press. The pin was nearly 1" in diameter so I found the closest socket in diameter, then used a 1/2" ratchet bit on the socket which was attached to the drill's chuck. Hit it with 400 grit first, then polished it with 1500 grit. Turned out perfect and only took about 15 minutes.

 

[Beerhippie]

Back to fiddle-farting around the brewery and pub today. Lots of minor smoulders to put out, but no flames for a change.

I think I fixed our solar-powered lights for our sign out front. They work fine on manual now, but I'll have to see if they come on automatically after dark, like they used to.

Now I'm conducting a blind testing of two cans of the same beer, one canned last week and one canned three months ago and stored cold. Yep, getting paid to taste beer. You may call it day drinking, but we call it quality control.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Fiddled with a slightly imperfect print to see what needed to change. Fought with CAD to correct it. Started the new print.

 

[zanyad]

I made a makeshift polishing lathe out of my drill press.

Nicely done!

 

[DGersic]

Now I need to figure out what the hell to do with these

 

[rcktpwrd]

Wife and I somewhat cleaned up the Christmas stuff that was piled in the garage from the yard so I can get her truck out and put her car in there over the weekend so I can hopefully fix an oil leak...
We also had someone donate all of her Christmas display to us, so we had to find temporary storage for that stuff for the time being.

 

[firebirdparts]

I'm reassembling an Audi A6 Quattro. I bought it for $1000 from a neighbor. Water pump was out. I put that on and it was timing belt driven, so I had to time it. It's a nice car, but of course you know how German cars are.

 

[PWC Repair]

I got my cheapy bubble levels from Amazon. So I took the old beater 4ft level apart, cleaned and polished the plastic windows, and put the bubbles in..........it's a working tool again!!

 

[welder4956]

Well I did a little research and found out how to set that Moon dial. You turn it clockwise untill you see the number 29-1/2, then move back the number of days since the last full moon. So if its been say 15 days since the last full moon. you turn the dial counterclockwise untill you see the number 15. Once set it moves around clockwise very slowly over the course of the full moons 30 day timeline until the next full moon at which time the smiling moon should be centered. We'll see.

My lovely wife can look at the moon and tell me exactly how many days until a full moon or new moon. Something she learned from her grandfather who was a fisherman.

 

[Beerhippie]

I got my cheapy bubble levels from Amazon. So I took the old beater 4ft level apart, cleaned and polished the plastic windows, and put the bubbles in..........it's a working tool again!!

Did you test for level and plumb?

I recall laying out a ledger for a deck with an old Davis White sighting level once. It looked good through the 'scope. Then I stepped back and... nope.

 

[Skyman]

Looks to me as though it already has four of 'em.

 

[Beerhippie]

Back to fiddle-farting around the brewery and pub today. Lots of minor smoulders to put out, but no flames for a change.

I think I fixed our solar-powered lights for our sign out front. They work fine on manual now, but I'll have to see if they come on automatically after dark, like they used to.

Now I'm conducting a blind testing of two cans of the same beer, one canned last week and one canned three months ago and stored cold. Yep, getting paid to taste beer. You may call it day drinking, but we call it quality control.

Nope. Fail.

The lights work fine on manual, which does me no good. The charge/discharge controller is supposed to have a feature that turns on at dark and turns off after a set number of hours later--hopefully saving some charge from our fickle and feeble winter sun. It used to work as advertised until I needed it this late fall.

I may need to replace the controller. I think I have another we use solely as a charger (lights are controlled by occupancy detectors) I can swap out for it.

 

[niget2002]

I did a thing.

 

[PWC Repair]

Did you test for level and plumb?

I recall laying out a ledger for a deck with an old Davis White sighting level once. It looked good through the 'scope. Then I stepped back and... nope.

Pretty hard to screw it up. The bubbles sit in sort of a 'pocket'. But yes, checked it out once finished and it's A-OK!!

 

[M.Brane]

I organized... a lot. A few years ago, I inherited my dad's garage (along with the rest of the house, of course!) together with decades of equal parts junk and treasure. It's taken a couple of years to get rid of enough junk to make the garage usable - I couldn't even get to the workbench without towing out his inoperable old Cadi, which I finally sold a couple months ago (after flirting with the idea of restoring it). He had some really good tools but was never very organized. Hand tools were all over the place in random drawers, shelves and cabinets, and many of them are now sitting in a bucket of vinegar to get some rust off of them. Now that I have access to the bench, this weekend I set up a pegboard and bought a tool chest to put next to it (after clearing away a mound of random stuff). Between his old tools and mine, there's a lot of redundancy, but extras will reside in a portable toolbox to throw in the car when I go repair things at my family's apartment building. This is just the beginning, there's still a lot of stuff in there (lots of saws for some reason). After years of condominium living, having a garage and a workbench again is downright exciting! Overhead lighting is definitely my next project.

That a Fiat Spider in the foreground?

 

[kaymccampbell]

I did a thing.

Did you pooch your Linux?

 

[welder4956]

Hung a new calendar, unloaded a couple bags of R-30 attic insulation batts and unboxed a Kobalt 24V stapler I bought on sale. Then assembled a Christmas present - a miter fixture for exhaust tubing that works with the SWAG band saw table.

 

[jblnut]

Holy smokes these rims turnt out mighty nice for the way they started out !!


For reference ……


Pops and I shoved the tires back on today. Air em up and everything is holding air so far so the guy that did the patching work must have done a decent job !!

 

[bmwrd0]

Spent a couple hours rebuilding a very old drum switch, only to realize that it is for 3-phase, and I need a single phase switch. Spent a chunk of the day trying to find a wiring diagram to work around this, sort of found one and created the rest, after which I realized I had another drum switch that, while not perfect, will be much easier to wire than the one I was looking for a diagram for.

Sorted.

Started to install the spindle, realized that the back gears aren't adjusted right, so need to tear things down to make sure they work and are adjusted correctly. Problem with having a compact bench top lathe is that there are compromises, and these take the shape of only knowing there is a problem when you are three steps past needing.

So, two steps forward, three steps back.

 

[M.Brane]

Some days you are the windshield, and some days you are the bug.

 

[bugnut]

Downloaded the full version of sketchup and kept playing with the insert for storing the trailer hitch in a utility tote. Printing from the comfort of the house made it easy. A couple treks to the shop to gather printed parts and test made it easy.

 

[Arne73]

Swapped a new wood blade for the worn out metal blade on my Craftsman bandsaw.
Cut some wood for my new mailbox install.
Opened a paint can to find it had petrified in the past few decades.
It's too cold to paint right now anyway so I may wait on that until the weather improves.

 

[Outlawmws]

Opened a paint can to find it had petrified in the past few decades.

Solid; or just a thick dried layer on top? Seen the latter many times. I make sure, if only to fully dry it all before disposal.

 

[niget2002]

Did you pooch your Linux?

Removed vmware from a 1u server to put Ubuntu on it bare metal to play with ollama.

 

[rzims]

In the cabin, we're replacing the old wood/propane kitchen stove with a small propane oven/range. It was a very cool old stove, but huge and a little persnickety for the guests/family/kids that will be staying there.
The wife has asked me to make a wooden surround for the vent hood so I'm giving it a shot.
Here's my very sophisticated, non-computer, not to scale, hopefully realistic design as well as the first glue ups of the frame....

 

[LeonardY]

It all ended up in the garage. I took down the last of the outdoor tree lights a few days ago. put them in the garage.
Decided I should check and fix the strings before putting them away.
Took the bin into the house. Since I didn't feel like doing it in the cold garage.
Tested them and fixed them. All ready for next year.

Here's something I found that was really weird. There were a few LEDs that were out in the middle of strings. When I removed them, I found this.

Little tiny resistors soldered on. Yes, these were new from the store some time back.

Just can't imagine why a manufacturer would waste time doing this.

 

[Outlawmws]

Little tiny resistors soldered on. Yes, these were new from the store some time back.

Just can't imagine why a manufacturer would waste time doing this.

Dropping resistors so the LED's don't burn out right off the bat. Those are very old design LED's - I wonder it some MFG had a million of then left over un-sellable, and decided to use them up?

 

[zachgeo]

That a Fiat Spider in the foreground?

Alfa. I didn't need another car, but I did need a project

 

[kaymccampbell]

Removed vmware from a 1u server to put Ubuntu on it bare metal to play with ollama.

So, building SkyNet then. Remember to warn us when you bring it on line. That way, when your GJ posts become wonky, we can toddle by and kill it with fire, and pull out the electrodes before it gets out of hand.

 

[niget2002]

So, building SkyNet then. Remember to warn us when you bring it on line. That way, when your GJ posts become wonky, we can toddle by and kill it with fire, and pull out the electrodes before it gets out of hand.

Dave's not here man...

 

[kaymccampbell]

Dave's not here man...

Look, Dave, I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over.

 

[Outlawmws]

Dave's not here man...

Wrong movie!

 

[rzims]

Well, even with my rudimentary, freehand, not-to-scale drawing, I was able to turn my idea into a thing. Pretty basic, can't believe it took me half a day to make a box...
Now to get the plywood glued and tacked in place and caulked, then the wife can paint to match the cabinets and I can get it mounted....

 

[niget2002]

Wrong movie!

It may not be the crossover we want, but it's the crossover we need.

 

[Beerhippie]

Well, even with my rudimentary, freehand, not-to-scale drawing, I was able to turn my idea into a thing. Pretty basic, can't believe it took me half a day to make a box...
Now to get the plywood glued and tacked in place and caulked, then the wife can paint to match the cabinets and I can get it mounted....

You made a box in a half day?!

Color me impressed!

 

[PugetDude]

i would never want one, but a guy used to run an abarth edition at our local autocross. no idea what exhaust was in it, but it had a very surprising v8 like sound. More than once it made me look up only to lead to my disappointment.

@Dan in Pasadena had one he used to drag behind his motorhome...

 

[kaymccampbell]

Tested the new plinth joint. Unwrapped some cutters.

 

[PugetDude]

Kay, I have some of those same cheese cutters.

 

[kaymccampbell]

Kay, I have some of those same cheese cutters.

They're handy for removing supports, cutting parts off sprues, and trimming the back of circuit boards, among other things. And they disappear faster than 10mm sockets. I'll distribute them to all the different tool kits, and by Xmas they'll be mostly missing. At least they're cheap.

 

[Beerhippie]

More fiddle-fartin' around the plant today.

I swapped the solar panel controller from the container lights to the sign out front to see if that would fix the problem.



Nasty photo, but yay. I've been fighting this off and on for a couple of months. Why it doesn't occur to me that the cheapest part--the$25 controller--is most likely the problem....