Recent content by bwringer

You'd have to remove a LOOOOT of metal to significantly clean up most of the corners, and there are large areas on the sides that are really too damaged to reasonably recover. The fly cutting removed a fair bit of metal from the top face, and they stopped at a good point; you certainly would not...

Y'all DO realize that every other kind of auction has pretty stiff fees as well...? Estate auctions take 40% or more. Car auctions charge a non-refundable listing fee, and both the buyer and seller pay a percentage. Etc. and so on. Ain't no free rides. Also, many of you seem to be...

It's a matter of taste, mostly, I had a few pairs, but never really warmed up to them. The only significant downside is that they take up a lot of drawer space, but personally I never found a situation where the advantages came into play. Then again, I don't spend hours every day plier-ing...

The Herc and Diablo also include the laser-cut slots to supposedly reduce ringing and vibration. Yeah, me too. Small world! There was a fair amount of assery because they couldn't find the things when I got to the store to pick them up... but I got them in the end, and they do work wonderfully...

Especially agree with the above! I have a set of those double-end flex "Mountain" ratcheting wrenches that gets called into action a lot; look for the set with 8-10, 12-14, and 17-19 wrenches, and put the 13-15 and 16-18 you'll never use somewhere else out of your way. It can be a little...

Honestly, one of the neato things about working on Toyotas is that they tend to need far fewer weird special tools than any other brand. A decent set of metric wrenches and 1/4" and 3/8" drive sockets and he's good to go for the vast majority of jobs. All I can think of are things that any auto...

The size of the shop matters... some of you are talking about really big shops with HVAC, some are talking about unheated/uncooled garages . As mentioned above, in an un-air-conditioned space like yer average garage or small shop, I'd want to vent that heat out in the summer rather than stir it...

I wonder whether an automated mower would sell all that well. A lot of the people who have properties with large tracts of grass and buy these large mowers are the sorts who somehow enjoy spending hours per week driving their machines back and forth (or forth and back, or maybe in spirals for...

I, for one, applaud the cheerful colors (I'm an absolute sucker for brightly colored tools, particularly orange), but they really missed the boat by not consistently color-coding the drive type. I can see how big the goddurn thing is, but if they had stuck with a consistent orange for flat...

Yup, the charger and battery need to talk first before any electrons are doled out. A multimeter won't tell you anything useful about the charger. Honestly, the only success I've had in this endeavor is by trying the same battery in a known good charger (or try known good batteries in the...

@a57belair2 , you're making excellent progress! Keep going and keep hauling! But be careful... My father, and his father before him, were hoarders of unusual talent and scope. OP's mess isn't a fraction as bad, but a lot of the hoarding danger signs are there. A lot of care is needed to avoid...

Preach. It's 2026, FFS, and grease gun technology is still stuck somewhere around 1812. Whosoever shall maketh a grease gun that doesn't slobber and drool, that's easy to load and prime, that doesn't waste half of each cartridge, and doesn't require a protracted wrestling match and covering...

I'm also wondering "why". Most 1/4" drive sets stop at 14mm or 9/16" for very good reasons.

They do seem to leave a few negative reviews in place, but it doesn't seem like a lot. They probably filter these pretty heavily, or at least take out the angry ones. Also, when you look at a product on HF's website, the reviews are sorted by "Highest Rating" by default, which I think smells a...

Flat blade screwdrivers... you mean those handy disposable pry bars that come with screwdriver sets? Huh. I'll first lump together "worn out tools". Some years back, with a thunderclap of enlightenment, I suddenly realized that I could just... get rid of worn-out, defective, and low-quality...