Recent content by cweagle

I have a small collection of 3/4" sockets (in the 3/4" - 1 1/2" range) and a hefty ratchet. These get used almost whenever I'm doing suspension work on vehicles that have spent any time here in Massachusetts - Land of Rust. I was swapping leaf springs on my Bronco and had some 1/2" grade 8...

My Snap-On catalog (08? it's hiding right now) says something similar. Hey, wait a minute, who buys vises from Snap-On, anyway?

My 94 Ford Explorer with auto-locking hubs uses it. Well, it used it once, to take off the spindle nuts that are used with those junk hubs. The manual locking hubs used something else (one of those sockets with the four pins). This front end is a Dana 35 TTB. This would also be used on 90-94...

Good for cleaning goo, yes. A lubricant, no. You can use it as such (almost anything liquid works a little!) but it was really meant as a water displacer, to keep things from rusting. There are lots of other, readily available, better lubricants.

Hot spit, DMC makes some nice crimpers. I am mostly an electrical engineer, and do some wrenching on the side. I know that some EE's never get out from behind their computers, but I started as an assembly tech while in college and worked my way up from there. I've crimped and soldered...

I ordered a bottle of trimix for stainless from my LWS today. They had no 40' bottles at the time (I am swapping a spare O2 40 rather than get Yet Another bottle) so it is being mixed up special for me to pick up in a few days. I looked at the invoice later on, and noticed that the mix gas...

There are only two things that I can see really being important in this whole 'nitrogen vs. air' in any particular application. The first, I suspect, predominates: bottled nitrogen is totally dry (assuming the gas supplier didn't screw up). So in the airplane tires, there's no water vapor to...

I have noticed that these is a HUGE difference in the quality of the 'regular' Craftsman flare wrenches and the Pro series. I have some of both, and really should just throw away the non-pro set, or leave them on the sidewalk outside Autozone or something. The Pros' fit & finish are on...

A few years ago, I was one of the designers of a mobile robot that incorporated what was, at the time, the highest-end DeWalt 18V cordless hammerdrill. We took the drill apart and repackaged the gearbox and motor, and needed to power it. As an experiment, we measured the current the motor drew...

A real benefit of a belt sander is on aluminum. You should never grind aluminum on a wheel - it loads up the stone's pores and, as it heats up, can expand and fracture - EXPLODE! - the wheel. One other alternative for aluminum that I've not seen mentioned here is a scotchbrite wheel. It's...

More pressure/volume? My air hammer needs at least 90psi and draws a huge amount of air - especially since you tent to run it longer compared to, say, an impact wrench. How big a compressor do you have? My 30gal 1.6HP unit can't keep up.

Hmm, wait a minute. This guy at http://www.truetex.com/aircompressors.htm says "When a compressor pumps one "CFM" (cubic foot per minute), that means the intake port inhaled one cubic foot of "free air" (air at atmospheric pressure). (Note: A CFM does not mean in any sense the compressed...

Yeah, it's worse than that, as I figure. The 80CF rating is at atmospheric pressure ('gauge pressure' of 0psi; the 4.5CF is at 60psi. The actual run time for a 300CF tank should be around 15 minutes. Glad I don't have much cutting to do. Also - not all cylinder regulators can flow 1200CFH!

Also - I can't upgrade service due to complicated rental arrangements. And man, I don't want to buy a generator right now... :)

Right, the plasma has a built-in regulator to take it down to 60-65psi, but you need a little headroom to make a regulator work right. Most will 'blow-through' if the differential gets too low; it depends on the specific model. I've heard some stories (FWIW) of some high-pressure bottle...