Recent content by John Mc

Hard to order from the catalog when they quit mailing them, and would not even give you one when you asked for it in the store. Well, unless you bought $500 worth of merchandise at a time.

I teach this stuff for a living. Students tell me that they can see better with my $300 Speedglas with no cheater, than a $100 Miller or Hobart with a cheater. Part of what that extra money buys you is better optics, and better sensitivity for TIG. If you can afford it, don't skimp on safety...

Our community college welding program has an older Watts unit similar to that one, that has seen daily use for decades. It has held up remarkably considering the abuse it gets, would love to upgrade to a new plasma model.

I bought the black 4 drawer for myself as a welding instructor: I needed the extra height on the bottom shelf to be able to store 50 lb rod cans upright, and still push the box with all my stuff to wherever in the shop we are working that day. It has held up remarkably well. The school just...

I went to Lowes looking for something else, ended up with a pile of Bessey C clamps and bar clamps for $2-3 each. Score!

"The patent on that vibration dampening device ("Shock-Blok" for the Vaughan original or "Power Plug" for the Craftsman re-brand) is only 20 years old." I have a one piece steel Craftsman hammer with the filled hole in the head that I bought before I got married, and that was 1977. So that...

Anvils in America by Richard Postman, $65 new from Astragal Press. http://www.astragalpress.com/anvils_america_VAP905.htm

Solid cast steel from top to bottom: no separate steel face plate on a wrought iron or cast iron body. Will ring like a bell and damage your hearing unless bedded in caulk, tar or lead sheet. Edges can be brittle and can chip with a missed blow. And a hell of a find, wherever they turn up...

Cover it with old wire fence and then plant fast growing vines. String beans and cucumbers will work. Viola', food and shade, with a side order of camouflage.

Next door neighbors had a loose ridge vent that animals were getting in, they thought it was raccoons. Live trap placed on the roof. Late in the afternoon, I hear a cat in the trap. Yup, feral cats climbing the wood siding, nesting in the attic.

Skips to you, dumpsters to us are measured in cubic yards, from 10 to 40. Usually steel, from about the size of a Rover up to a substantial lorry, in your parlance. Most are not on wheels, the smaller ones are emptied into a larger truck, or the larger ones are swapped out with a flatbed loader.

FYI, they start at $467 for a 4" model at Graingers.

Be happy. Be very happy. You win on both counts. Lock your box, and mark your tools if you can, or somebody will use yours to fill their empty slots. I teach at a community college. The school has bupkis for small tools, since everything keeps getting stolen that will fit in a tool bag, if not...

I use the black 4 drawer as a CC welding instructor, I needed the large space underneath to store and move 50lb boxes of rod and cut metal upright. The red box did not have the space. I can take all the wrenches, grinders and spare parts I need right to the booths, and not have to dash back to...

Citra-Solv is a citrus oil based cleaner from the yuppie grocery stores. I use the straight orange liquid in the clear bottle, not the pre-diluted mix in an opaque bottle. Pricey, but a few drops go a long way. Safe to rinse off down the sink into a septic tank. Straight, it will take the...