Recent content by mzbk2l

I don't know if I'd have enough energy left to start the building after all that!

That looks great! Got any floor plans or layout drawings you can post?

Completely agree with this answer. While I have plenty of truck brand tools now, my "go-to" chrome sockets, wrenches, pliers, screwdrivers, and hammers are the same Craftsman tools I bought when I started as a heavy truck mechanic in 1997. I did finally get tired of their ratchets wearing out...

I have all Dewalt 20v & Flex 60v, as do most of my coworkers. One of them decided to start buying Mac stuff as he could use his existing batteries and chargers. He ended up returning all of it for tool truck credit as not a single one of them could remove or torque a fastener to their...

I can't speak for the HF 3 ton, but I have the 2 ton Low Profile/Long Reach Steel Heavy Duty Floor Jack with Rapid Pump® and I love it. I got the cross beam for it and I use it for everything; at 2-5/8" down height it gets under the front spoiler of my old Trans Am, and at almost 24" up height...

Thanks, bd. I guess if nobody else sees any red flags that will make me regret putting the lift there, I can proceed with figuring out where to locate a guest house along the back or side wall, then actually get some quotes on this thing. :)

Thanks for the feedback, Graham. Good question, bd - I should have included that information. As shown in the proposed drawing, the large bay with the lift is 28' deep by 20' wide. There may cabinets along the far wall, but any work benches would probably be mobile. I was mainly concerned...

Link to original thread describing the planned build here: http://www.garagejournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=141169

So I'm still fooling around with the planning stages of my Santa Fe style garage in the Sonoran Desert, and one thing I can't seem to settle on is the lift placement in my large bay. I laid it out as shown in the pics below so that I can have a work area in front for engine teardown, or...

I guess you get used to it. "Institutionalized," as Brooks said in The Shawshank Redemption. Most people are smart enough not to stay that long, though. Pretty similar pics to yours, only a bit less cover back in the early days. Those pictures took place over two summers and one winter, so...

We sent them to Kuwait... I believe they went to a depot-level repair shop from there. Hopefully back in the states, because the in-theater rebuilds we received were junk. Engines rusted from water in the crates, cross-threaded injector lines, missing bolts, etc. We eventually stopped using...

The new army unit brought in a conex full of welding gas cylinders, and something sparked it. Not sure if they ever decided if it was a mortar hit or simply leaking gas that was ignited by a cigarette. Couple of guys were badly injured, though, and the cylinders were blowing up higher than the...

Last job before I moved to the office: Someone reinstalled a driveshaft out of phase (was our best guess). It's an Allison MD3070PT, also known as the "drop 7" for bigger truck geeks. No fixing this one... I think I was on my way to the plane when this one came in. I have plenty more...

One of those waterloo toolboxes I read about on here: To be fair, we had to roll them across rough concrete to get them out every morning and lock them up every night. This was only a castor failure, not a toolbox issue. Rain drains:

Safety first! All done. Huh?