Recent content by PatJ800

I regularly use my "Massey Vise CO - Chicago IL mfg 1895" unit, I beat it without hesitation and it's an unrestored original. Not sure on the exact size but it will easily hold a 5 gallon bucket sideways with room to spare and is probably 250-300 pounds. Old vises like this were made to use and...

All I have to contribute is the one sold at Autozone (mastercraft or whatever it's called) does not work well. I got the sensor out (barely) but the socket opened up in the process and I'll never trust it again. I live in the desert so minimal to no salt. Next time I'll either go pipe wrench...

I agree here. I have 3+ acres of lawn which I mow twice per week and twice per cut so I can counter-stripe, 100+ hr per yr mowing... My 1972 Simplicity Power-Max 4041 with the 60 inch fairway deck is an absolute monster that no modern "lawn" or "garden tractor" can even remotely hold a candle...

Each piece has its own ~70 sheet spiral, pressure washer, tractor, vehicles, etc. All are kept in the garage except the RV I keep in the RV, as it may get some work on the road on longer trips I would want to log. On the front of each book I write the common items used e.g. oil type, filter...

Sorry to drag this back up :( I found this in a search and am curious; so you as an electrical engineering firm write into the bid specs for an engineered job to use copper and then give AL as a VE option? Who is asking for this VE option and at what point in the project or does it go to the...

Very jealous as I would love to buy an old service station for personal use, even though it defies conventional logic. I do maintenance at a 105 year old hospital (still active) which has been added on to and changed a million times over the years. It has several active and retired UST both at...

Around here it seems carpenters go with Hilti. A little too rich for my blood. The other trades are almost all Milwaukee. I use Milwaukee Fuel 18v for everything at work and it is great. I just have three batteries, two 5s and one 4 and no issues keeping up as fast as I can deplete them...

I work in healthcare maintenance. Using flame in healthcare is a major PITA. Our shop as well as our contractors have used propress for water for many years and I've yet to see any issues. We've built new construction with propress for domestic water and no issues to my knowledge. Propress...

I use file cabinets and they work really well for me. I have lateral files as you describe for hand operated power tools (skil say, belt sander, jig saw, etc.) I have a 4 drawer traditional style cabinet for my longer hand tools, pipe wrenches, pry bars, that type of stuff. My favorite is a...

My daughters are 17 and 5, so my garage is on "round two." By far the most popular are PVC fittings. I have a box maybe 2x3x2 full of PVC and ABS fittings, with a few rouge plastic conduit fittings. Many sizes, many configurations, slip, thread. Much of it comes from ~20 years ago when Ernst...

I work in FM (maintenance) for a large national healthcare company which owns hundreds of acute care hospitals and thousands MOB's totaling hundreds of millions of sq. ft. We have all the national accounts and GPO's so we get very very good pricing on almost everything we buy. For many vendors...

This is why many/most industrial electricians have one of these in their bag (or something similar) http://www.ebay.com/itm/IDEAL-Energy-Tester-IGRMT40180-/201047003120

That's a good way to soil the rear of your arc flash suit

The stab-lok breakers had serious safety issues as everyone has stated, but the scariest part of these panels is when the adjustable depth bakelite assembly that holds the buss bars in the case fails/breaks, and the buss bars short together or short to the box when the cover panel and/or...

We used to call them the "Zinsco no-trip." In addition to massive corrosion at the buss bar that has burned down countless houses since the 70's, the breakers themselves are completely unpredictable as to when (if) they will trip, or protect anything. So you have a breaker box with bad...