captain14
Well-known member
Another good project completed. Do you ever get water in the basement from that open stairwell? I see the floor drain at the bottom.
Below 265 SQ/FT Nobody’s tool storage, maintenance & recreation lair.
- Thread starter Nobody-named-Olli
- Start date
All workspaces below 265 squarefeet.
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
Only when the backflow trap is shut because the mains is trying to push in and at the same time the stack/ gutter pipe to the rain collection tanks spills over because the tanks are full. Then that water, trying to drain through the staircase drain comes up inside.
It has happened but is fairly easily contained. And it needs days of relentless torrential rain for that to happen in first place. If we get one of those devastating “heavy/strong rain” downpours it can also happen, but again - it can be contained. The whole laundry room is basically one big sink (2k epoxy floor and 10 cm/ 4” high on the walls) and the drain there is the deepest point. I just put our pump directly over it, the hose goes into the middle of the garden … No problem.
Picture from 2020 after the laundry room remodel.
And here’s a link to an earlier post with the plan how it all connects: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...e-recreation-lair.542090/page-6#post-11638407
Kind regards,
Olli
It has happened but is fairly easily contained. And it needs days of relentless torrential rain for that to happen in first place. If we get one of those devastating “heavy/strong rain” downpours it can also happen, but again - it can be contained. The whole laundry room is basically one big sink (2k epoxy floor and 10 cm/ 4” high on the walls) and the drain there is the deepest point. I just put our pump directly over it, the hose goes into the middle of the garden … No problem.
Picture from 2020 after the laundry room remodel.
And here’s a link to an earlier post with the plan how it all connects: https://www.garagejournal.com/forum...e-recreation-lair.542090/page-6#post-11638407
Kind regards,
Olli
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
#FirstVictimOfTheHeatWaveOnTheDissectionTable
I left a bit of garden hose out of the Vevor automatic hose reel and just leaned the watering wand to the shed. Apparently it got hit by a lot of sun in a fairly small area. Went to watering the garden yesterday and the hose puffed up like a European Adder/ Common Viper giving its last warning before striking …
Since I wanted to finish, I just cut it off. But for the sake of this post, quickly grabbed two couplings today and put it under pressure. (One coupling is a water-stop coupling.)
Since I feel always playful with stuff like that, I wanted to know if my suspicion of a delaminated hose and water in-between the two layers was correct. It was.
And before blaming Vevor/ the Chinese manufacturer: I’ve had a Gardena hose do the same, multiple times, just through warmth - no direct exposure - and directly behind the coupling, the hose would swell. Happened multiple times, every time I cut it, it happened again. Gardena replaced that hose under warranty. Even found one of the pictures:
If this happens again on this one - just by warmth with no exposure to sun light - I will contact Vevor about it as well.
Kind regards,
Olli
I left a bit of garden hose out of the Vevor automatic hose reel and just leaned the watering wand to the shed. Apparently it got hit by a lot of sun in a fairly small area. Went to watering the garden yesterday and the hose puffed up like a European Adder/ Common Viper giving its last warning before striking …
Since I wanted to finish, I just cut it off. But for the sake of this post, quickly grabbed two couplings today and put it under pressure. (One coupling is a water-stop coupling.)
Since I feel always playful with stuff like that, I wanted to know if my suspicion of a delaminated hose and water in-between the two layers was correct. It was.
And before blaming Vevor/ the Chinese manufacturer: I’ve had a Gardena hose do the same, multiple times, just through warmth - no direct exposure - and directly behind the coupling, the hose would swell. Happened multiple times, every time I cut it, it happened again. Gardena replaced that hose under warranty. Even found one of the pictures:
If this happens again on this one - just by warmth with no exposure to sun light - I will contact Vevor about it as well.
Kind regards,
Olli
Krfjkm
Well-known member
No sir- was on an Army base and my parents headed back when I was 6 months old.
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Is that common in Germany, that a company would have records that far back and be willing to look it up?
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
Most companies I have dealt with in that regard are very aware of their history/heritage and do keep records/ have an archive. If they’re willing to dig it out depends entirely on who reads your e-mail/ how their day had been going so far. Some do, others reply “sorry …” and some just ”ghost” you.
But generally, if it’s just basic information about an old/ discontinued product most will send a useful reply.
In this instance, it’s actually a company from Belgium and as I have written, they did change ownership and as far as I can tell do not offer “bagged“ materials anymore - so it was a long shot. And the only contact information I had was for the director of the plant. Who knows, a reply might still come - or not. It’s not that important, would just have been fun …
However, in today’s world, they might even consider it a liability depending on the ingredients of that material and just pretend they have never seen my e-mail.
On the other hand, the manufacturer of a very old, solar powered, twin pole electrical tester send me the manual within hours of my inquiry.
The company that I did work for some time had 3 or 4 basement rooms dedicated to archival purposes, including equipment to view/process outdated data/ pictures and drawings/ microfilm and all that.
And others also go miles & miles to keep records viewable/usable.
But there is no denying that with the people who actually created the ”products” retiring and not enough time to transfer knowledge, these archives slowly become cemeteries because even if information is there, people just don’t know about it/ where to look for it because the project names i.e. mean nothing to them as they have never seen anything of it in real life.
Personally I can nerd/ geek out about stuff like this and that is why I do sometimes inquire with manufacturers. And for the most part it’s about 80 to 85% successful in retrieving information.
In this case, it was funny to find remains of a product produced in & sourced from Belgium so long ago because of my very personal, deeply rooted connection to that wonderful country.
And it would have made another interesting paragraph for this thread.
Kind regards,
Olli
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
#InOtherNews
I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, the closest DIY/ big box store is my least favorite. Main reasons being lack of quality, systemic downgrading of goods offered by substituting for ”house brand” type goods sourced all over and ridiculous pricing on remaining name-brand goods that they simply can’t not have on their shelves. Overall availability/ stock.
While I can’t stress enough I wish nobody ill & honestly feel for the employees, it has finally happened, they went into court approved self-administration about two weeks ago. For the next 3 months wages for the chain’s 2XXX employees are secured through the government/ tax payer. Another associated chain, a garden market and their outlets in Austria have fallen into bankruptcy/ self-administration as well by now.
I can’t say I haven’t seen this coming, and for the city it’s another (b)low.
It will be interesting to see whether they can turn this around and if/when they (have to) part with certain locations if ours will still be there. And if it will lead to a change in portfolio/ goods and services offered.
—
A bit ago we got a letter in the mail from our PoCo/ utility, they will be “arming” our SmartMeters.
While we are on our 2nd digital, bidirectional, meter, it is only the current one that is ready to accept an actual “smart module”. So far it is just a blank in there and it is my understanding that that will be replaced with the actual module.
No fixed date yet, but they will send a notice two weeks ahead of the subcontractor coming out to install it.
I’m very curious about all of this and it’s supposed to offer interesting stats/data on our power usage, through our account/ web dashboard with the PoCo.
Maybe I’ll get a chance to snap some pictures of the “open” meter when they install the module.
—
Have a good time everyone!
Kind regards,
Olli
I’ve mentioned it a couple of times, the closest DIY/ big box store is my least favorite. Main reasons being lack of quality, systemic downgrading of goods offered by substituting for ”house brand” type goods sourced all over and ridiculous pricing on remaining name-brand goods that they simply can’t not have on their shelves. Overall availability/ stock.
While I can’t stress enough I wish nobody ill & honestly feel for the employees, it has finally happened, they went into court approved self-administration about two weeks ago. For the next 3 months wages for the chain’s 2XXX employees are secured through the government/ tax payer. Another associated chain, a garden market and their outlets in Austria have fallen into bankruptcy/ self-administration as well by now.
I can’t say I haven’t seen this coming, and for the city it’s another (b)low.
It will be interesting to see whether they can turn this around and if/when they (have to) part with certain locations if ours will still be there. And if it will lead to a change in portfolio/ goods and services offered.
—
A bit ago we got a letter in the mail from our PoCo/ utility, they will be “arming” our SmartMeters.
While we are on our 2nd digital, bidirectional, meter, it is only the current one that is ready to accept an actual “smart module”. So far it is just a blank in there and it is my understanding that that will be replaced with the actual module.
No fixed date yet, but they will send a notice two weeks ahead of the subcontractor coming out to install it.
I’m very curious about all of this and it’s supposed to offer interesting stats/data on our power usage, through our account/ web dashboard with the PoCo.
Maybe I’ll get a chance to snap some pictures of the “open” meter when they install the module.
—
Have a good time everyone!
Kind regards,
Olli
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OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
0. Miscellaneous Stuff
0.13 Front garden transformation
0.13.1 Front garden transformation, new tools & a bit show & tell.
On Tuesday I got a parcel from the UK, it was my https://www.youtube.com/@TattoooedTech merchandise T-Shirt made/shipped through Matrix Workwear UK, that I had ordered in early July. And it still makes me chuckle.
I’m fairly busy with other projects, but I can’t leave the currently, still, main property completely behind. So I ordered a tool to speed up the process of cleaning through the old front lawn. A small electric tiller and that arrived today. After assembly and quick glance at the manual I took it for a spin.
It became clear instantly, right choice. It goes into the hard, compacted soil with ease and leaves me with easy to shovel, fluffy soil and leftover grass.
Heat waves gone by, we’re still left with the drought and the soil shows this. I did try to suppress some of the dust by spraying some water, but obviously the water doesn’t make it very far into the ground so it’s pretty ineffective. A sprayer covering the whole area in a fine mist would have been a better choice - so that’s something that will go on the “to buy” list, as I will be needing it on future projects anyway.
However, dealing with this extremely dry, sandy, soil and very dry grass, I decided to add a finer mesh on top of my soil screen. I had some leftover from building the raised bed years ago (underside rodent protection). That was quickly cut to size and attached with zip-ties.
That worked (and continues to work) really well, and I simply continued to screen until it was time for dinner. I will go over the whole surface with the tiller at least once more. Than it needs leveling and compacting. The end goal is laying rolled sods and a new edge towards the flower beds. This will be continued at some point.
Then I received another parcel, something that I had seen from Spanish manufacturer Grip-On, a table holder for vise grips. I originally wanted to order a single set from Grip-On directly as they run a web shop, however, at check-out it wanted to hit me with 50,- Euro shipping charges for a single set. Their terms and conditions list shipping charges to the likes of 10,- Euro within Europe so I didn’t go through with my order. I contacted them, asking if that 50,- charge was correct albeit the different numbers stated in their terms and conditions. I have not heard back from them, so I started to look elsewhere.
My first try was a dealer who I purchased from before, they sell Grip-On, but not this specific product. I inquired if they could get it for me, the reply I got, I‘m fairly certain was generated by AI. It had all the give aways like picking up on the subject exactly as I wrote it, then we don’t have it and we can’t get it, and last but not least we‘re sure you can find other “pliers“ within our product range of pliers. (Well, no, I can’t because a table holder for vise grips is a pretty specific product (even if it comes with vise grips) that is not substituted by buying a pair of (other) pliers. A human would have been able to make that distinction (I hope …) AI obviously not.
This made me look further, and I found out Elora offers the table holder as well, and I’m pretty sure it is made by Grip-On for them. I checked Elora’s site, they claim compatibility with the full range of 8 and 10” Elora vise grips. So I went and ordered the Elora 500H table holder and 8” Elora 502-180 vise grips with a jaw geometry fitting my needs/ the project this is intended for.
Well, the first thing I noticed was the jaw geometry being pretty off from all the pictures they officially use. This is what I received.
For reference, this is the official picture for the 502 series.
Now I understand changes happen/ are made and I could live with that, if only:
Their 8” vise grips would fit the table holder and not simply fall through. And they prominently feature the 502 series vise grips as accessories with the table holder, and the table holder on the 502 series site as accessory.
I contacted Elora directly about this, as they shipped me this on behalf of the supplier I ordered from. I’m curious as to what their reply will be.
My old “Saltus” vise grips actually fit the table holder.
There are other things with the received vise grips that do not sit well with me, but I will wait for Elora’s reply to my inquiry and how this is handled from here before I will elaborate on this.
Kind regards,
Olli
0.13 Front garden transformation
0.13.1 Front garden transformation, new tools & a bit show & tell.
On Tuesday I got a parcel from the UK, it was my https://www.youtube.com/@TattoooedTech merchandise T-Shirt made/shipped through Matrix Workwear UK, that I had ordered in early July. And it still makes me chuckle.
I’m fairly busy with other projects, but I can’t leave the currently, still, main property completely behind. So I ordered a tool to speed up the process of cleaning through the old front lawn. A small electric tiller and that arrived today. After assembly and quick glance at the manual I took it for a spin.
It became clear instantly, right choice. It goes into the hard, compacted soil with ease and leaves me with easy to shovel, fluffy soil and leftover grass.
Heat waves gone by, we’re still left with the drought and the soil shows this. I did try to suppress some of the dust by spraying some water, but obviously the water doesn’t make it very far into the ground so it’s pretty ineffective. A sprayer covering the whole area in a fine mist would have been a better choice - so that’s something that will go on the “to buy” list, as I will be needing it on future projects anyway.
However, dealing with this extremely dry, sandy, soil and very dry grass, I decided to add a finer mesh on top of my soil screen. I had some leftover from building the raised bed years ago (underside rodent protection). That was quickly cut to size and attached with zip-ties.
That worked (and continues to work) really well, and I simply continued to screen until it was time for dinner. I will go over the whole surface with the tiller at least once more. Than it needs leveling and compacting. The end goal is laying rolled sods and a new edge towards the flower beds. This will be continued at some point.
Then I received another parcel, something that I had seen from Spanish manufacturer Grip-On, a table holder for vise grips. I originally wanted to order a single set from Grip-On directly as they run a web shop, however, at check-out it wanted to hit me with 50,- Euro shipping charges for a single set. Their terms and conditions list shipping charges to the likes of 10,- Euro within Europe so I didn’t go through with my order. I contacted them, asking if that 50,- charge was correct albeit the different numbers stated in their terms and conditions. I have not heard back from them, so I started to look elsewhere.
My first try was a dealer who I purchased from before, they sell Grip-On, but not this specific product. I inquired if they could get it for me, the reply I got, I‘m fairly certain was generated by AI. It had all the give aways like picking up on the subject exactly as I wrote it, then we don’t have it and we can’t get it, and last but not least we‘re sure you can find other “pliers“ within our product range of pliers. (Well, no, I can’t because a table holder for vise grips is a pretty specific product (even if it comes with vise grips) that is not substituted by buying a pair of (other) pliers. A human would have been able to make that distinction (I hope …) AI obviously not.
This made me look further, and I found out Elora offers the table holder as well, and I’m pretty sure it is made by Grip-On for them. I checked Elora’s site, they claim compatibility with the full range of 8 and 10” Elora vise grips. So I went and ordered the Elora 500H table holder and 8” Elora 502-180 vise grips with a jaw geometry fitting my needs/ the project this is intended for.
Well, the first thing I noticed was the jaw geometry being pretty off from all the pictures they officially use. This is what I received.
For reference, this is the official picture for the 502 series.
Now I understand changes happen/ are made and I could live with that, if only:
Their 8” vise grips would fit the table holder and not simply fall through. And they prominently feature the 502 series vise grips as accessories with the table holder, and the table holder on the 502 series site as accessory.
I contacted Elora directly about this, as they shipped me this on behalf of the supplier I ordered from. I’m curious as to what their reply will be.
My old “Saltus” vise grips actually fit the table holder.
There are other things with the received vise grips that do not sit well with me, but I will wait for Elora’s reply to my inquiry and how this is handled from here before I will elaborate on this.
Kind regards,
Olli
Snakevz
Well-known member
Nice work Olli!
How was working with that tiller, does it jumps around trying to get away from you?
Elora holder seems useful, I'll look into it
How was working with that tiller, does it jumps around trying to get away from you?
Elora holder seems useful, I'll look into it
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
Nice work Olli!
How was working with that tiller, does it jumps around trying to get away from you?
Elora holder seems useful, I'll look into it
Thank you very much!
I think the tiller would have benefited from some additional weight, but with a firm grip it’s not too jumpy to control, but yes it definitely wants to get away, more than down into the bone dry, hard/compacted soil. Trade off I guess, tiller only weighs 8kg (17.6 lb), very handy. But it definitely made my life a lot easier and it doesn’t matter if I make 2, 3 or 4 passes with it - unlike if I was shoveling like I started out. I’m very happy with the purchase. And easily registered it for the extended warranty, should something happen/ unforeseen come up.
Maybe hold off on the Elora table holder until I know more. … Elora did not get back to me today, but I hope they will sometime next week. Ultimately my goal is to get this sorted, rather than simply returning the order - which no future customer would benefit from as the supplier would just re-stock and not waste any time on the reason behind the return. We’ll see.
@Kasal , saw your like, Thank you very much! But what I really would like to know, are you safe where you are located in Spain and all OK so far?
Kind regards,
Olli
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OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
Mine is mobile use for anything involving heat, currently I have a couple of “plastic” clamps in my box and I wanted to compliment them with a (fairly) lightweight all metal solution. I was looking into different options, this seemed to be the most versatile (if it truly proves to be compatible with all different types of vise grips, I haven’t tested all of them yet) yet very compact solution. And you could easily add a second holder for longer/larger stuff.
But if this will only work with the largest of vise grips, it’s going into the box of tools which will never see the daylight again.
(Just checked with my Irwin LN9, won’t hold them either. …)
Kind regards,
Olli
captain14
Well-known member
Olli,
What brand is the new tiller? It has the Makita “teal” color?
I know Makita is very popular in Europe. At least I think since some the YouTuber I watch use a lot of Mikita power tools.
What brand is the new tiller? It has the Makita “teal” color?
I know Makita is very popular in Europe. At least I think since some the YouTuber I watch use a lot of Mikita power tools.
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
The tiller is Chinese with a German name. -> https://konner-sohnen.com/en/products/electric-tillers-ks-1000t-e
Drop shipped from my favorite DIY/ big box store.
Kind regards,
Olli
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
#RealTimeUpdate
For those interested, Elora replied to my inquiry this morning. They acknowledged it’s a mistake in their description, the table holder is only compatible with 10” vise grips. (I almost can’t believe it, but I must have been the first person to point this out, as they have been running with this description at least since ‘24. …) Apparently they did some tests/ checked inventory and came to the same conclusion I came to. …
The other thing I noticed, they changed the jaws on the 502-180 as well. Also a bad surprise when I got them.
I’ve now started the return process with the supplier, not gonna keep these tools as they are not what I wanted. Let’s see into how much of an hassle that is going to turn.
Jaws:
Elora’s picture:
What I got:
Kind regards,
Olli
For those interested, Elora replied to my inquiry this morning. They acknowledged it’s a mistake in their description, the table holder is only compatible with 10” vise grips. (I almost can’t believe it, but I must have been the first person to point this out, as they have been running with this description at least since ‘24. …) Apparently they did some tests/ checked inventory and came to the same conclusion I came to. …
The other thing I noticed, they changed the jaws on the 502-180 as well. Also a bad surprise when I got them.
I’ve now started the return process with the supplier, not gonna keep these tools as they are not what I wanted. Let’s see into how much of an hassle that is going to turn.
Jaws:
Elora’s picture:
What I got:
Kind regards,
Olli
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
#RealTimeUpdate
Promise this is the last one on that matter.
In my reply to the original message/ confirmation they had their description wrong from this morning, I pointed out the difference in jaw geometry and that it would be a good idea to update the picture(s). I also said that the original jaw pattern would have been much more useful/versatile.
The reply I got a few hours ago included a smiley “balancing embarrassment” (
) and acknowledged the very old, outdated picture. Not one word about the usability aspect though.
I find it somewhat astonishing. But it is what it is, let’s move forward. Hopefully the return can be completed this week and then I don‘t have to give this another minute of my time.
EDIT July, 29th: Supplier cancelled the invoice after me e-mailing & explaining the situation, they don’t want the holder or pliers back. … So this is matter is settled/resolved.
Kind regards,
Olli
Promise this is the last one on that matter.
In my reply to the original message/ confirmation they had their description wrong from this morning, I pointed out the difference in jaw geometry and that it would be a good idea to update the picture(s). I also said that the original jaw pattern would have been much more useful/versatile.
The reply I got a few hours ago included a smiley “balancing embarrassment” (
) and acknowledged the very old, outdated picture. Not one word about the usability aspect though.I find it somewhat astonishing. But it is what it is, let’s move forward. Hopefully the return can be completed this week and then I don‘t have to give this another minute of my time.
EDIT July, 29th: Supplier cancelled the invoice after me e-mailing & explaining the situation, they don’t want the holder or pliers back. … So this is matter is settled/resolved.
Kind regards,
Olli
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OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
0. Miscellaneous Stuff
0.13 Front garden transformation
0.13.1 Front garden transformation, new tools & a bit show & tell.
0.13.2 Front garden leveled, rolled sod ordered.
I won’t bore you with a lot of pictures on this one, the front garden is now compacted & leveled. It was really just another pass with the tiller, raking, leveling, compacting and spraying it down with some water.
I ordered the rolled sod today, pre-cooled because of the expected sunny & dry weather, it should be delivered Wednesday of next week, and my plan is to either lay it that day - or a day later on Thursday.
I do think we want some kind of edge between the new grass and flower bed, not yet sure if I do that “in between” in the coming days or after laying the rolled sod and waiting a while for everything to settle in.
Kind regards,
Olli
0.13 Front garden transformation
0.13.1 Front garden transformation, new tools & a bit show & tell.
0.13.2 Front garden leveled, rolled sod ordered.
I won’t bore you with a lot of pictures on this one, the front garden is now compacted & leveled. It was really just another pass with the tiller, raking, leveling, compacting and spraying it down with some water.
I ordered the rolled sod today, pre-cooled because of the expected sunny & dry weather, it should be delivered Wednesday of next week, and my plan is to either lay it that day - or a day later on Thursday.
I do think we want some kind of edge between the new grass and flower bed, not yet sure if I do that “in between” in the coming days or after laying the rolled sod and waiting a while for everything to settle in.
Kind regards,
Olli
drivesitfar
Well-known member
Sorry for not keeping up with your thread cause I need to catch up with all your doings. Anything you do is quality work and your tools are amazing so keep it up.
Edging for lawns really is a personal preference and I’ve had none, bricks and poured concrete around ours and my lates concrete one that is 8 inches wide and about 6 inches deep is really working out nicely. I made forms from old and a few new pieces of Trex decking 1x6’s (or Timbertech or any pvc product could work or wood if you like straight runs). Yours looks pretty straight so depending on how deep any wiring or plumbing is a 2x6 form should work nicely but no edge to start should be fine too.
My only suggestion on sod is to keep it watered and maybe morning and afternoon waterings. I rarely water just before sun sets cause I am not a fan of taking a chance on mold or other issues than can happen when watering late.
Nice work as always!!
Edging for lawns really is a personal preference and I’ve had none, bricks and poured concrete around ours and my lates concrete one that is 8 inches wide and about 6 inches deep is really working out nicely. I made forms from old and a few new pieces of Trex decking 1x6’s (or Timbertech or any pvc product could work or wood if you like straight runs). Yours looks pretty straight so depending on how deep any wiring or plumbing is a 2x6 form should work nicely but no edge to start should be fine too.
My only suggestion on sod is to keep it watered and maybe morning and afternoon waterings. I rarely water just before sun sets cause I am not a fan of taking a chance on mold or other issues than can happen when watering late.
Nice work as always!!
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
@drivesitfar Thank you very much. I really like your poured concrete edging, that looks really nice and actually wide enough to really keep the grass out of the flower beds and mower wheels to ride on.
We haven’t decided yet if it is indeed going to be a straight line or involving some curves and the same goes for materials. Everything is still possible.
Kind regards,
Olli
We haven’t decided yet if it is indeed going to be a straight line or involving some curves and the same goes for materials. Everything is still possible.
Kind regards,
Olli
drivesitfar
Well-known member
Trex or Timbertech or probably most pvc type products I use for most of my concrete forms and for the edging in our front lawn can bend nicely and help in place with steel or wood stakes. If you need to make more than a 45 degree type bend then cutting some relief cuts in the pvc works great.
I can get better pics of my front yard concrete boarders and the framing but here’s an example of cutting relief gaps.
I can get better pics of my front yard concrete boarders and the framing but here’s an example of cutting relief gaps.
OP
Nobody-named-Olli
Well-known member
#Grip-on 111 10” curved jaw vise grips & Elora 502-180 8” combination jaw vise grips
Please consider this more of an ”unboxing” than a use based review, I will get to that at some point but not right now.
Now as I wrote before (Please check posts #288, #295 & #296 for the full picture.) when I got the Elora 502-180 I wasn’t exactly pleased with them - besides the whole incompatibility saga - in essence my “grievance” with them was, and kind of still is, I don’t think they are worthy of the “Made in Germany” stamp.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT implying that those weren’t made in Germany, I’m sure they were and they therefore technically/formally are absolutely allowed to be stamped “Made in Germany” there is no questioning about that.
I was ready & willing to return them but got told I could keep them. Because of the incompatibility issue, the only way to use the table holder would have been with much larger vise grips which is not what I wanted.
Somewhere along the way I found out that Grip-on actually makes another table holder, able to accommodate multiple sizes of vise grips in one holder: https://shop.grip-on.com/collections/productos-ordenados/products/soporte-mordaza-grip-1075 but the overall situation hasn’t changed, they do not communicate with me/ never replied to my initial inquiry.
But I was actually able to purchase Grip-on 111 10” curved jaw vise grips locally. And I am somewhat impressed. They are made in Spain.
So just we are on the same picture:
Price for the Elora 502-180 (8”) was (would have been) 20.03 Euro/ 23.09 USD. (The 10” model would have been 21.45 Euro/ 24.73 USD)
Price for the Grip-on 111 (10”) was 14.70 Euro/ 16.95 USD.
Those prices are “Joe Average”/anybody prices before taxes/VAT and without shipping. No discount, no dynamic pricing, no account.
Here’s what I received:
Compared to the Elora 502-180
- Both vise grips came locked. The jaws would not open with the lever/handle released, the handle would only drop down, and the sliding part to adjust jaw width would actually drop out the upper handle. Had to put it back on both vise grips and then use two hands to force the jaws open. After a few turns of exercising them with a fresh drop of oil it became a non-issue. (None of my Irwin or Milwaukee vise grips would ever do/ or require that “out of the box”.)
- Both vise grips adjusting bolts threads needed cleaning as well as the threads inside the handle. They run incredibly rough and it was worse when you tried to just lightly snug up the closed/locked vise grips jaws to something. With all threads cleaned and a minimal amount of oil that got significantly better, but is still rather rough/coarse. (None of my Irwin or Milwaukee vise grips required these additional steps “out of the box”.)
- The Elora 502-180 vise grips came with quite a few marks/ scars. The worst right above the pivot/axle and is probably from tooling used in production. (Last picture above.) I hadn’t even seen that when I unpacked them at first, but after they didn’t feel right, I started to look closer. …The issue with the threading and this basically sums up my feeling that there was no care involved when this particular pair of Elora vise grips was made.
- The Grip-on vise grips have a much higher quality fit, finish & feel to them. To a large extent that obviously might be because of the epoxy coated handles which are extremely smooth - and that coating was already scarred by me by just inserting the vise grips into the table holder.
- From all vise grips I own, the Elora 502-180 have the worst alignment, when closing/locking the lower handle wants to move out to one side and when unlocked there is a significant ”wobble” in that lower handle. Milwaukee is the second worst, the Grip-On is what I would consider acceptable/ not noteworthy and the best are my Irwin vise grips. (And because that question will come up, all my Irwins have been purchased from I think starting 2016 and onward, so (highly likely) all imports.)
Within the realm of all things considering vise grips, these are beater tools - they get exposed to heat, welding spatter, and will all sooner or later touch a grinding or cut-off disc - so none of this actually matters beyond the simple fact that some manufacturers take more care of the products they make than others.
And I put this here, because I actually only looked deeper into all of this because the Elora 502-180 vise grips just felt off in some way to me.
Along my way, I also found out that Knipex seems to offer vise grips identical to the Elora 502-250 (10”) with their 41 14 250 model. I didn’t feel playful enough - and overall it also isn’t important enough to me - to try and find out if they would actually deliver the universal/combined jaw profile as pictured. https://www.knipex-tools.com/products/grip-pliers/grip-pliers/grip-pliers-round-jaws/4114250
Also, I found them for 14.24 Euro/ 16.41 USD before tax/VAT, no shipping. Same rules as set out above. So that had me expecting to receive the same overall quality I had gotten from Elora. Wether Elora makes them, or if there is still another 3rd party involved. On the other hand, it could as well be the case that the Knipex are going through additional production/ quality procedures and checks. I actually don’t know, and I won’t be wasting more time on this as I have already.
Last but not least, probably what everyone has been waiting for who is still “with me” on this at this stage, picture of the Grip-On 10” in the table holder.
Personally I will say this, the 111 models are Grip-on’s lowest-tier vise grips as far as my understanding goes - and they are cheap. Still, they are made in Spain which is good and they really do have a quality fit, finish & feel out of box.
I will now place them and the holder into my personal toolbox to further evaluate and test them.
Kind regards,
Olli
Please consider this more of an ”unboxing” than a use based review, I will get to that at some point but not right now.
Now as I wrote before (Please check posts #288, #295 & #296 for the full picture.) when I got the Elora 502-180 I wasn’t exactly pleased with them - besides the whole incompatibility saga - in essence my “grievance” with them was, and kind of still is, I don’t think they are worthy of the “Made in Germany” stamp.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT implying that those weren’t made in Germany, I’m sure they were and they therefore technically/formally are absolutely allowed to be stamped “Made in Germany” there is no questioning about that.
I was ready & willing to return them but got told I could keep them. Because of the incompatibility issue, the only way to use the table holder would have been with much larger vise grips which is not what I wanted.
Somewhere along the way I found out that Grip-on actually makes another table holder, able to accommodate multiple sizes of vise grips in one holder: https://shop.grip-on.com/collections/productos-ordenados/products/soporte-mordaza-grip-1075 but the overall situation hasn’t changed, they do not communicate with me/ never replied to my initial inquiry.
But I was actually able to purchase Grip-on 111 10” curved jaw vise grips locally. And I am somewhat impressed. They are made in Spain.
So just we are on the same picture:
Price for the Elora 502-180 (8”) was (would have been) 20.03 Euro/ 23.09 USD. (The 10” model would have been 21.45 Euro/ 24.73 USD)
Price for the Grip-on 111 (10”) was 14.70 Euro/ 16.95 USD.
Those prices are “Joe Average”/anybody prices before taxes/VAT and without shipping. No discount, no dynamic pricing, no account.
Here’s what I received:
Compared to the Elora 502-180
- Both vise grips came locked. The jaws would not open with the lever/handle released, the handle would only drop down, and the sliding part to adjust jaw width would actually drop out the upper handle. Had to put it back on both vise grips and then use two hands to force the jaws open. After a few turns of exercising them with a fresh drop of oil it became a non-issue. (None of my Irwin or Milwaukee vise grips would ever do/ or require that “out of the box”.)
- Both vise grips adjusting bolts threads needed cleaning as well as the threads inside the handle. They run incredibly rough and it was worse when you tried to just lightly snug up the closed/locked vise grips jaws to something. With all threads cleaned and a minimal amount of oil that got significantly better, but is still rather rough/coarse. (None of my Irwin or Milwaukee vise grips required these additional steps “out of the box”.)
- The Elora 502-180 vise grips came with quite a few marks/ scars. The worst right above the pivot/axle and is probably from tooling used in production. (Last picture above.) I hadn’t even seen that when I unpacked them at first, but after they didn’t feel right, I started to look closer. …The issue with the threading and this basically sums up my feeling that there was no care involved when this particular pair of Elora vise grips was made.
- The Grip-on vise grips have a much higher quality fit, finish & feel to them. To a large extent that obviously might be because of the epoxy coated handles which are extremely smooth - and that coating was already scarred by me by just inserting the vise grips into the table holder.
- From all vise grips I own, the Elora 502-180 have the worst alignment, when closing/locking the lower handle wants to move out to one side and when unlocked there is a significant ”wobble” in that lower handle. Milwaukee is the second worst, the Grip-On is what I would consider acceptable/ not noteworthy and the best are my Irwin vise grips. (And because that question will come up, all my Irwins have been purchased from I think starting 2016 and onward, so (highly likely) all imports.)
Within the realm of all things considering vise grips, these are beater tools - they get exposed to heat, welding spatter, and will all sooner or later touch a grinding or cut-off disc - so none of this actually matters beyond the simple fact that some manufacturers take more care of the products they make than others.
And I put this here, because I actually only looked deeper into all of this because the Elora 502-180 vise grips just felt off in some way to me.
Along my way, I also found out that Knipex seems to offer vise grips identical to the Elora 502-250 (10”) with their 41 14 250 model. I didn’t feel playful enough - and overall it also isn’t important enough to me - to try and find out if they would actually deliver the universal/combined jaw profile as pictured. https://www.knipex-tools.com/products/grip-pliers/grip-pliers/grip-pliers-round-jaws/4114250
Also, I found them for 14.24 Euro/ 16.41 USD before tax/VAT, no shipping. Same rules as set out above. So that had me expecting to receive the same overall quality I had gotten from Elora. Wether Elora makes them, or if there is still another 3rd party involved. On the other hand, it could as well be the case that the Knipex are going through additional production/ quality procedures and checks. I actually don’t know, and I won’t be wasting more time on this as I have already.
Last but not least, probably what everyone has been waiting for who is still “with me” on this at this stage, picture of the Grip-On 10” in the table holder.
Personally I will say this, the 111 models are Grip-on’s lowest-tier vise grips as far as my understanding goes - and they are cheap. Still, they are made in Spain which is good and they really do have a quality fit, finish & feel out of box.
I will now place them and the holder into my personal toolbox to further evaluate and test them.
Kind regards,
Olli