Search results

Okay, it's not quite warm enough to start worrying about cooling off the garage, but it's close enough to think about it. Standard 22x24 two car garage. One half (rear half) has 9 foot ceiling that is finished. I'm pondering adding a pair of ceiling fans to help with the air flow. Not much is...

Okay, I've got a standard horizontal metal band saw, a Foremost model. It works well enough and it was a bargain last year. I can cut pretty much whatever I want at a right angle, and I can angle the vise let me make an angle cut. That's fine for bar stock, solid, or tubing. But what about...

Woot just posted a one day sale on a rolling collapsible tool box. Looks like double lid expanding clamshell design, 10.5" x 11" x 21.5" and a bit heavy at 44 pounds empty, but it is made of all steel and the OOC is... Germany? Okay, I know you expected me to say China, but no, it's Germany...

After seeing some good examples of home built welding spoons/backing plates for welding up holes, I decided to take up the challenge myself. I had been using a chunk of aluminum, but it was big, bulky, and hard to hold on to. Besides, it really held the heat and was not comfortable to hold...

Okay, about to go out in a week and pick up a 60 gal vertical compressor from Home Depot as I really like the CH-built Husky units there. But I'm a complete newb when it comes to moving one. I've got a simple compact pickup, and a choice of either flatbed trailer or an enclosed 5x8 trailer...

While I've been reading up on the intriguing idea of mixing acetone with ATF to make your own highly effective rust penetrant/solvent for freeing up stuck bolts and more, what I haven't seen is what to put the solvent *IN*. Acetone is a great solvent for cleaning a lot of materials including...

I've searched the forums, but don't really see much in the way of what people like to listen to for a podcast. With Cartalk going away (and frankly, I didn't really go for the cornball cheesey humor nonstop), I find myself pining for auto and home repair podcasts. Something on tools and the...

I'm not asking what this is, I'm asking what it *was*. Why? It was a tool I put inside a toolbox with a bunch of other tools and left in storage about a decade. The screwdrivers all were chalky with CRAFTSMAN barely visible. I *think* this was a quick exchange countersinking drill bit...

I picked up a Kennedy Tool Box / machinist box from an estate sale for $20. It had been an Air Force box and painted over with AF Blue. That was cool as it had all sorts of stencilled markings. Unfortunately someone had then painted it over with Ford engine blue. The paint was in poor...

While you can easily go out and buy a workstand from your tool store of choice for $20-30, they often lack features you wish they had. Even the expensive ones will not quite do exactly what you want. So why not build your own? It's a good simple project and pretty cheap to do. The time is...

Got to go get the 80 (cu ft) tank of argon #1 mix (GMAV) refilled tomorrow and I haven't ever priced this stuff out for my own use. It's always been the shop buying through invoice. Now this tank is on my dime for my own use and I don't know what is a reasonable price. I'm not worried about...

Hmm, got the avatar image uploaded, but never shows up in any post. Wonder what I'm doing wrong. Test, test, test.

I love bench top power tools, but the problem is that they require being mounted on a bench to be most effective. And a bench with tools mounts on it becomes cluttered and harder to use effectively. I like to have everything in my garage to be mobile so I can wheel it out to the driveway for...

So you brought home those nifty tool chests you got on sale and are happily staring at them in all their glossy beauty. Such wonderful paint, perfect condition, everything in place. It seems like such a waste to even USE them since you know the first time you put anything on top of that...

Picked up an aluminum machinist tool box I believe, 21" wide, 14" tall, 10" deep. Very solidly built and about 20 pounds empty. The precision fitment of the pieces, the construction- all of it speaks quality. The decals stuck to it suggest it was used by a person at Boeing. The logo of the...

I got an email notice of an estate sale 10 miles from my home, but it was going to be a two day event only, Friday and Saturday. The estate was that of a deceased high school shop teacher, and the photos showed lots of wonderful things that I knew I had to have. I didn't know I needed to have...

Everybody loves a good deal. Garage sales are wonderful places to shop for tools, but you never know what you’re going to find until you stumble across them. Estate sales are another beast entirely. These are targeted towards the very people that go out of their way looking for those items...

While buying a horizontal metal bandsaw by Foremost for $70, I spotted an air compressor and asked about it. It's a dental/medical grade air compressor using a pair of separate rotary direct coupled compressors through a dryer unit which auto purges before going to a 15 gallon tank. It's not...

The former company I worked for at the current location had lots of equipment in place. They got outbid on the followup contract renewal, then pulled out of the US entirely, dissolving that entire service arm. The new company that won the bid hired everyone for smooth transition. The warehouse...