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I found this lift for sale, and know nothing about it. I haven't gone to look at it yet. Any idea of the capacity? Lift height? I tried googling, but don't know what this kind of lift is called. I need to lift my 2300 lb. Miata about 30" to pull the front subframe and engine. I once dreamed of...

Maybe everyone already knows this tip. I'm sanding, sanding, sanding on the boat I'm building, and was lamenting the pile of spent 5" sanding discs. I noticed that they really only wear out at the edges, with the center being almost like new. I had an idea, so I stuck one on my oscillating...

Another day; another project. I have an ancient Craftsman (Parks) 12" planer. I bought it cheap years ago, and don't use it often, mostly because of the terrible choppy finish. I read all kinds of advice on how to tune it up, but it never helped the finish. I decided to inspect the spindle...

I just had another crazy thought. I want to build a free-standing carport on our property. I need 8 posts to hold it up. What if I made the posts out of concrete? I could put rebar in them. The only drawback is a 6X6 X 10' concrete post would weigh about 375 lbs. I guess I could form them up in...

We're getting new countertops in our kitchen, which means of course that the sinks have to be removed and re-set. When I built our house, I had nothing but trouble getting the stupid drain fittings to seal reliably. I'm not looking forward to going through that again, but here we are. I tried...

Several years ago, I put up 24 cheap 4' LED strip lights in my shop. They work great, with one problem. They keep breaking contact between fixtures. They're designed to be plugged directly together, end-to-end. I think because of the heating and cooling of the shop, things shrink and expand...

Well, as usual, I want to do something, but it costs too much. I need to swage some eyes in 3/16 wire rope, and a die is $$$. They do have hand tools, but at $60, why should I buy one to do a handful of eyes? after digging deep on-line, I finally found out what the proper dimensions of the...

I'm trying to find the cheapest way to put a ceiling up in my shop. I don't care much what it looks like, as long as it's 1) cheap, 2) white, 3) Low/no maintenance. I'm finding white vinyl soffit on CL for 50 cents a square foot, about as cheap as it gets. I was originally going to use metal...

Mostly just curious- What is the filler they used on old machine tool castings to smooth them out? On machines like my Bridgeport, you can see how thick the stuff is. I imagine they just slathered it on, sanded it smooth and painted it. It kinda looks like Bondo, but I'm pretty sure I've seen it...

With a house and barn full of antiques (including the owners!) I like old stuff. I've been wanting one of those old warehouse carts that are suddenly a must-have. With the demand, the prices have climbed into the stupid range. I found a rotted out one cheap, but the hardware was fine. I made all...

After years of looking, I finally found an old Delta 14" band saw. I've been wanting to replace my old Craftsman 12" for a long time, but the Delta/Rockwell saws have really jumped up in price lately. This one came out of a school shop that closed in 1960, and it would be pristine, but somehow...

Poor guy had this pic on CL. He's looking for the correct jaw for his Wilton vise.

I'm planning to make oarlock sockets for the boat I'm building. Yeah, I can buy them, but I have the materials, and like the idea of making my own. Basically, there is a flat top plate, and a round socket section. I could assemble them with a press fit, soldering them together, or threading them...

I'm possibly in the market for a small router. I have some detail work to do, and a full-size router is just too bulky. I won't be using it professionally, so I don't need a high-end expensive one, but it needs to work. I want variable speed at the minimum. If I go cordless, the Milwaukee M18...

I need a way to hoist a light (150 lb.) boat up to the ceiling of my shop. I'm going to store it that way to keep it out of the weather, but it needs to be handy for when I want to use the boat. I've been looking at cheap ($25) block and tackles on ebay. They're rated at 4000 lbs., which is a...

I'm trying to vacuum down my new mini-split system. I have a CPS VG-200 micron gauge. I have a valve removal tool in place, which has a shut-off to the pump, and a T fitting to mount the micron gauge. I've run the pump quite a while, but I'm still not getting a reading from the micron gauge...

I'm replacing my failing mini-split. I pumped it down to get all of the refrigerant into the compressor unit. When I took apart the lines, a fair amount of oil dribbled out, more than I expected. How do I ensure that there's not a bunch more trapped in them? About 20' of the lines are...

I recently scored some nice cypress pretty cheap (less than **** wood at HD). Somehow, I remembered that I had downloaded some plans for Adirondack chairs from a discussion here a couple years ago. Norm Abram's design. They went together easily, and are quite comfortable. Between the cypress...

Any of you guys know anything about Mitsubishi mini-splits? My main one (12K BTU) is getting a bit old, and stopped heating the other day. I may take a shot at fixing it, if I can figure out what's wrong. If you turn it on, it may (or may not) work normally for a few minutes. Then, the louvers...

Having had several power outages over the years, I'd like to figure out how to better use my Honda 6500 watt generator. The easy way would be to connect it to the panel in my shop and feed it back to the house. I could shut off the main house breaker so as to not accidentally energize the grid...