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Look around your town for fenced-off vacant gravel lots with small test wells scattered over them. I can think of three in the nearby city (two gas stations and one old electrical substation) that have been vacant for over 10 years, and every once in a while I see people pulling samples out of...

If the transformer is humming, it probably doesn't know the words. Groan. Thanks to my dad for that gem. Some transformers are just noisy. I know the control transformer on my furnace at my last house could be heard on a quiet night from the bedroom. What is the transformer powering? 12...

I could see the .75 working well; you want the bushing to keep the blade concentric to the shaft, the clamping force (at least on my saw) is at the outside edge of the big clamp washers anyway.

One thing I learned from dealing with the estate of my wife's grandfather and father, who both had all kinds of things set aside all over their acreages for "future projects" is that you really need to be honest with yourself about how much time you'll have in the future to get to those...

I have 450 square feet. You learn to make do and to hang on to less ****. I upgraded from a 130 square foot tin can shed at my last place to this, so I'm still quite happy to have any space. 720 woul seem like an acerage at this point.

My garage exists mostly underground. It isn't heated, but the mass of dirt has a great regulating effect on the temperature inside my garage. I never experience rapid temperature swings inside my garage, which are the leading cause of rusty stuff. I have a very mild water infiltration problem...

I'm not so worried about the sag or the structural risk: with the size of the span, the minimal snow load, and the fact that the sides of my garage are supported at the top by the ground, my trusses would function just fine as rafters. Also, I've already insulated and vapour barrier'd my...

I've put a partition wall in my garage that runs parallel to the trusses, and it's become apparent that the bottom chord of my trusses sags a little over an inch in the middle of a 17 foot span. It doesn't sound like much, but It becomes really obvious in contrast to the square and level framed...

Painting mishap? Was this you:

It's easy to poke fun at guys with messy shops when you either have nothing in your garage, or a garage the size of a hangar. I have a theory that there's two classes of people: those who can keep track of their stuff, and those who can't. Those in the first category have to keep everything...

You mean to take whole sets of wrenches in and give them a soapy water bath in the kitchen sink?

As a person that uses computers all day to do things, you would think that I'd be on board with the idea of using Sketchup or the likes to plan my garage. I tried that for a while, but I was having a tough time coming up with a layout that would work. I ended up using my computer to create...

A Hilti/Ramset/Explosiver nailer thing will happily pound nails into that beam, if you want to do something mildly complicated. If really complicated is your thing (as it seems to be), I have a few more suggestions. How about creating a friction welding system using an old drill press, or buying...

If you pay the shipping I'll take it off your hands!

stanleyoutdoors, So far, nothing. The printing press needs new ink rollers ($$). The first Linotype is 96 years old but well maintained. The lead melting pot needs one of its heating elements replaced. The second Linotype is 65 years old, and needs to be completely rewired. It has a 3 phase...

No car will ever see the inside of my garage. The big door at the front sure is handy for moving these things around, though: With a wall across the middle that is coming soon, my garage will be half printing shop (and eventually machine shop), and half woodworking shop. I'm curious to see...

Luckily, the garage has gutters along both sides, and I haven't had any water problems along those sides. The terrain is well sloped, there is an 8 foot grade change from the front of my garage to the back. Behind my garage is 25 or so feet of relatively level lawn. I think I need to look...

I've been in my place for two years, and I've never had problems with water infiltrating my mostly-below-grade garage. At least I didn't think I had problems. The back and right side block walls were framed out 1" and covered with masonite, the left side wall is bare block. I didn't see any...

I used a Wagner to paint my last house, and the most important thing to understand is that the sprayer will spatter on start up no matter what you do. I would start it up on a piece of cardboard, then continue to spray the house. Once I got a hang of the thing, it was not a problem to use. The...

At $10/litre I only use Evaporust for small things. Don't half submerge things, bad things happen at the air/evaportust interface. For big things, electrolytic rust removal is easy and safe. It also works great as a paint stripper as well. Do not stick your hands in the energized solution -- I...