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My Grandpa's ancient Montgomery Ward air compressor needs a new pressure switch. In the course of extracting the switch, the general poor state of the tank and plumbing caused me to let out a little wee of fright. After a little investigation under the grime and rust, I found a date of 1976 on...

I'd like to carry a jack of some sort in my minivan for possible road repairs. The scissor jack that comes with it, like all such jacks, is barely adequate for elevating one corner for a spare swap. A full size floor jack (I have a 3 ton low profile at home) is unwieldy and heavy, although...

I can find any number of multimeters with large numbers and some even have rudimentary lighted displays to coddle my ancient, withered, rheumy, aching eyes. However, every daggum one of them forces me to fumble around for my magnifying glasses in order to see and interpret the teensy cryptic...

It's February 2024, and I finally ran out of nitrile gloves. At least you can find them now. What are your favorite nitrile gloves for general mechanickery? FWIW, the last batch I had was 8mil Gloveworks, and they were pretty dang OK. I've never been happy with the gloves from Harbor Freight...

I'm in the process of assembling a largeish tool bag to carry in the car. This will be a pretty damn complete kit, since I seem to have become the "canoe" guy among my friends and family. You know, "canoe" look at this while you're here? Anyway, I'll be toting a fair selection of sockets, and...

I was intrigued when I got the email from Horrible Fright that included a new set of 30 foot alligator clip test leads on a little reel. https://www.harborfreight.com/30-ft-retractable-test-leads-58024.html You know, that looks like a very damn good idea for all kinds of vehicle testing. The...

A few weeks ago one bone-chilling night, my wife called from the side of the road about 40 minutes away with a flat tire. Long story short, it was easiest and fastest for me to just drive up there and deal with it. Fortunately, it was a simple puncture and I plugged and re-inflated the tire and...

I almost hate to ask this, but I am in need... Yes, I know the goddurn gubbamint won't let us have the "good stuff" any more. Let's set that aside for the moment, and focus on the best course given our present reality. What's the best remaining strategy for stripping the rest of the paint...

Yes, I'm serious. Lots of us have an assortment of small plastic 4oz squirt bottles in the garage with motor oil, penetrating oil, distilled water, ketchup, and a selection of other unguents, potions, and flavorings. They leak, they fall over, they fall apart. The lids pop off and get lost...

Like many tool-using primates who monkey with vehicles, I have a small collection of headlight and turn signal bulbs and sockets with wires hooked up to them. The reason for this, of course, is that many, many vehicle electrical issues arise from insufficient current flow. If you test voltage...

A few weeks back, I couldn't reach high enough on my house to replace a piece of bad trim. I borrowed a 17' "Little Giant" ladder from a friend; one of those ladders that articulates and extends from four feet to 17 feet. I learned then that my crappy little six foot step ladder was unwieldy...

I got an Astro 1822 nano impact for Xmas, and I absolutely love the lil' booger. Since this ends up getting contorted into odd spaces, I've noticed a standard fitting adds several inches to the end. I'd like to add a swivel to increase flexibility of positioning. There seem to be two main...

It's not technically a garage floor, but what the heck; might as well see if the GJ Hive Mind can offer some wisdom: I have an smallish entryway, about 5-1/2 x 8-1/2 feet. (Which works out to 46.75 square feet) with a wood parquet floor in good physical shape, but looking tired and dingy. The...

Looks like they're building a Northern Tool pretty darn close to my house on the northwest side of Indianapolis. Should I get excited? :bounce: :bounce: Never been in one or ordered from them, but they did send me a giant catalog a few months ago.

Looking at a heat pump replacement. Anyone done this through the Costco/Lennox thing or gotten a guesstimate from these guys? Yes, I know it's only a referral to a local HVAC outfit. But you get a 10% Costco gift card, so hey, it potentially could pencil out, maybe... :confused: :headscrat...

I need one strong, tight-fitting 10mm flare nut wrench. Don't care at all about other sizes. < rant > For some reason, flare wrenches in all the "usual" midline brands I normally use are sloppy, loose-fitting absolute nut-rounding dogshit. These brands can make regular 10mm wrenches and...

I'd swear such a thing used to exist, but now I can't find it anywhere... perhaps my Google-Fu is getting weak. I want a rubber (or urethane, or whatever) socket rail to keep the 1/4" drive sockets in my motorcycle tool kit a little neater. A rigid rail would keep the tool roll from rolling up...

I've tried a few different brands of nitrile mechanic's gloves, and the damn things are nearly impossible to use because the insides of the gloves are all stuck together so hard I can't put them on without tearing. I've had limited success with blowing them up like balloons by mouth, but that's...

A bit of a rant. How is backstabbing remotely legal? :headscrat I finally got done yesterday replacing every last outlet and switch in my house. It started with some intermittent outlet failures, including a chain in my living room that was lots of fun to figure out. After seeing the state of...

There are two gaps on my 1/2" drive socket organizer that are making something in the back of my brain itch; I have no deep or shallow sockets in 23mm or 25mm. :( Am I bringing shame upon my garage if I leave these gaps unfilled? In a relatively busy three decades or so of amateur wrenching, I...