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We have a 14' x 7' wooden panel garage door with a Craftsman 1/2 hp opener. Lately, we've been having trouble closing the door in the morning when temperature is very low. I'd like to upgrade the garage opener, and was looking at the Chamberlain 3/4 hp openers. We prefer to upgrade to a...

I recently purchased a HF bubble balancer to balance my winter tires. When I opened the package, the tip of the spindle was rusted, so I took some paint thinner and rubbed it down. After I finally placed the balancer on the spindle and let it come to rest, I noticed the air bubble is not in...

I'm chasing a fueling issue on my car, and would like to invest in a quality set of fuel pressure gauge + adaptors. I have found in the long run, it is better to go for quality instead of price. I have the long acre tire gauges and milton tire chucks, both made in USA and in my opinion of...

I was doing some front end work under the car this weekend, noticed the inside to one of my front tires had a couple of rather deep dry cracks. These are my snow tires that gets used 5 months a year, going on 6 years now. Is it safe to run them out of thia season, maybe another 2000 miles as a...

Our house is built on a slight hill with an attached garage with a bedroom right above. The left front corner of the garage happens to be the lowest point of the of the house. Over its life (50+ years) that corner has settled roughly 2 to 3 inches thats noticeable when walking in the room...

I'm looking to start a couple of projects where I need to tear up old concrete. A side walk of about 50 ft by 3ft section and a parking area around 20x25 ft. I'm not sure on the depth of the concrete, house was built around 1950, guess maybe 4". I work slow, so I was thinking of buying a...

The fluorescent lights in our basement is powered by separate ballast for each bulb, total of 4 stringed along the wall. I've replaced 2 bulb magnetic ballasts with electric ones before, but the single bulb ballast only has 3 wires coming out of it, with what I'm guessing is black/neutral out...

We have a Goodman 3 ton condenser with a Bristol recip compressor going on 15+ years, it has a 1-pole 40amp 240/24vac contactor, and 2 separate capacitors (fan motor and compressor). It has ran low on charge before, usually a recharge will bring it back to life. This time, it won't take any...

I'm getting an electrician to upgrade my main panel, then I'll pull a subpanel for the garage myself. The electrician wants to put in a cheap Murray main, I'd like to use a square D qo in my garage later. Would this be a problem down the line? Will it be better if he switches to a square D...

I'm looking to do some gutter work, re-mortor the chimney cap and possibly look at installing skylight or solar panels later on. I have a couple of ladders that can get me on the 2nd story roof, but I really need some recommendation on proper fall protection. As background, I'm 5'10", range...

One of my tires developed a slow leak, it would go from 35psi to 20psi in a week. I took the tire off and carefully inspected all the treads, both side walls, nothing. Any ideas? The tires are barely 2 years old, don't remember if the tire ship put in new valve stems or not.

I use the HF Pittsburgh jack (1.5 ton model) for quick around the car stuff. Yesterday, while jacking up the left front wheel of my car, the jack initially had a click sound, a couple pumps later, it gave a loud clunk/pop (this is before the tire lifted off the ground). Initially I thought the...

I recently got an IR air cut off tool, the spring trigger pin is bent out of the box. This makes flipping the trigger a trying affair, depending on the orientation of the bend in the pin. Now the tool is fine, except this issue. Is it easy to pull the pin and straighten or replace? I really...

I'm looking to add a couple of air nailers for work around the house. What finish nailer and frame nailer do you recommend? I heard some nailers only work with their own brand of nails, is that true? I see a lot of Bostich in HD and all Hitachi in Lowes, which will you choose, any other brand...

Looking for good build quality, longevity, and not too bulky. This is a secondary ratchet for around car stuff, so don't need crazy torque. I've had good experience with IR and Makita tools in the past, but this will be my first air ratchet. I'm open to other brands as well.

I do shade tree stuff in my garage, starting to build up my air tools now, looking for a solid air hammer, not too bulky. What's a trusted line?

I did a poor job insulating my sprinklers, the above ground copper pipes finally spit the other day. It's very close to the wall, so I need a cutter that can work in close quarters. Is Rigid the bees knees or anything will do?

I have a small IR compressor, it fills to 135psi then stops and kicks back on below 100psi. For most tools at 90psi, this is fine, but occasionally I need the working psi to be ~110psi. Given it has a 100% duty cycle motor, the question is can I change the shut off and kick back psi settings...

I recently changed my air line fittings to Milton type V connectors, it feels like my tools are flowing a lot more air. My basic Harbor Freight die grinder (actually Central Pneumatics) is now making an extremely high pitch noise, it's almost unbearable for the first couple seconds. I know...

I use mostly a mix of husky and craftsman metric sockets. I plan to upgrade my tools over time, this deal popped up, can folks weigh in on if it's a good deal for the home mechanic? http://www.tooltopia.com/sk-hand-tool-94549.aspx