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Only one of my daughters is a tool user, and she found this at a garage sale and had to have it. She doesn’t know what it is for, and neither do I. But I seem to recall maybe seeing something like it in the last month on this forum. WTH is it?

I have installed or repaired many steel roofs on my or friends projects over the last several decades, including our current standing seam snaplok with six valleys. The nextdoor neighbors are building a cute little three story lakefront cabin for their daughter thirty feet from our dining room...

To prevent the scrapping of this cool little firewater pump, I let the prior owner give it to me. I also let him give me the set of suction and discharge hoses and the foam cannon. I don’t need it, but if I can make it functional much fun could be had with the new neighbors across the cove...

Dust collected evenly on everything before: Three months later, it collects in just one spot:

I spent last week cleaning up a friends property for sale after the lessor bailed. I was able to recognize nearly everything salvaged, except for this toolbox of miscellany: I am assuming it’s mostly heavy equipment tooling, but if anything reminds you of something, let me know.

I won this diesel Lincoln at an auction for 1/16 of new cost. It included a pallet of leads, too. I just got it inside and stripped it naked to assess its condition. I found the oil-bath air filter bottom loose inside, the engine oil level is normal and black, the fuel in the tank is green, and...

I am about to fabricate handrails on the catwalk to the upstairs office in my shop. My plan for the last few years was a handrail/mid rail/toe bar setup like you would find in an industrial or scaffolding application, but the wife is concerned about residential code should we ever resell. She...

It’s a *****. This is forty minutes of grinding so far: This was an unused 1/2” thick table stored outside under spruce and birch trees for a decade before it was given to me. I’m trying to clean it up cuz it dirties everything I put on it, can’t wipe dust off, and occasionally doesn’t...

Back in 2018, I took the summer off from a multi-year reconstruction of a severely neglected* fifty-year-old lake house in Alaska and, in a flurry of activity, built a shop. This is the story of how close to death an old man can work himself. Here we are orienting the building to the driveway...

I acquired an old towable boom lift a few years ago to reduce ladder attacks during my major house remodel. It’s a mid eighties Bil-Jax XLB 20000Z and hasn’t needed any repairs as long as a select few cheesy junction boxes get dried out when the ice thaws. Last Fall it stranded me twenty feet...

I am outfitting my new shop building in Alaska, and as usual, plans are evolving. It is a 40x60x14 with attic trusses in the rear third. Under the attic/office it is walled off into dedicated weld shop/tool room/wood shop areas. I do not have tubes in the floor. My latest idea is to centrally...

After 25 years, we moved from 11 cars' worth of storage to a lake house with a single car garage. All of the cars, trucks, unimogs, tractors, and hardware store are now temporarily stuffed in connexes and tents or out in the open, so getting them under roof is a priority. Towards that end, we...

I'm just finishing off my new 4-car garage and the local garage door guy is unable or unwilling to help me, and has stalled and delayed my use of the last bay for most of the winter. I didn't buy my doors through him, they were part of a huge bid package. The door is a Clopay windcode 10x10...

"Dad, why is the garage door open?" My 20yo daughter and her boyfriend had stopped by to finish the last bit of sanding the brand new sheetrock in my brand new 4-car garage and the wife's garage door was wide open in -20 F weather, and had been open for at least 7 hours. She knows to watch...

I am nearing the time to pour an apron in front of my shop, and am looking for thoughts on how to properly connect the two. I live in Alaska, and frost heave is a very real and significant phenomenon. I did leave 5/8" rebar sticking out of the shop slab, but have since heard some locals are...