Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

pretty cool thread, heres an old trick I didn't see mentioned.
Save old springs from screen doors, when bending tubing slide a good fitting spring over where you want to make your bend go slow and use common sense and youll be surprised how tight of a bend you can get when replacing a brake line , fuel line,..ect….

 

What a Squid ?!!! Thank you for serving . You are the backbone of the good old US of A , brother .

 

When installing carpet in a car with studs to mount the seats, lay the carpet on the floor and over the studs. Take a deep socket just bigger than the stud and hammer the carpet over the stud. The socket will punch the stud through the carpet and push the carpet down to the floor.

 

Where can I buy those? Do you have a link?

 

snyders, mikes, brattons, macs, tamms, early ford restorations... etc.
but there should be 1 brace, 2 cowl mounts on every bumper brace that has been removed from an A body as they are riveted on...bought a used pair for $12 on ebay a couple years back...

 

Ammo cans are great for logger chains. They stack easily, have a carry handle and are gasketed to keep chains dry. Even if thrown in the back of an open truck in the rain/snow.

 

To check to see if a timing chain is stretched or loose, remove the distributor cap. Turn the engine counter clockwise until the rotor moves, mark the lower pulley and then turn the engine clockwise until the rotor moves again. Mark the lower pulley again and see how far the marks are apart. That is how much slop is in the timing chain, less the distributor gear lash which is minimal.

 

Use a flat screw driver. Liquid runs through a oblong hole better than a round one.


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And catch on fire when welding, cutting, and grinding. I use grocery store plastic bags for trash in the shop and keep the big trash and recycle cart outside.

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Open a tube of caulk and the tip will dry up in short order leaving you trying to unblock it. Hang the tube, still in the gun, tip pointed down. Prevents drying. Try it, I did with silicone and it works even after days.

 

Yep, been there.

 

yep all kinds of stuff inside that could go up in flames from a few errant sparks. One of the 96 gallon "toters" with the hinged lid is a nice outside unit. They run about $99 and will last forever.

 

Funny you mention that, I just bought one yesterday at Lowe's, 96 gal & $99! Refused to pay the ransom from the trash company, bought my own...

 

Keep your receipt and use a permanent marker to write the purchase date inside the lid. Then if the garbage truck manages to break it, you can get a replacement. I think mine is for 10 years..........

 

Chrome clip tools? Yep, made out of a worn out sawzall blade... and one of my many homemade metal shaping tools....

 

Up here you throw a chartreuse colored jig in front of a Walleye & you'll know that color for ever.

 

Did I tell y'all this one?!
After a fresh paint job its time to put the chrome back on....and not scratch up the new paint. I did this and it works! Get an old milk jug and cut out a square about 2" X 3" and slip that under the clips that hold the chrome in place. Its slick so the chrome slides under the clip pretty EZ + helps protect the paint from the chrome trim kinda scoot'in around. Once the chrome is in place.....pull the plastic square out and go to the next one! Mark the location of the clips on a piece of masking tape so when your snapping the chrome in place you will know where the next one is!!

About the big plastic totes for 99 bux. I like to store my lawn mower gas/chain saw gas/flammable crap in a plastic tote OUTSIDE the workshop! The less flammable stuff inside.........the better! No smelly fumes from 'modern' gasoline either. Since the tote has a snap on plastic lid its weather proof also.
6sally6

 

Woosh!!

 

Tip for today- Never walk around in your shop with a screwdriver in your back pocket.

It will end up costing a lot of money before it is over.

 

They say that experience is the best teacher; I did this almost 50 years ago. Never done it again.

 

Most folks on here have one or more air compressors. If you're like me it's a pita to drain the water from the tank. These pix show what I did to make it a piece-o-cake.

1. I replaced the Mickey Mouse valve at the bottom of the tank with an elbow, nipple, and ball valve. This eliminates getting down on the floor to reach under the tank to turn a valve to let out condensation.

Then so I don't have water spraying all over the shop I did the following:
2. From the ball valve I installed a clear tube to a 5 gallon bucket. The arrangement inside the bucket is shown; it sends the air/water in a circular pattern around the inside of the bucket without splashing. You'll notice that the tube is pointed slightly downward also. Those are just common conduit clamps holding the tube inside the bucket, and the tube is attached with a barb fitting down by the valve.
3. All I have to do is crack open the ball valve and the condensation in the tank gets blown into the bucket.
4. Next time I've got a few minutes I'm going to make a "handle extension" for the ball valve so I don't even have to bend down to turn the handle. Basically just a steel or aluminum rod 2-3 feet long attached where the handle is and the handle relocated to the end of the rod, which will now be 2-3 feet higher off of the floor.

b-t-w; even if you use an automatic drain you've still got to have a place for the water to go, so the bucket and tube still applies.

 

Put your tack welds where you can get at them in case they need to be removed.

 

I read through all of the pages but didn’t see these suggestions posted.
20 years back someone shared with me the idea of installing 4 foot lights on either side of the garage doors so you still had good lighting when the garage door was up(covering some of the ceiling lights).

 

I’ve worked in quite a few shops where the owners have spent a fortune buying machinery but would never cover it up when welding and grinding around it. I use old shower curtains (cotton under/plastic over) to cover my equipment. I’ve got 15 to 40 year old machines that look and work like new

 

The last one is pretty darn simple. I have replaced many of my primary entrance door handles with lever handles. When you’re carrying a bucket of soapy water in one hand and mitts in the other or if you’ve got greasy hands and don’t want to make a mess of the doorknob you can use your elbow to open the door

 

Better yet.......car or home stuff, use a large gauge household wiring wire nut to screw on the end of the caulking tube. Works better than the hardware store thingies they sell for that that just push on. A wire nut with a metal insert works best, it'll actually form a thread on the end of the cartridge and seal really air tight. The wire nut will make the opening smaller, so you may have to recut to the size you need. I always wondered why the manufacturers didn't have a screw on tip on their cartridges.
Speaking of cartridges.........looking for a strong adhesive that works on the difficult stuff like rubber, glass, vinyl, plastics, ceramics, etc? Liquid Nails Fuze*it. The package says bonds most everything, and it does!! It can be found in with the normal Home Depot/Lowes construction adhesives.

 

Or any other valuable part of your anatomy............
(I know a guy that can testify to the above comment, after an incident with a 9” grinder).

 

and another way is to squirt a little tail out of the tube and put the whole thing in the refrigerator (on paper)....i keep most of my tubes of adhesives and also felt tip pens in the fridge....last so much longer

 

I like that bucket and tube idea! Keeps from having to run a tube outside somewhere.

Where I used to live, I put an electrically activated drain valve on the bottom of my compressor tank, and had it wired up to a switch on the wall. Every time I opened up the garage for the day, and also when I left the garage for the evening, I'd hit the switch. The electric valve would stay open for a pre-set amount of time, (10 seconds or so). I had an air vent in the back of the garage that lead outside, so I just ran my tube straight out there and blasted the water onto the yard.

Amazing how much water accumulates in there. And me being lazy, I'm not going to bend down to hit the switch all that often, so mounting it on the wall right next to the light switch made it almost impossible to forget to do regularly.