Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

^^^^ Ha ha!!!

Don should be sanctioned, or punished somehow, for that. Jus Sayin'.

 

Check to see if your rain barrel is metric. It could be an Aussie one. Ours come in several types:
a) Drought version - dry, with dust in the bottom.
b) Flood version - floats.
c) Cyclone version - missing, found several hundred miles away in splinters.
d) Bushfire version - charred, holds warm water.

You want either the imperial Fair Weather (half full of water) or Snow (full of ice) versions - we don't get those here.

Cheers,
Harv

 

even better yet

 

You have to take the barrel to a place where it rains to fill it and bring it home before you poke holes in it. The one you have now might be better if you fill it with dry ice and get Jeff Bezos to shoot it into the sky above your house to do some cloud seedingLike they used to do.

 

When using an epoxy such as JB Weld, I am always looking for something to mix the epoxy on. Yesterday a box of car parts was delivered to the house. After removing the parts I was ready to throw the empty box in the trash when it dawned on me to cut the box up into small squares. Now I have several small squares of cardboard just the right size to mix epoxy on.

 

I do something very similar except I use the empty 6-pack cartoons left over from craft beer (IPA's). And I have a LOT of those empty cartons. Not being very big they store very easily once flattened out. I also like that the cardboard is very smooth which makes mixing a little easier.

 

I save empty cereal boxes. They have a slick side that's perfect. I also use them for making patterns when I need to cut some metal.

 

Shop Fans

I have used lots of different style shop fans over the years. Have some mounted permanently on the posts for my shop crane and even one of those bedroom tower fans that works good when used in the shop. The problem with many fans is that they either blow so hard they are uncomfortable or they are so noisy they are irritating. Had one of those large (4' dia) fans they sell for warehouses and it was both noisy and overblown. Sold it to someone else.

My son has a squirrel cage blower out of a furnace thats mounted on a cart with some small wheels. Most of them are too noisy when used in a furnace. The trick is to slow them down with a pulley change or a motor change. If you slow them down, they still put out a good volume of air without being irritating. The one my son has really works well and its quiet too. You can put it on one side of his shop and still get a good breeze at the other side......40 feet away. I don't know how it does it, but the air is more "gentle" than what comes from a normal shop fan and yet it seems to carry further. Squirrel cage blowers usually sell real cheap, often for less than the motor on it would sell for. Put a different pully on one and they make a really nice shop fan. My son likes his better than any of the other fans, and you can just roll it under a workbench when not needed.

One other thing you can do is look for a low rpm motor. I don't know why, but anything other than 1725/3450 rpm is hard to sell. I have a couple that I tred to sell on Facebook and had no interest even though I priced them cheaply. So now I'm gonna keep them and use them on the next squirrel cage that comes my way.

I'm tellin ya, the one my son has really puts out a nice breeze without being too stong. It works really well and very quiet..........not bedroom quiet, but very quiet.

 

A friend of mine bought a building that had been used to doctor up used cars. Previous owner left behind a big stack of plastic license plates with the dealer's name. Those make excellent mixing boards for epoxy or small batches of bondo.

Gary

 

Extra note to the above couple of posts; I changed the pulley on the old furnace fan, and it runs fairly quiet and gives lots of air movement. The pulley on mine was adjustable; you could open or close it up, to change the drive diameter.
I save the clipped tails from large zip ties, to use for mixing J-B Weld. They are stiff enough to stir the mixture well, and narrow enough to put the J-B Weld in to smaller nooks. Just throw them in the pouch with the JBW tubes.

 

I use shishkabob bamboo skewers cut in half to mix J-B Weld or any other epoxy, but I like the idea of those zip-tie ends.

 

I cut the metal bottoms off food cans and tubes and keep a few popsicle sticks with them to mix JB Weld and small batches of filler with. I keep a few bottoms and sticks along with the JB in my pit "damage control" box. Big benefits in a small space, surprising how often they have bailed out other racers as well as myself.

I'll be trying the zip tie cut off ends for the really small jobs next time one presents itself.

Ed

 

I use plasticware knives to mix JB Weld.

 

Always when using a knife cut away from yourself. If the knife slips you don't stab yourself.

 

Really? That's all you got? How about "Don't run with scissors".

 

Is running with scissors more dangerous than running with hoodlums?

 

I recently used a 4" hole saw to cut through my shed wall to put a 3" abs plumping cleanout
with screw in cap.
I can use this to run my welding cable or water hose or electrical cords or whatever when needed.
Kind of handy, and oh ya I don't run anymore!

 

I mix epoxy with a nail, and grab whatever's in the trash can to mix it on.

 

A few posts ago there was a lot of talk about JB weld, i’ve only used that stuff a few times, what uses am i missing?

 

I store JB weld tubes in a empty plastic peanut butter jar.
Along with sticks to stir it with.
Use the top of the lid to mix on.
After the remains set up just peel it off ,it does not stick well
to this kind of plastic.

 

You're not breaking enough stuff.

 

I sealed a crack in the water jacket in the block of my bulldozer at least 30 years ago and it's still sealed. A few other things didn't last that long.

 

A dull knife will cut you quicker than a sharp knife.

 

I have a lot of holes in my firewall that i'm welding up.
Got a magnet from an old PA horn speaker, cut a piece of copper bar to fit (poorly) and padded it out with some MDF behind. They slot into the hole in the magnet.
Works a treat.

 

Thats a neat idea " Clitchy "

 

Nice solution using the magnet with the copper. Any smoke from the MDF?

 

No smoke, only gets warm. I only used MDF because it was close to hand when i came up with this. The copper is pretty thick, it's from a 50v DC bus bar.

 

If I want to mask brake lines when painting the frame, I slit 12" plastic kitchen straws lengthwise and slip them over the brake lines.

 

If I am trying to get a bolt up through a hole from inside the frame, I solder a piece of welding wire to the top of the bolt and feed the wire from inside the frame to the hole. Slide the washers and nuts down the wire then just snip the wire off the end of the bolt after tightening.

 

PLASTIC BOTTLE FOR WIRE HARNESS HANGERS.
Cut up an old oil (or any other)bottle into strips, trim as necessary, and use a one hole punch on each end. Oila!
You can even choose different color bottles to match your scheme if desired.