Technical Little tips and tricks for garage hobbyists.

Thanks for that video, learned something new!

 

Connect another battery to the circuit. Positive from charger to both positives of the battery's, Negative from charger to both negatives of the battery's..

 

Cool. I just went through this with a cordless tool I bought. The seller sold it cheap (80v chainsaw) and when I got home the charger would not charge the battery. Looked on Youtube, saw how hooking it to another battery in parallel for a few minutes boosts it enough for the charger to take over. Worked great! Caution, 80vdc put out a hefty spark, be careful.

 

My Dad taught me how to coil most anything. First lay the item out at lenth. Then coil it by dragging it to you and twisting it one turn for each coil with your fingers. Dragging it will let the item turn with the force you exert on it with your fingers. Do this a few times and most any item will start coiling easy and lay in a nice neat coil and hang perfectly!






Bones

 

In Denver during the winter months when it's not feasible to work outside on the driveway, I
keep a cheap 2 ring inflatable kiddie pool handy in the garage. I blow it up, not all the way, and I can
slide it under the car while it conforms to any shape between the wheels as well as under the
tie rods. If I need to drain antifreeze, change a hose or thermostat, all of the fluid ends up in
the pool, and can be returned to the engine or discarded, rather than having a mess on the floor.
Walmart normally sells them for around $3, at least in the summertime.

 

It was noted in an earlier post to use a heated awl to open a hole in the carpet for shifter boot screws, seat mounts, etc. I found that using a soldering gun worked very well, pull the trigger, let it warm a bit and insert from below, it melts the carpet fibers so it won't unravel and if you move the soldering iron around a little the hole is of adequate size. Wish I would have know that 50 years ago.

 

I'm going to try that but I'll have to wait for some sun. That is a great tip, thanks!

 

Here is a trick I have used for years. What size fuel line is that, is it 5/16 or 3/8? . Just get a 5/16 or 3/8 open end wrench. Which ever one fits correctly on metal part of the fuel line lets you know what size it is. Same thing applies on figuring out whether a heater hose fitting is 5/8 or 3/4. Check where the hose goes on with a 5/8 or 3/4 open end wrench. Open end wrenches can be used for measuring the thickness on many other things, even metric.

 

Here's a tip from me. When working on an engine on the engine stand mark the cylinder numbers on the deck face, AND on the pan rail. Then when you flip the motor over and over on the stand, it's easy to keep the orientation of the cylinders. I failed to do this on one build, got mixed up and had to re-work 5 of the 8 pistons on the rods.
Mart.

 

If anyone is looking for a good glue JBWeld is now making a glue that so far in my experience works as good as or better than the super glue of old.
Another JBWeld product I've used is Plasticweld Epoxy Putty

 

Wow, a ton of cool tips here.

 

When mounting a vise to a bench:

I'm left handed so mounting it on the left front corner of the bench seems to work best for me, guessing right handers will find the right side will work best.

Keep the inside of the fixed jaw just in front of the edge of the bench below, allows holding long stuff to be worked on in a greater variety of positions.

Match the height of the tops of the jaws to the height of your elbow, makes for easier and more accurate hacksawing and filing.

Ed

 

Not real inventive but I use one of the extra little 12v from my kids power wheels as a portable power source. Worked great for checking lights and things while I was rewiring my car and hadn't hooked up power yet. 12v and a lot smaller and lighter than a full size.
Being able to see things lit up before I was totally done helped motivate me through the tedious parts of wiring.


-Adam

Sent from my rotary phone using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Good ideas. At my cramped city garage I have a vice mounted to a bench top drill press base. Never move the table that low so it was just wasted space. My big he-man vice is outside on a stump.

 

I bought a case of those batteries from an alarm guy who changes them out on a schedule for 4 bucks a piece. Use them on all kinds of stuff.

 

My whole deal here is solar so it's all about power from batteries. Little ones that can be moved to the worksite without dragging cords around make life easier. The more directly I can get the power of the sun to the tool the better.

 

Can't see your pics. Eclipse?

 

Yeah, solar power, a world unto itself. My other shop, and cabin, are off grid, half lead batteries, half lithium. Anyway, a couple months ago I bought this universal Li-ion battery (think cell phone or laptop) off a kid for $50, about $250 new. He was trying to power his mega-watt boomer car stereo with it and, get this, every time it hit a big bass note it would trip the internal circuit breaker! It's the size of a golf cart battery and weighs about nothing, you'd think it was empty. 25AH. I tried to start my flathead with it but again it trips the breaker, not made for high current. But it sure it nice to power smaller loads, can be discharged to zero, doesn't discharge in storage, no acid, no fumes.. Lithium batteries are an amazing thing that has really migrated to the vehicle world (other than EVs).

The dog, like everything else you put on the ground, thinks it's edible.

 

Shocking.[emoji6]


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

when mounting or dismounting a tire on a reversed wheel, it's easier if you flip the wheel face down on your machine.

 

I re-purposed a couple of engine stands as fender holders. Makes welding and body work a breeze. I will find out how well they work in the paint booth soon. There are 2 more for the front in the works.

 

Fortunateson, Sorry I don't know what that attachment was.
I have recently purchased a bunch of Milwaukee 18 volt tools and the lithium ion batteries are amazing. The next Tesla I see unguarded is in trouble. They make those batteries just over the hill from here.

 

I don't remember if I ever posted this before, but since I have a poor memory now days, I use my cheap Harbor Freight letter punch set to label the parts I use on my builds.
Like if I use a 65 Chevy rotor or caliper, I use the letter punch and hammer to permanently print the car and year that the part came off of. I used to just keep it written down, but I have a tendency to lose paperwork. This way its forever on the part so I know what to buy for a replacement when the time comes.

 

I record parts detail for my rod in this:

https://www.purechoicemotorsports.c...ct_id=234/category_id=74/mode=prod/prd234.htm

 

I put mine in the computer and then made 2 copies. One for the file cabinet and one is carried in the car

 

Two things, after a couple of break ins in the middle of the day where they kicked the door in just down the road, I did a hurry up project to prevent the door of my shop from being kicked in, used a hockey puk master lock and reworked the hasp, it is bolted to a large plate on the inside of the door, unless they can kick a 4 x6 jam they won't be kicking this one. An extra step to unlock the door but well worth it.
2nd, I built a set of heavy stands to let me do wheel end and axle work on my four post hoist. Sorry for the off topic vehicle in the photo.
B

 

Like the idea of the wheels to make the high lift stands easier to move around.

 

If you want increase the size of a photo or anything else you are looking at on your computer hold the "Windows" button down and click the "plus" button. To bring it back down to original size do the same thing except with the "minus" button. You will get used to the cursor being very sensitive. I used this trick looking at a wiring diagram today.

 

may have put this here before if you need a real strong rubber grommet try pulling a tire valve through the hole then cut off thr metal part

 

thanks for all the tips guys
just read all 33 pages