Tools/Garage Stuff

Thanks! Maybe it’s Australian or something

Nice job on the paint! I like the hammertone! Did you mask off the black or hand paint it?

Thanks! I masked the black, but me being me I did it backwards and painted the black, then masked the black and painted the gray. Still turned out good, and the gray was a really close match to the original gray even! If I were to do it again I would probably hand paint it but it looks good like it is.

I was wondering what was wrong. I liked what I saw anyway.

Here’s my box out at work. Had to show off my ATLTF sticker

Nice box!

My folks went and bought me this craftsman cart a while ago and it is fantastic. Went ahead and stuffed all my tools into it and looks like I don’t need to be buying anymore tools for a while or I’m gonna run out of room lol







That craftsman drill is one my dad passed on to me since he has a cordless dewalt now, its a real American made tool, and all it needed was a cleaning and the cord shortened to fix an exposed wire. I still use it regularly!

Long post so I hope y’all don’t mind heh

Nice! I always like looking at what tools other people use and have. Sometimes you find something you dont have that you need! 

Same here! And I just realized that I don’t have a set of combination wrenches, so I suppose I’d better get a set lol. That and it’s also nice to see how other folks organize their stuff, you can often find a trick to do it better.

i need some tool box mats and to restore my tool box its pretty wrecked and used for storage right now

I use the kitchen cabinet liner stuff. It works well and is easy to cut to fit.

Broken Image:

my tool box looks like this, its the identical one in the pic mine has been painted many times they call it a 1940's pressteel craftsman tool box. NEAT!

Well, I decided to make a cart for the plasma cutter. I have a good junkyard and I think this will work. Need a bit of sheet metal from a snowblower yet for the shelves. Made from a bicycle carrier, two wheel cart and a couple of big casters so far.
I did confirm that I can weld as badly as ever, wearing shorts, tee shirt and sneakers. I did use gloves and a hood, but that didn’t improve the pitiful mud dauber welds. My little inverter TIG will work as a stick welder and did well, but the operator is an idiot and too lazy to clean paint and rust before daubing.

The plasma cutter arrived yesterday. It looks quite nice. The stinger lead is about 12’ long! Excellent.

I worked some more on the cart for the cutter. It is all ready to clean up and weld. It is just tacked together now. I made plywood shelves and got the top shelf ‘upholstered’ with aluminum flashing. Tomorrow I might get the bottom shelf done and grind the paint and rust and dirt in preparation for the final welding and painting.

Made this cart/table for my drill press which doubles as a cabinet.

man i really gotta redo my shed its better then before but not good enough when we get the fence put up im gonna build a leanto and level my floor better and actually clean and organise everything and the leanto will store my motors and stuff that take all the shed space

Figured I'd bring this topic/page back to life once more! The other day I mounted this old vise to my workbench that my dad said I could use since he took it off his old work bench. My dad has had this thing for as long as I can remember and it's definitely been used and abused over the years! One of the jaws has been permanently welded to the vise. It's made by Erie Tool Works and I guess it's called a Superior??? I couldnt tell you the year but I'd guess early 1900s. I'm pretty sure ever since my dad found it, its been used almost everyday since, and probably everyday before that. Just goes to show what a good quality product is! 

That's a nice little vise, looks good and sturdy!

I got myself a valve spring compressor for $35. I have a few side valve/flat head engines (B&S, Tecumseh and Honda) so I figured it would be a good idea to have it.

Take a pic the first time you use it. 

I recently found my spring compressor in the bottom of a box of tools. Like finding an old friend. The first time I used it was to do a valve job on my first car, a 1955 Studebaker Champion with the flathead 6. That would have been about 1964 or so. Wow... memories.

Thought I'd show some homemade tools and what not that I've made over the years.

Made this wrench for my dads grinder. I even hot blued it for rust protection.

That might be kinda handy if I didn't already have like, 10 (The cheap grinders wrenches somehow seem to burn out before I manage to lose the wrench )

My dad brought that one home from his work because they were gonna toss it and he didnt get a wrench with it. It's an old Milwaukee grinder back when they were made in the USA and it's a weird size. 

I also made these punches out of those bolts that break off when you tighten them down (Not sure what they're called) but I drilled out the existing holes and welded in a broken drill bit in one which broke and I had to cut it out and replac it with a hardened nail, and the other one I welded in an allen wrench. They work good!

Nice work dude! I think the bolts you're talking about are Shear bolts, the kind that the head breaks off so it can't be tampered with?

I lost my grinder wrench and then discovered you don’t need one. Just push the spindle lock and unscrew the disk by hand. Put it on with the same method. No need for a wrench.

Agreed @Nevadablue, I haven't used a one in years, the stubborn ones get a firm shot with the heel of my hand BUT in the past I had one bind up so bad it broke the wrench and I had to grind down Vise Grips to get 'em in there... that one he made would've been golden right then! Lol

I know... I'm weird an use a wrench! I guess I just have trust issues!

Here's a piece of brass that I use as a punch, works great when you dont want to damage what your beating on! I found it in the scrap bin at the vocational school, figured someone was practicing knurling.



Here's a tool I came up with to install and drive out bearings and seals. It's a piece of 5/8 stainless shaft out of some machine, that had some bearings lock up and spin, at my dads work that he had to fix. All I've done is slide on a 5/8 lock collar and the shaft has a flange one end that prevents the lock collar from sliding up the shaft. Works pretty good on small bearings and seals but anything bigger you'd be better off buying an actual seal/bearing race driver!

Nevadablue wrote:

I lost my grinder wrench and then discovered you don’t need one. Just push the spindle lock and unscrew the disk by hand. Put it on with the same method. No need for a wrench.

I use a pair of channel-locks for that purpose, I had a disc almost take my face off doing it the other way. I'm already blind enough in one eye, don't need to lose the other one yet lol